The EC and ED family are a series of 3.0-litre and 3.5-litre, naturally-aspirated, V8, Formula One racing engines, designed, developed and produced by Ford and Cosworth; and used between and . The customer engines were used by Benetton, Sauber, Forti, Lola, Simtek, Pacific, Minardi, and Tyrrell.
Background The HB was developed into (100 mm x 55.7 mm) EC V8 for the 1994 season. This engine, producing about 740 bhp @ 14,500rpm, was badged as Ford Zetec-R, and Michael Schumacher won the Drivers' World Championship with Benetton (his first of a record 7 championships), in . This was the last Ford-powered F1 title.
For the 1995 season, the F1 engine regulation changed to 3 litres, and the EC's bore and stroke were changed to 94mm x 53.9mm, resulting in ECA, which was introduced at about , and developed to to at 14,000rpm. It was exclusively used by the Sauber team, whose biggest success of the year was Heinz-Harald Frentzen's third place at Monza.
Customer unit Cosworth ED (not badged as Ford Zetec-R) for non-works teams was also made for 1995 with about 580 bhp for Minardi, Simtek (called the EDB), Pacific Racing (EDC) and Forti (EDD) teams. Minardi realised the power deficiency before the season and asked Magneti Marelli to develop a replacement engine management system, with which the engine was called the EDM. Cosworth later updated the ED to ED 2/4 for Tyrrell with (94mm x 53.95mm) displacement for 600 bhp, which was used until the end of season. The ill-fated Mastercard Lola team initially entered in 1997 using the Ford ECA engine used by Sauber in 1995 and Forti in 1996. However the team withdrew from the championship before the second round of the season in Brazil, having failed to comfortably failed to qualify for the first race in Australia.
Cosworth EC (1994) The Cosworth EC is a Cosworth-built and Ford-financed 8-cylinder, 3.5-litre racing engine that was used exclusively by Benetton in the 1994 Formula 1 World Championship under the name Ford Zetec-R. Michael Schumacher won the driver's world championship with the EC this year. The reduced to 3.0-litre version Cosworth ECA, again called Zetec-R, appeared in the 1995 season at Sauber but was far less successful there. It was replaced in 1996 after just two years with the newly designed ten-cylinder engine Cosworth JD in the function of the works engine. As a customer motor, the ECA played practically no role.
In its original form as a 3.5-litre engine, the EC was only in service in 1994. At the same time, Cosworth continued to have the old HB eight-cylinder in its range this year. Because the FIA, under the impression of the fatal accidents of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna at the San Marino Grand Prix in 1994 reduced the displacement limit to 3.0 litres for the 1995 season, the EC had to be revised after its first year.
For the third generation of naturally aspirated engines after the DFV/DFZ/DFR and the HB, Cosworth once again opted for the eight-cylinder concept. The main reason was the assumption that by limiting the moving parts compared to ten or twelve cylinders, the overall weight and also the friction losses could be reduced. Like its predecessor, the EC has a cylinder bank angle of 75 degrees. Cosworth changed the bore and stroke ratio in favor of a large bore. The dimensions given by the factory were 99.75 × 55.9 mm; this results in a displacement of 3494.8 cm³. The EC thus has the largest bore of any engine of the 1994 season; only Renault's RS6 ten-cylinder (98 mm) reached similar values. The large bore also affected the engine's length: at 620 mm (24 in), it was as long as the ten-cylinder Honda, Peugeot, and Renault engines; Ilmor's V10, which ran as a Mercedes in the Sauber team in 1994, was even 25 mm shorter. Like all other engines of the 1994 generation, the EC had two overhead camshafts for each bank of cylinders, and for each cylinder, there were two intakes and two exhaust valves. The camshafts were driven by chains and gears. The engine electronics came from Ford. With the EC, Cosworth used expensive special materials for the first time: the combustion chambers were coated with ceramic, the connecting rods and valves were made of titanium and the pistons were made of a magnesium-copper-nickel alloy. A piston weighed only 305 grams. Nevertheless, the weight of the EC at 135 kg was roughly at the level of the current ten-cylinder engines. Engine power of the EC was estimated at around 755 hp in race trim and 765 hp in qualifying trim. This meant that the EC was about 30 hp short of the most powerful ten-cylinder engines, but its power to weight ratio, the most important performance figure was on par or even better than the ten-cylinder engines- although these engines were more powerful, they weighed more.
The EC was an expensive engine to run. A revision was already due after 350 km, so that one engine did not even last a whole weekend.
Race entry: Benetton The Benetton team, led by Flavio Briatore and Tom Walkinshaw, has been the preferred partner of Cosworth and Ford since 1987 and during this time has received the latest and most powerful engines exclusively. The Cosworth HB engine, which has been in use since 1989, was considered reliable, but despite continuous further development, depending on the source, had a significant performance deficit compared to the ten or twelve-cylinder engines from Renault and Honda, so that Benetton had no prospect of winning the early 1990s championships. 1992 and 1993 Benetton finished third in the constructors' world championship with the HB, Benetton's top driver Michael Schumacher finished third (1992) and fourth (1993) in the drivers' championship.
