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Engine customers 'very important' for Ferrari

ESPN Staff
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Ferrari currently supplies to other customer teams with engines © Ferrari
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Having customer teams running Ferrari engines is "very important" for Ferrari, according to the team's head of engine and electronics Luca Marmorini.

Ferrari currently supplies Sauber and Toro Rosso with engines, but reports suggest Toro Rosso might switch to Renault in 2014 to fall in line with parent team Red Bull. While admitting that he is unsure whether Toro Rosso will remain with the team next year, Marmorini said the team wanted to ensure it retained customer teams as the extra mileage is important with a lack of in-season testing.

"I think a customer team is a very important opportunity for an engine supplier," Marmorini said. "First of all we can test more engines and having no tests during the season we can collect a much wider database; in this sense it's very good having customer teams.

"It's also important to have a reference with a car having basically the same engine to have a good relative comparison with your car and a different car. So Ferrari is strongly committed to supplying competitive engines to customer teams. I don't know if Toro Rosso will be with us next season, but still now we are working very well with them; it's an important contribution for Ferrari's engine development and I think also we are giving them a competitive engine."

If Ferrari was to lose Toro Rosso as a customer next season, it could supply Force India as part of any potential deal for Jules Bianchi to drive for the team in 2013.

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