2018 Australian Grand Prix - Melbourne, 22 -25 March

[godlameroso]

The race simulations during F1 testing turned out that quite a few teams had to slow down their drivers in order to stay within the fuel limit of 105kg per race. As far as I remember Ferrari and Renault were among them but not Mercedes.

If this proves true, I think this could be the decisive factor resulting in another year of their dominance because fuel saving would hit the other engines on every track, regardless of weather, tarmac, tyre choices or whatsoever.

On the other hand it could probably help Force India and Williams move up into upper midfield?

Good point, Australia uses 22g/sec of fuel on average assuming a 105kg fuel load. This is out of a possible 27.77g/sec. Something fishy is going on if Mercedes can do the race averaging 18g/sec of fuel with the same output as others using 22g/sec. The advantage is still preposterous. In other words their efficiency comes from turning their engine down.

On an average 90 min. race that means they could spare 21,4kg of fuel or gain 7 to 8 tenths per lap ... that`s a little bit to much, don`t you think? I mean it could be doable but they`ll be way down on power (18g/22g=20% less so they could end with almost 100HP less ...)

Question: could they run an engine mapping with a leaner fuel mixture in some turns bearing in mind they are tyre limited and could not put the whole power on the ground?

That's the advantage Mercedes has with fuel efficiency, they can run their engines at the same power as their competitors for far longer, which means there's more power on tap, they just don't use it.

Mercedes wins in two ways, others have to use more fuel to match their power, so they under fuel their cars, gain from lower weight, with no sacrifice in relative power. Even with an overweight car you'll still be lighter than the others because you're carrying 7-12kg less fuel.

[SiLo]

It's genuinely impressive how they get that much power relative to the rest of the field from THAT much less fuel.

[godlameroso]

Looking likely for rain on Saturday, somewhat lower chance for Sunday.

[NathanOlder]

We all love a rain affected weekend, but not for the first few races. We all want to work out the pecking order! Rain rain go away.

[carisi2k]

When they say rain think in the terms of a storm rather then that constant drizzly stuff that great Britain gets. Have a look at the overnight low temps which will still be significantly higher then anything during the pre season tests.

Next Saturday will have a top of 29c even with some rain and the temp will only get down to about 20c overnight

[carisi2k]

Go to the website I posted for more accurate weather forecast. Only 1-4mm of rain is forcast on the saturday. That will barely settle the dust from all the bushfires around melbourne.

http://www.bom.gov.au/vic/forecasts/melbourne.shtml

[GPR-A duplicate2]

We all love a rain affected weekend, but not for the first few races. We all want to work out the pecking order! Rain rain go away.

I would love to see rain for the first four races, so that the drivers pecking order is established.

[Juzh]

It's genuinely impressive how they get that much power relative to the rest of the field from THAT much less fuel.

A bit better ICE efficiency (aka more power), but mainly it's down to their vastly supperior ERS.

[majki2111]

Last race with NON Red Bull, Mercedes or Ferrari win was Australia 2013. Kimi with Renault.

5 YEARS AGO



Depressing. Any kind of surprise in terms of podium or pole position is desperately needed.

[ME4ME]

A bit better ICE efficiency (aka more power), but mainly it's down to their vastly supperior ERS.

I think it's pretty much a result of small advantages adding up. But if I'd to put emphesis on the one aspect where Mercedes has their advantage I wouldn't neccesarily point to ERS.

Which exact feature, system or area would you say that Mercedes' ERS is better than their competitors that is not combustion related? If anything, MGUH and it's interaction with the combustion process is where the magic happens and of course software and regen/deployment strategy is a big part of it as well. But as for the MGU-K, converters and battery .. I expect pretty much all PU manufacturers to have that worked out.

[marvin78]

We all love a rain affected weekend, but not for the first few races. We all want to work out the pecking order! Rain rain go away.

I would love to see rain for the first four races, so that the drivers pecking order is established.

Would that be so? Aren't there cars which work better in rain than others? The tire management is completely different with the rain tires. I would say, you don't see anything about drivers pecking order in rain. I even would say you see less than in dry conditions (under the current circumstances). The rain tires are just bad, inconsistent and I hope for no rain in every race because there is not real race in rain.

[Juzh]

A bit better ICE efficiency (aka more power), but mainly it's down to their vastly supperior ERS.

I think it's pretty much a result of small advantages adding up. But if I'd to put emphesis on the one aspect where Mercedes has their advantage I wouldn't neccesarily point to ERS.

Which exact feature, system or area would you say that Mercedes' ERS is better than their competitors that is not combustion related? If anything, MGUH and it's interaction with the combustion process is where the magic happens and of course software and regen/deployment strategy is a big part of it as well. But as for the MGU-K, converters and battery .. I expect pretty much all PU manufacturers to have that worked out.

Obviously their main advantage is in the the mgu-h recovery.

[ME4ME]

Obviously their main advantage is in the the mgu-h recovery.

Wouldn't it be fair to say that it is combustion that is the real advantage then? I mean, I doubt their MGUH design is fastly different to any other. It's the application of the unit, the amount of recovery that might differ. But the amount of recoverable energy, or energy worth recovering without making a bad trade-of, is heavily dependent on the combustion process and turbo compounding.

Hearing Wazari speak about Honda's big upcoming combustion upgrade.. I think that that is still the area where the differences are.

[NathanOlder]

We all love a rain affected weekend, but not for the first few races. We all want to work out the pecking order! Rain rain go away.

I would love to see rain for the first four races, so that the drivers pecking order is established.

That is definitely a good way to look at it.

[aleks_ader]

I think it's pretty much a result of small advantages adding up. But if I'd to put emphesis on the one aspect where Mercedes has their advantage I wouldn't neccesarily point to ERS.

Which exact feature, system or area would you say that Mercedes' ERS is better than their competitors that is not combustion related? If anything, MGUH and it's interaction with the combustion process is where the magic happens and of course software and regen/deployment strategy is a big part of it as well. But as for the MGU-K, converters and battery .. I expect pretty much all PU manufacturers to have that worked out.

Yes i agree. The combustion process and its dynamic mapping from corner to corner is key. I mean do you want more crank efficiency with low MGUH harvest (exit from corner with ES depletion). Maybe then on the middle of straight you start sacrificing low crank efficiency for more MGUH harvest. I mean Merc could design mapping around those aspects very efficiently. You just add boosting into mix you had complex multidimensional mapping. Then each minor gain of 0.1% adds into bigger picture. I will not add potential oil burning into mix. We have no proof if they gain efficiency that way (antiknock or combustion boosters). They are just ahead of curve with development, hence better reliability, mapping, problem detection and prediction. Simply they could squezze out more from unit, closer to the limit of TJI technology.