SKF renews contract with Scuderia Ferrari Marlboro

The number of components supplied by SKF for one Ferrari F1 car is around 150. The deep technical knowledge and experience of SKF has been used to support the development of a number of innovative and advanced systems for Ferrari F1 over the years. One of this year’s special developments is the new energy efficient KERS (Kinetic Energy Recovery System) installed by Ferrari in its new F60 for the 2009 race season. The KERS unit recovers dissipated braking energy, stores it in a battery and releases it when necessary in order to boost the engine power to accelerate or overtake. The KERS developed by Ferrari utilizes specially developed SKF bearings that are exposed to extremely high accelerations and loads and, in tests, have experienced peak temperatures of over 200° C. The new bearings for this application utilize SKF knowledge of bearing design, steel compositions, coating materials, and advanced system simulation and calculation tools.

The development of the KERS unit will most likely mean new opportunities that can be transferred from this exciting motor sport to the standard car industry. Yet another example of how Formula One racing represents an extraordinary and fast test bed of new technologies.

Says Stefano Domenicali, Director of the Ferrari Formula One team: “I am absolutely delighted to be able to count on this cooperation from a company like SKF. They are among the strongest technical-partnership relationships between Ferrari and a select number of leading world companies, for their excellence and prestige. I would like to emphasise that the ongoing collaboration starting in 1947 is the most significant testimony to this and I hope that this will continue as we reach new objectives”.