Mercedes Power Unit Hardware & Software

[RZS10]

They can extract more performance whenever they want, it only gets interesting once they want to actually change the physical components and even then every change has to be signed off - until then there's no point in questioning it in advance.

[Big Tea]

This rule about reliability upgrade is really not well understood...

https://racingnews365.com/how-f1-manufa ... ir-engines



Even in the electric part (ES, CE, MGU-K), which will be homologated Sept 1st you are only allowed 1 update in season.

No engine manufacturer will pretend to need safety upgrades that aren't real and give up how their engine is made or having difficulties.

Which it why I believe Merc arrived with an engine that was not ready. The engine built to a spec 'better' than it is being used at the moment, but ready for 'something' that will be a plug in and give the extra power. It could be a software upgrade or non listed part that they have not finalised yet. Akin to giving a road car a new 'chip' and manifold system. The metal bits stay the same

"The engine built to a spec 'better' than it is being used at the moment"

That is a performance upgrade which is banned

The paragraph highlighted an issue that needs to be resolved, not a different spec engine

As of now Mercedes is performing at level A, to go to level B they need to change it. This should not be allowed as it is in fact a performance upgrade. It is not the same spec of engine that is in it now.

No, the engine presented is the one accepted, even if the full output is not being produced. Any changes can not be made to any physical part of the engine admittedly, but maybe what is coming is not a mechanical change.

(And, no I really do not have any idea what it could be )

[Hoffman900]

I think one thing people are missing here is why crank the engine up to run mid pack or worst? No sense to burn engines down when the chassis / aero concepts they have seemed flawed and need development.

[AeroDynamic]

I think one thing people are missing here is why crank the engine up to run mid pack or worst? No sense to burn engines down when the chassis / aero concepts they have seemed flawed and need development.

on the evidence of the last race, could it not have helped them overtake Perez if he had not lost his engine?

[Hoffman900]

I think one thing people are missing here is why crank the engine up to run mid pack or worst? No sense to burn engines down when the chassis / aero concepts they have seemed flawed and need development.

on the evidence of the last race, could it not have helped them overtake Perez if he had not lost his engine?

Based on the the tire degradation, probably not.

Also, is one place worth a potential engine change later in the season? Probably not, especially if they feel they can have the chassis working better then, when Honda and Ferrari might be having issues because they had them cranked up to battle each other earlier in the season.

I totally get and know they can’t go back to 1 engine / 1 race, but this is the downside of these long seasons and limited PU allotments is these games hurt the actual “show” and who knows what their PU schedule / deployment strategy is like.

I suspect until Merc is comfortable they can run heads up with Ferrari and RedBull, and are a comfortable 5th - 6th, you’re not going to see the engines turned up. Mclaren, Williams, and Aston aren’t going to crank them up for non points paying positions either. That’s just foolish.

[dans79]

(And, no I really do not have any idea what it could be )

If the engine is down on power( I don't believe it is), and they are holding back it would have to be something out of their control. Like the fuel/oil supplier is taking longer than expected to get on top of something they promised!

[pursue_one's]

[saviour stivala]

To me the 2022 engine situation looks like Mercedes and FERRARI have swapped places this year as regards their respective engine ranking. In Bahrain Ferrari added wing aero download because engine power permitted it. On the other side RB ran less wing with the resultant gain in top speed. Even Mercedes top speed was better than that of FERRARI. But neither RB nor Mercedes could match the acceleration of the FERRARI. Also FERRARI had the shortest gear ratios, in some places that matter the most Leclerc was always running in a higher gear then MV behind him.

[AR3-GP]

It's easy to forget that engine rankings are not static. As the different manufacturers optimize their mappings, they can usually extract a little power and broaden the torque peaks. Of course, the architecture of the engine does provide a bit of an upper limit in terms of the flow, fuel atomization, maximum compression ratio, pressure etc etc which then gives an upper limit on the hp and efficiency, but beneath this level, there is a lot of mapping optimization of the ICE than can provide increases across the power band as long as you can test it and it doesn't cause the engine to detonate, overheat, or lose a cylinder.

[_cerber1]

[Blackout]

How are the pipes feeding the turbine with gases?
@nicolasf1i

[AR3-GP]

There is probably a collector pipe in the middle. A bit like a medusa head. We know the exhaust turbine is at the back like the other manufacturers.

[vorticism]

Maybe the turbine scroll is the collector. Six inlets.

Edit- like this:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FOnJhK-XwAA ... name=large

What is the complex ahead of the plenum chamber? All part of the oil reservoir?

[ScrewCaptain27]

Yeah, I don’t think there is a proper exhaust collector at all, unless there is a very short one in the bell housing. Looks like the pipes feed straight into the turbine scroll.

[vorticism]

AR3GP you may be right about having the collector in the transmission housing. On second thought this may be their version of the Ferrari 'flat pack' headers. More shallow than having a radially symmetric collector outside of the transmission.