Marmorini: rules will hit reliabilty

Marmorini, who claims that his new RVX-05 engine will start the new season with at least as much power as the team ended last year with, believes that although it is possible to make engines reliable over a similar distance on a dyno, nothing can prepare the teams for the rigours of a competitive race weekend.

"Making the engine last 1,000km in itself hasn't been a problem, said Marmorini, "but we know statistically when we enter the second race of the distance there will be a higher chance of small failures. I can't believe we will all get through 2005 with the same reliability record that we achieved in 2004."

The Italian engine specialist also reckons that certain events will provide more problems that others during 2005. "Malaysia is going to be mental!" he said. "When we get there it's going to be a whole new world for everybody.

"Every engine person [no matter what team they are from] will be a little bit worried. We know that the engines can last the two-race distance, but the simulations do not test the engine in the same way as racing.

"Testing and dyno-testing is very linear. Whereas over a race weekend you have drivers using engines in a much less predictable fashion. Multiple stop-starts for example and drivers pushing engines to the absolute extreme. There may be unforeseen cooling problems in any race which you cannot simulate."