The Stella enters the new era of ground-effect single-seaters with the awareness of counting on engine supremacy. The M13 E Performance power unit will feature a new supercharging system which is the result of the experience brought by a new German engineer. At the chassis level, however, there is some more doubt about the choice of the wheelbase that will be close to the 3,600 mm limit.
Mercedes has a certainty and a doubt. The doubt, of course, does not concern whether Lewis Hamilton will be in his place at the wheel of the W13 or not, given that the hepta-champion, despite the "wall of silence" erected after the contested final in Abu Dhabi, will be regularly in his place. .
The certainty concerns the new power unit that will be homologated before the Bahrain GP and which will represent the strength of the W13, the ground-effect single-seater that will be presented on February 18 in streaming.
Hywel Thomas, Chief Engineer at Brixworth, is deliberating a power unit that should represent a leap forward from last year's unit, the F1 M12 E Performance 6-cylinder. That engine had revealed weaknesses towards the end of its life, forcing the Mercedes engineers to shorten its duration (Lewis Hamiltion used 5 PUs in the 2021 season, and Valtteri Bottas even six, while the FIA limit included a maximum of three in order not to finish in penalty).
With a shorter use (four GPs instead of eight) the Brixworth technicians took risks on reliability, pushing the engine mappings far beyond the limits they had set for the season, being able to draw on horsepower that had always remained in the engine availability, but they had never been touched for fear of breakage.
Evidently, not reaching premature aging, the engine could give its best, re-establishing an indisputable superiority over the still valid Honda engine that led Hamilton to be on par with Verstappen before the last Abu Dhabi GP.
In the standard configuration, the Mercedes power unit provided 1,026 horsepower, while the super-engine of the Brazilian GP in qualifying unleashed an additional 18 horsepower, that is to say a power of 1,044 horsepower thanks to an extreme map.
New German turbo specialist
The arrival of a German specialist in Brixworth would have allowed the development of a new turbocharger capable of enhancing the qualities of the 6-cylinder and hybrid recharging, allowing more extreme strategies, especially since the Petronas chemists, gasoline suppliers, they would have easily recovered the 20 horsepower lost in the first bench tests with E10 fuels, just as it should have happened to Ferrari with Shell. If the power unit is to be a staple in the world championship, there is some doubt about the W13.