For 1994, the redesigned EC again went exclusively to preferred customer Benetton. At the start of the season, it was widely expected that Ayrton Senna and Williams-Renault would once again win the Drivers' and Constructors' Championships. Although the Benetton management called for a significant development but expected only individual victories and no influence on the world title. Flavio Briatore announced second place in the Constructors' Championship as his goal. Schumacher won the first two races of the year while Senna struggled with the new Williams FW16. After Senna's fatal accident in Imola, neither Williams nor McLaren, the top teams of recent years, could compete with Benetton in the long term: Williams was traumatized by the death of Senna and spent the rest of the year mainly with the young, inexperienced driver pairing of Damon Hill and David Coulthard, who could not fully exploit the potential of the Williams FW16, and McLaren had to struggle with adjustment difficulties to the new engine partner Peugeot. After Senna's death, Schumacher won six more world championship races but was also disqualified twice and banned for two races because he disregarded a disqualification in Great Britain. At the end of the year, eight wins and two second places were enough to make Schumacher the 1994 Formula 1 World Champion with 92 points.
Cosworth ECA (1995-1997) In July 1994 work began on the 3.0-litre version of the EC. Due to lack of time, Cosworth could not design a completely new engine. Rather, the engineers only adapted the block of the EC to the new displacement limit. The displacement of the engine called ECA is 2994 cm³. There was no concrete information about the ratio of bore and stroke of the engine, now called ECA. Furthermore, special materials such as titanium, magnesium, and plastics were used. At 610 mm, the ECA was only 10 mm shorter than its 3.5-litre predecessor, the EC. Most ten-cylinder engines were of similar dimensions. Compared to the EC, the weight was only 5 kg lower at 130 kg. It was similar in weight to the ten-cylinder engines from Renault (132 kg) and Mugen (135 kg), while the V10 blocks from Ilmor (120 kg) and Yamaha (117 kg) as well as the twelve-cylinder from Ferrari (118 kg) were significantly lighter. The maximum speed of the ECA was 15,300 rpm in qualifying mode, while the Renault engine already managed over 16,000 and the Ferrari engine even over 17,000 rpm. The maximum output of the Cosworth eight-cylinder was estimated at 625 to 640 hp. Renault and Ferrari were already at over 700 hp. After initial test runs on the test bench, the ECA was presented to the public in Zurich in January 1995, and the first test drives with Sauber took place in February 1995.
1995: Sauber Peter Sauber's Swiss team, Sauber Motorsport, appeared in Formula 1 in 1993 with Ilmor engines, dubbed Mercedes. With the start of the 1995 season, Mercedes entered into a partnership with McLaren that lasted 20 years. Since McLaren, as usual, insisted on an exclusive relationship, Sauber was no longer an engine partner. After Cosworth's failed attempt to land Jordan Grand Prix as a future exclusive partner - Eddie Jordan was instead able to take over the Peugeot engines in the fall of 1994, which had previously been used by McLaren - Cosworth chose Sauber as the new works team in November 1994, which in this respect took over the role of Benetton Formula. The relationship, which also included personal ties between Sauber and Cosworth, was designed to last two years.
In 1995, Sauber exclusively received the 3.0-litre ECA engine that previously used by Benetton Formula. It did not harmonize with the Sauber C14, which had been designed in late summer 1994 to accommodate the significantly lighter Mercedes engine. Because the decision in favor of the Cosworth engine was made late, the Sauber engineers were only able to superficially adopt the C14 to the ECA engine. This had an adverse effect on the handling, which was described as unpredictable ("erratic"); moreover, the aerodynamics of the C14 was not efficient. In 1995, with the ECA, Sauber was unable to repeat the success that Benetton had achieved the previous year with the original EC version. Third place for Heinz-Harald Frentzen at the Italian Grand Prix was the team's best result this year and also the only podium finish achieved by the ECA in its three-year history. Frentzen came forth again, fifth twice, and sixth four times over the course of the year. His teammate Karl Wendlinger didn't finish at all in six races, Wendlinger's replacement Jean-Christophe Boullion only finished in the points twice in eleven races. Boullion's best finish was fifth place in Germany. At the end of the year, Sauber was seventh in the constructors' championship with 18 points, Frentzen was ninth in the drivers' championship. In 1995, Sauber was by far the best Cosworth team. Of the four customer teams that consistently used ED engines this year, only Minardi score a World Championship point. Simtek, Pacific, and Forti Corse remained without points.
In the 1996 season, Sauber received completely newly developed ten-cylinder engines, which were designated by the manufacturer as Cosworth JD, but was reported by Ford under the designation Zetec-R.
1996: Forti Corse The Forti Corse team from Alessandria made its debut in Formula 1 in 1995 after having been successful in Formula 3000 for many years. Forti entered 1995 with a Cosworth ED customer engine and a chassis harking back to the 1992 Fondmetal GR02. Diniz and teammate Roberto Moreno were the slowest drivers all season; they were often lapped five or six times during races, and were lapped nine times in Argentina.