Ferrari shafts its Australian engineer

Formula One's most famous team has blamed Aussie Chris Dyer for its failure to win last year's world title with Fernando Alonso

Australian engineer Chris Dyer has paid the price for Spanish dual Formula One world champion Fernando Alonso not winning a third title in his first season with Ferrari last year.

Dyer, who began his career at Holden Racing Team and first worked in F1 for the late Tom Walkinshaw's Arrows team before its collapse, had been Ferrari's chief engineer at F1 tracks.

Ferrari announced this week that Pat Fry, its deputy to technical director Aldo Costa and formerly of McLaren, would assume what has been Dyer's position.

It said Dyer's "role within the company will be redefined in the next few days".

Dyer was Michael Schumacher's last race engineer in Ferrari's halycon days but he has paid the price for a strategy error at last year's final grand prix in Abu Dhabi.

Ferrari called Alonso in for an early pitstop as it mirrored Australian Mark Webber's strategy and to keep him ahead of the Aussie, minimising Webber's chances of becoming world champion.

The move backfired badly for Ferrari though - and Dyer has been blamed for it.

Alonso - and Webber - found themselves trapped behind the Renault of Russian Vitaly Petrov for most of the race and unable to overtake him as Webber's young German teammate Sebastian Vettel roared to victory and the title.

Alonso, who had gone to Abu Dhabi leading the championship, finished seventh in the race and four points behind Vettel in the final standings, with Webber relegated to third in the championship a further 10 points away.

In acting against Dyer, Ferrari has bowed to the pressure of the Italian press and public, as it invariably does.

Ferrari team principal Stefano Domenicali said he considered quitting over the blunder but "reached the conclusion that to resign would have been an error".

Meanwhile, Ferrari is resisting the switch to 1.6-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engines as part of a "greener" and cheaper F1 from 2013.

It agreed in December to the change from the existing 2.4-litre V8s -- perhaps as a trade-off for the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) dropping the written rule forbidding team orders -- but Ferrari president Luca di Montezemolo has now come out strongly against the proposed engines, calling them puny.

"We won't be building any four-cylinder engines for our street cars," Montezemolo said. "A four-cylinder engine, it sounds, for the top tier of motorsport, a bit puny. Why could we not agree on a V6 turbo? We should not confuse affordable with cheap."

Montezemolo hopes other F1 engine manufacturers, particularly Mercedes, will back him in having the change scrapped.

"If there is the slightest possibility to delay the four-cylinder [regulations], I'll try. I perceive a chance, but we need unity," he said.

F1 supremo Bernie Ecclestone and Austrian triple world champion Niki Lauda are concerned that the new motors will not have an appropriate engine note for F1.

"I am worried about the sound, which in F1 has been so unique ...hopefully there will be more than a faint hum," Lauda said.

Ecclestone said losing the growl for which F1 engines are known would be devastating for the sport.

"I don't care whether it's 1.6 or 1.8 litre engines - I'm worried about the sound," he said. "If we lose the sound of F1 we will be losing a great deal."

However, FIA president Jean Todt insisted the 2013 cars would be "very exciting" and "produce a great sound".

"With the new rules, the FIA wants to send a strong message about F1 - it's the pinnacle of motorsport and the smaller engine is very important for the manufacturers," said Todt, who was the Ferrari team principal during the Schumacher days.

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