f1isgood wrote: ↑24 Oct 2025, 08:23
I am not going to believe in 20bhp power loss theory even if it might end being true. It all sounds like hopium. And even then it's unlikely to affect race performance as cars run in much more detuned phase.
Well, the 'theory' is that the turbo(s) have to run at higher speed to suck feed the engine enough air that is commensurate to sea levels, which increases inefficiency in 3 ways (that I can think of) :
a) turbo will run hotter => cooling need of turbo and cooling need of intake air, both go up. Which in turn means more pumping losses from the engine's water pump and more 'holes opened up' (air cooling and water cooling) on the body, not only increasing drag, but detrimental to the efficiency of all the flow structures in the rear - rear wing, beam wing etc. So a double whammy.
b) since the 'responsiveness to wastegate action' from the turbo will be reduced at higher turbo RPMs, turbo-lag will be higher, meaning slightly reduced throttle response.
c) more exhaust energy used up in running the turbo => energy recovery from MGU-H will be reduced. Also, the exhaust exit will be slower, so any minor benefits offered by the exhaust in terms of suction around beam-wing will be reduced.
In terms of power delivery, teams will adapt their engine maps (I am sure there is a mexico quali map, mexico race map, etc etc) to bridge the power aspect to some extent (so maybe it's like 10hp instead of 20hp or maybe it's 20hp instead of 50hp, we dont know the numbers), but I suspect that cooling is the bigger concern than power, for reliability sake (cooling of air, water, oil, hydaulics, brakes).
