Mercedes Power Unit Hardware & Software

[Craigy]

Both have HQ in Stuttgart and both have powertrain technical centres in Northampton. Have a guess !

Mercedes HPE make their own pistons.

[hurril]

Watching the onboard video from Hamilton's pole lap from Australia, I'm struck by a feeling that they don't rev as much as they usually do. Do you guys feel the same way about this? (The instrumentation is surely not to be trusted.)

Do you think this is a case of being kind to the engine this early in the season or could they have altered it somewhat to run more efficiently?

[Mr.G]

Watching the onboard video from Hamilton's pole lap from Australia, I'm struck by a feeling that they don't rev as much as they usually do. Do you guys feel the same way about this? (The instrumentation is surely not to be trusted.)

Do you think this is a case of being kind to the engine this early in the season or could they have altered it somewhat to run more efficiently?

Actually could be both...

[63l8qrrfy6]

Both have HQ in Stuttgart and both have powertrain technical centres in Northampton. Have a guess !

Mercedes HPE make their own pistons.

Mahle do a lot more than just pistons..

[toraabe]

Watching the onboard video from Hamilton's pole lap from Australia, I'm struck by a feeling that they don't rev as much as they usually do. Do you guys feel the same way about this? (The instrumentation is surely not to be trusted.)

Do you think this is a case of being kind to the engine this early in the season or could they have altered it somewhat to run more efficiently?

Drivers with Mercedes PU106 engines normally shifts at around 11500 rpm. Same as Renault.
Ferrari at 12000 and Honda for some strange reason as late as 12500.
The earlier you can hit maximum power, the more efficient the engine runs.

[hurril]

Watching the onboard video from Hamilton's pole lap from Australia, I'm struck by a feeling that they don't rev as much as they usually do. Do you guys feel the same way about this? (The instrumentation is surely not to be trusted.)

Do you think this is a case of being kind to the engine this early in the season or could they have altered it somewhat to run more efficiently?

Drivers with Mercedes PU106 engines normally shifts at around 11500 rpm. Same as Renault.
Ferrari at 12000 and Honda for some strange reason as late as 12500.
The earlier you can hit maximum power, the more efficient the engine runs.

Yeah this is why I asked. I think I observed them shifting even earlier than they usually do for qualifying.

[Jejking]

Watching the onboard video from Hamilton's pole lap from Australia, I'm struck by a feeling that they don't rev as much as they usually do. Do you guys feel the same way about this? (The instrumentation is surely not to be trusted.)

Do you think this is a case of being kind to the engine this early in the season or could they have altered it somewhat to run more efficiently?

Drivers with Mercedes PU106 engines normally shifts at around 11500 rpm. Same as Renault.
Ferrari at 12000 and Honda for some strange reason as late as 12500.
The earlier you can hit maximum power, the more efficient the engine runs.

Yeah this is why I asked. I think I observed them shifting even earlier than they usually do for qualifying.

Are you sure? What I recall from Australia Q is that Mercedes engines, especially with the Mercs, they were shifting around 12000-12500 for the lower gears, dropping off to 11500 for gears 5-7.

[ScrewCaptain27]

Finally a proper side shot of the 2017 PU, courtesy of AMuS:

[Jejking]

Finally a proper side shot of the 2017 PU, courtesy of AMuS:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201704 ... da083d.jpg

Dayummm.. That's a very sleek, compact design considering all the tech stuffed together.

[Edax]

I was reading up on some old airplane technology. In the past we had so called "water wagons", airplane engines which used water injection to facilitate takeoff. The way it works is that the water increases the expansion capacity of the air creating more thrust. Great stuff. That technology is now being reconsidered for hot and heavy takeofs for the 777-9.

It just struck me, that that might also work for a turbo piston engine. Indeed I found several past usages of the technology in road going engines where it is claimed to have a significant benefit on power output and engine cooling ( not so for engine wear). I can imagine that a system like that would be relatively easy to hide on an f1 car and you have a few litres of coolant to play with.

would something like that even be possible/beneficial with current F1 engines and could Merc have been using it? I'm thinking of the "uber" mode and the puffs of white smoke we sometimes saw?

I have to admit I am a noob when it comes to piston engine and combustion technology, but I am curious enough to risk exposing my ignorance

[63l8qrrfy6]

It does help. It is also banned.

[godlameroso]

Finally a proper side shot of the 2017 PU, courtesy of AMuS:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201704 ... da083d.jpg

The exhaust manifold runners are very long, and the exhaust pipe itself is very interesting, nothing at all like what Mercedes uses.

[OO7]

The exhaust manifold runners are very long, and the exhaust pipe itself is very interesting, nothing at all like what Mercedes uses.

The exhaust manifolds are exactly the same as on the Mercedes. The PU manufacturers supply customer teams with the manifolds.

If you meant the exhaust pipe specifically, then yes I agree that they are different, but I haven't noticed anything particularly significant about those differences.

[Tommy Cookers]

[quote=Edax]
I was reading up on some old airplane technology. In the past we had so called "water wagons", airplane engines which used water injection to facilitate takeoff. The way it works is that the water increases the expansion capacity of the air creating more thrust. Great stuff. That technology is now being reconsidered for hot and heavy takeofs for the 777-9.
It just struck me, that that might also work for a turbo piston engine. Indeed I found several past usages of the technology in road going engines .......[/quote]

aircraft 'WI' was always a mix of methanol and water c.50/50 'Methmix' - the standard (as 100% water would freeze)
some road-use Chevrolet Corvairs had turbos and depended on this
afaik it works in jets etc by its cooling effect, enabling lower AFR (more fuel, more thrust ) which would otherwise exceed safe engine temperatures
of course methanol as a fuel gives more energy per unit air than kerosene or gasoline
btw in a hot and humid region there might anyway be 8% water vapour in the air

afaik Ferrari in turbo F1 used 100% water injection to enable higher boost etc when such was allowed

otoh the evaporative cooling would reduce the compressor work and so increase exhaust recovery or reduce exhaust 'backpressure'
the increased water vapour content in the exhaust could change its specific heat ratio (and maybe at our very high AFR degrade ICE efficiency)

[gruntguru]

In addition 50:50 seems to be the optimum ratio for detonation suppression.