68 replies to this topic

[GrumpyYoungMan]

....

One more thing about splitting the turbo and compressor to either end of the engine, is the MGU-H still in the vee of the engine, with a shaft on either end of it to the turbo and compressor? Still pretty neat engineering as those shafts are spinning up to 125k rpm. 

That may actually be better than having one long shaft linking just the turbo...

Would the rules allow this? so in effect it could be two shafts?

[OO7]

Adrian Newey's explanation:

"I think when we talk about the power unit we talk about it by manufacturer. We should also include the fuel company of course. I think you'll find within an engine, depending on what fuel it uses there can be very significant differences. That can also create differences. We certainly can see that in our own GPS analysis between our rivals that some appear to have significantly more power than others, even though they have the same engine."

I wonder how they are differentiating between engine power and aerodynamic drag, as one team could be using a higher down force package.  This can be seen when comparing Red Bull and Toro Rosso.

[MikeV1987]

Works teams will always have an advantage over customer teams.

[Dolph]

For Ferrari and Renault engines we can just dismiss it as an engine/PU issue. But for Mclaren, Williams and Force India the 2 sec difference per lap in Bahrain can't be engine.

 

I also have much difficulty to accept it is mostly aero. So what can be? gearbox ? brake by wire? software optimisation?

 

• Mercedes has hired a lot of the best leading people from F1.
• They have Made TD's section heads - they are more than competent in each department.
• They have Hamilton, others have less capable drivers
• The Merc team has come up with the new Turbo design. Others are just customers who adopted the engine into their design
• Under the guidance of Ross Brawn the same team designed the best car the last time the rules changed a great deal

Edited by Dolph, 08 April 2014 - 20:21.

[Seano]

1) Shaft driven supercharger (gives them the flexibility to do so much more than everyone else).

2) Moving the gearbox changes the CoG and makes the car much more balanced and driveable

3) Reduced cooling requirements allow much better packaging (although Newey is probably still the Daddy).

 

But most of all a strong management team under Brawn to carry out this long term and innovative project.

 

I don't know if Ross will ever come back to motorsport, but if that's it, what a finale and what a team.

 

Lets all kick back and enjoy the show - I think we have only seen the opening shots.

 

Seano

[SealTheDiffuser]

BP rocket fuel

[wepmob2000]

Tyres play a large part in this too I think, hence Mercedes pressure for harder tyres this year..... Last years WO4 ate those cheese tyres like they were actually cheese, other teams cars were much better in this respect. This years WO5 may be utilising its (now harder) tyres to much better effect, they certainly looked well used on Sunday.....

[Seano]

Quite simply you can't compare the W04 to this car.

 

The redistribution of weight in the chassis is the key as to the change in tyre wear!

[teejay]

Fuel is tested every event - wont be some special mix in it.

[vlado]

[Brother Fox]

I'm pretty sure it's the team hats that Hamilton designed last year.

[teejay]

They are so sick the galvanized the team into action for 2015

[RealRacing]

It's the nose. I'd advise everyone to copy it...

[charly0418]

The difference between Ferrari and Sauber/Marussia is also humongous, yet you're not talking about that. $$$$

 

McLaren has the money but they're a mess right now

[Reinmuster]

Petronas.

 

Hell yeah. 

[Smiley]

Will it be possible for them to patent that?

[sabjit]

Will it be possible for them to patent that?

 

IIRC you are not allowed to patent in sport.

[bub]

I would guess:

 

Works team advantage.

Money, effort and time invested.

Quantity and quality of personnel and equipment.

Organisational structure.

 

All leading to a car that is better than the customer teams in every way.

[RichardF1fan]

I think the main advantage is drivability to get the power applied/extracted smoothly to not allow the tyres to break away. Each team has to write the software to balance the source of the power whether it be from the ICE or the Kers or MGH-U and Mercedes have the advantage that they designed it and know it better than anyone else and they had a lot longer to work on it. Money to buy the best software engineers with experience of complex systems like the new PU's also helps.

 

I think the above explains why all the Merc powered cars have similar top speeds but Merc have the advantage everywhere else.

 

On top of this they have undeniably good aero

 

They also had longer to design a car round the unit and probably  benefitted from the unit being partly designed to suit the proposed chassis design.

 

Also there is a limited amount of information that a manufacturer is going to be willing to share - there will be trade secrets about that engine that only Merc know about which is fair enough. Probably the specs they gave as to the maximum xyz are the safe operating windows of the components - but they know if you do abc you can get more power for short periods etc.

 

Basically they are the works team.