Honda F1 project leader Yusuke Hasegawa has outlined a number of reasons why Honda has been struggling so badly in the beginning of the 2017 Formula One season. He confirmed that lots of problems were not discovered while running on the dynamo meter.
They are all built by ATL in Milton Keynes, but for every chassis they will be different, and so will the baffles within them.trinidefender wrote: ↑12 Apr 2021, 05:24It's not. They do have to be built out of approved materials and I believe by approved suppliers.
Interesting that a singular manufacturer has the contract for every team. Although I was just answering his question as best I could. While this company may currently produce all the fuel cells doesn't mean that another company theoretically can't as long as they are FIA approved. Unless the regulations have changed from before which I'm not aware of.Craigy wrote: ↑13 Apr 2021, 16:10They are all built by ATL in Milton Keynes, but for every chassis they will be different, and so will the baffles within them.trinidefender wrote: ↑12 Apr 2021, 05:24It's not. They do have to be built out of approved materials and I believe by approved suppliers.
ATL bag tanks are ubiquitous in F1 simply because there isn't anything a team could do in-house (or with a different supplier) that ATL couldn't & for less money. ATL have been doing it for all of the teams for so long that the process is flexible enough to cope with anything the teams can feasibly ask for. Historically there was another manufacturer of bag tanks, but that's going back to the 80s.trinidefender wrote: ↑13 Apr 2021, 21:20Interesting that a singular manufacturer has the contract for every team. Although I was just answering his question as best I could. While this company may currently produce all the fuel cells doesn't mean that another company theoretically can't as long as they are FIA approved. Unless the regulations have changed from before which I'm not aware of.Craigy wrote: ↑13 Apr 2021, 16:10They are all built by ATL in Milton Keynes, but for every chassis they will be different, and so will the baffles within them.trinidefender wrote: ↑12 Apr 2021, 05:24
It's not. They do have to be built out of approved materials and I believe by approved suppliers.
More importantly is that it isn't a standard part and the design and baffling is still done by the individualteams themselves.
Upon further research I found this link:
http://www.formula1-dictionary.net/fuel ... ufacturer.
"ATL (Aero Tec Laboratories) is only FIA approved Kevlar reinforced fuel cell manufacturer, and all F1 teams using products from this manufacturer"
The information seems a little old but as of yet I haven't found anything more up to date.
It's not new news actually, Tanabe has been transparent about the issues. What's good is that they've taken good care to look after Max's as he has had no replacement components thus far. If they can push the other car's components to identify reliability problems then Max's can be used conservatively. Tanabe has said Honda will continue to develop the PUs and they can make reliability fixes as the season progresses. Better to push for performance and make those reliability fixes. The ICE appears to be robust, so it's about identifying what's plaguing the CE and ES.
https://honda.racing/f1/post/behind-the-2021-honda-power-uni tDeveloping Our 2021 Power Unit
"The original plan was to implement this new structure PU this year in 2021," Asaki-san explains. "But then for a variety of reasons, it was decided not to proceed with a brand new PU. However, the thinking on this really changed when Honda announced that we would be leaving the sport. I went to President Hachigo, and said to him that we would really like to implement this new structure PU for our last year in the sport. And he kindly accepted that request.
"With the green light given, our engineers got to work on trying to get everything ready for the new season. That was never going to be an easy task, given the scope of the changes being made to the power unit's architecture.
Honda has given an unusually detailed insight into the development of its 2021 Formula 1 power unit, which scored its first victory in the hands of Max Verstappen at Imola./quote]
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hond ... e/6417395/
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red- ... r/6418258/With the Milton Keynes-based team ramping up its efforts ahead of the takeover of Honda engines, long-time Mercedes employee Ben Hodgkinson will join the programme.
Hodgkinson has been head of mechanical engineering at Mercedes' High Performance Powertrains since 2017, having worked at the German car manufacturer's Brixworth headquarters for 20 years.
While Red Bull is beginning its project by taking over the Honda engine, and will keep some of the Japanese manufacturer’s current staff, its longer term focus is on producing a new power unit for the 2025 regulations.
...
“We're going to inherit some great people and talent from Honda, but we are absolutely committed to getting the right people in the right roles in an efficient manner that integrates fully with the chassis side of the business.”
