Which would just mean that the field would be even more spread out with massive differences between different engine suppliers.... Until everyone copied the best engine with correct solution and they would all be the same anyway.mrluke wrote:If only there was more freedom in the regulations so that we could have more different solutions rather than everybody being forced to do the same thing
Certainly early in teh season the Ferrari was rumpured to only be able to direct MGUH power to the ES, which restricted the amount of time they could get full power.gruntguru wrote:It is very unlikely they are cheating the fuel flow rate. Their overall race consumption seems to confirm that.
Their advantage lies in the continuous power (ICE crank plus turbine surplus) and possibly the way they vary the mix for different race conditions i.e. the tradeoff of crankshaft power v's MGUH power is varied depending on the priority of the moment. If absolute max power to the wheels is needed, the PU is run to maximise crankshaft power while drawing enough energy from the ES to run the MGUK at its maximum 120 kW. If it is possible to run with somewhat reduced power to the wheels, the PU is operated at best efficiency i.e. maximum continuous power (crank + MGUH). If even less power is needed to the wheels, (and the ES is not full) the PU is still operated at max TE and surplus energy is directed to the ES.
No.ringo wrote:Looking back on the season and the advantage that Mercedes had over the other engines. Is it possible that they simply were somehow admitting more fuel to their engine?
Obviously Renault did another mistake by developping 4 different variants of its PU with its 4 customers... They wasted too much ressources and too much time doing that and they produced a basic and 'universal' PU unlike Ferrari and Merc who produced a single PU for a particular chassis. Cyril Abiteboul even said that Caterham had almost as much dyno testing time as Red Bull in Viry!“When Ferrari and Renault are getting similar results, and Mercedes has a significant advantage, the first thing is to look at the level of investment,” he told the French magazine Auto Hebdo.
“At Renault the same level of investment was maintained, while Mercedes raised the bar very high, investing a lot of money, resources and technology,” said Jalinier.
“As a result, they were much better prepared than us and the Italians who have operated at the known and practiced levels of investment.
“In the paddock,” he continued, “you did hear about these enormous and – in our view – disproportionate investments by Mercedes, but do you believe these rumours or not?
“In the end it was true. In terms of resources used for this project, it is clear that Ferrari and us invested far less,” said Jalinier.
“We are 320 people at Viry, but together with the chassis and the engine there were up to 1,250 at Mercedes. With those resources, it is obvious that you are not confined to one solution but can go with two or even three in parallel during the development phase,” he said.
“This is a powerful force to achieve the right solution.”
Renault has been heavily criticised by its formerly title-dominant premier team partner Red Bull amid the 2014 ‘crisis’, but Jalinier insists that “with the means available, we completed the project entirely correctly”.
However, he does admit that Renault should have adopted the Mercedes-like approach of optimising a single ‘power unit’ package, rather than offering customised solutions to teams like Red Bull and Lotus.
“The advantage of Mercedes was to have an optimised version of the chassis and engine specifically for Mercedes GP, their own team, that was used as is by the client teams or adapted to their own needs at their own risk,” said Jalinier.
AFAIK, only one PU can be homologated. That means the exhausts, the intercoolers etc do not count as PU... but when I read the rules, the exahausts will be frozen and changing them (pressure charging: from engine exhaut flanges to turbine inlet) will cost a token. so wtf?mrluke wrote:Couldn't they homologate different versions for each customer? Whereas Merc and Ferrari just submitted one PU.