As of 1st of March 2022, fuel and oil specifications are frozen and cannot be changed by the suppliers. I do not see anything in article 16 and subsections that allows any leeway for further development of fuels or oils. FIA has tried to be as specific as possible to govern any change to fuel mix specifications. Every team has to provide fuel and oil samples for testing at every race and it should conform to the frozen specifications.georgekyr wrote: ↑27 Dec 2022, 09:43There was lots of talk last year that the combination of Petronas fuel technology and Merc engine was not optimal in the switch to E10 fuel. Also there was lots of speculation for example that Shell got it right with their fuel flowing into the Ferrari engine.
Article 16 and in detail 16.3 (fuel properties) gives a degree of freedom on the type of fuel to be used. Maybe some more performance can be extracted from that path as well. Mercedes also has the benefit of data from all the teams that used their engines using different fuel suppliers and consequently fuels as at a degree.
Also, it was the first year with the new engines. Aston Martin, Williams and Ricciardo were the only ones not getting a penalty for using more power unit components than allowed. Of course there can be benefits in getting penalties and changing components, Merc did it in 2021, we all remember the Brazil engine. It's all in the game.
If I am not mistaken the engine cost cap is again annual and Merc getting the reliability upgrade just in time last year means that the cost for that was budgeted in last season's budget. Maybe they will have some more headroom for reliability upgrades this year leading to performance gains.
It would be fascinating to see if a fuel supplier comes up with performance enhancement despite the freeze. I am sure we would hear that when it happens.