Today's unveiled Mercedes AMG F1 W09 resembles a lot its sucessful predecessor, the championship winning W08. And this is no coincidence, as team boss Toto Wolff reveals. However, there are some interesting changes to come this year with the new car.
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Some considerations on the ongoing debate: old vs. new engine/PU
Old 7 races engine = 0.25 sec/lap (1 tenth from the upgrade and 1.5 tenths for being old and used engine which couldn`t be used in high power modes for longer times). So, for 72 laps in Montreal the lose some 18 sec and this reasoning it`s a theoretical one from an HP strictly point of view … Another problem with old engines is that they are also using more fuel and oil then the fresh one, due to their physical wear and tear. This means lower engine modes must be used in the race or higher modes for shorter time …
For these new 2018 generation PU, the HP max output it`s more important for Q3 runs. But more important than that Q3 mode is the HP output in the race, as we could usually see RB being almost on par with Merc and Ferrari in the race. Thus, a new spec 2018 PU puts more emphasis on efficiency rather than increasing in HP max output. In other words, all engine manufacturers are working on either lower the fuel consumption or on increasing high power engine (not PU) modes within the same fuel consumption. And my understanding is that they are working on both cases, cuz when you have higher engine modes on the same consumption it`s a clear-cut decision. But we should also consider that improving also ICE drivability this could lead in the end to a better tyre management due to better traction out of the corners.
Now for having a better understanding about why they put more emphasis on efficiency these days, I would like to put just one simple question to clarify this matter: what would you like, to have a new spec engine with 20HP more or just have the same HP ballpark figure but improve fuel consumption by 5%? (That means almost 5 to 6kg which worth between 1,5 and 2 tenths per lap). Therefore, when an engine manufacturer claims their new spec is worth 1 tenth, in reality, is between 2 or 3 tenths race dependent. And that`s not all cuz we didn`t take into account the fuel parameter both for HP increasing and lower consumption factor, which by the way is much more reduced having only 3 upgrades opportunities this year … In conclusion, you must always try to have the best compromise in all areas of the car!
We are now pretty far into the season and they still have just a shroud encapsulating the halo, any guesses as to why? They develop the rest of the aero in a pretty nice pace but they seemingly don't bother with the halo area compared to what many other teams have done so far this season. Is the upper half of the Mercedes so fine tuned already that not even a flow-conditioner could be beneficial enough to throw on the car
We are now pretty far into the season and they still have just a shroud encapsulating the halo, any guesses as to why? They develop the rest of the aero in a pretty nice pace but they seemingly don't bother with the halo area compared to what many other teams have done so far this season. Is the upper half of the Mercedes so fine tuned already that not even a flow-conditioner could be beneficial enough to throw on the car
The shroud is shaped like wings, which is more cleaner I think...that is why Merc and rbr are using it
You can actually see where they extend the size of it a bit to get the fairing on it, whereas other teams have a smaller diameter Halo but most have had to mount wings on top.