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I suspect the type of Motor being used for the KERS may be the trick.
What do the regs say about this?
Possibly Ferrari's motor may behave like more than one type of motor; depending on if it's charging or deploying, who knows?

The 120kw rule is about the feeded power. The more efficiënt, the better. But we are talking about a few %

Wherever the FERRAI power advantage is coming from. GPS analysis is provided to teams at each race by the FIA and from this information can be calculated - to within a workable degree of accuracy. From these calculations FERRARI’s Q3 advantage over Mercedes tends to be around 20-30 BHP and around 20 BHP in the race.

Is there anything after the fule sensor that could be used to store extra fuel temporarily?

I'm not saying its this. But for example, a special injector that also has a small reservoir. That can then be used to inject extra fuel for a short period of time.

Off the top of my head FIA have imposed a minimum post-flowmeter volume as well as a maximum hydraulic compliance so whatever fuel could be stored after the sensor has been limited in the last couple seasons or so.

What they have done to store fuel in the past:

Use the high pressure fuel rails. Fuel pressure is allowed to be 500 bar, but 200-250 bar is enough for good injections. During full throttle, they would lower the pressure from 500 to 200 and make use of the extra fuel which was in the rails at 500 bar.

Use flexible fuel lines, which under high pressure would swell up and take some extra fuel. If the pressure is lowered, under full throttle, the lines would return to their original size and the engine uses the excess fuel.

But personally, i think the extra power comes from being able to drive with open wastegates for a longer duration. They can probably harvest more when wastegates are closed.

NL_Fer wrote: ↑

22 Sep 2019, 12:12

But personally, i think the extra power comes from being able to drive with open wastegates for a longer duration. They can probably harvest more when wastegates are closed.

But as they are only able to deploy this extra power in short bursts (i.e. not all the time in a race), would this suggest whatever they are doing involves storing something up?

With open waste-gates (free load mode/electric supercharging mode) at full fueling the MGU-K and MGU-H are sharing battery (ES) power. Maximum battery (ES) power is regulated by the rules.

though everything apparently conceivable has been said before we can remember that ....

the 120 kW limit is really 126.3 kW DC line power (120 kW is based on entitlement to be treated as 95% efficient)
if the K efficiency (machine x 'controller') is higher than 95% the 120 kW is more than 120 kW

there's 300 kJ storage allowed in eg the 'controller' (that hasn't necessarily come via the battery can avoid the 4MJ limit)

and ...
the fuel will compress 4% between 1 bar and 500 bar
the mean 500 bar might even be cycleable eg between 0 bar and 1000 bar

saviour stivala wrote: ↑

22 Sep 2019, 12:46

With open waste-gates (free load mode/electric supercharging mode) at full fueling the MGU-K and MGU-H are sharing battery (ES) power. Maximum battery (ES) power is regulated by the rules.

Wrong again.
Only maximum MGUK power is limited hence maximum ESS power (MGUK + MGUH) is unlimited.

Driving with open wastegates means there is no energy recovery from the mgu-h. Instead it costs more energy, because the battery has to power both mgu-h and mgu-k. As a result this wil deplete the battery and one could only do his for a short amount of time.

NL_Fer wrote: ↑

22 Sep 2019, 17:05

Driving with open wastegates means there is no energy recovery from the mgu-h....

not so
there is (some) energy recovery without any difference in mean pressure across the turbine
because of the kinetic energy of the exhaust pulses
the so-called blowdown action of a turbine
how much ? - well 15000 aircraft engines gained up to 18% 'free' power this way
(ok they had a lower expansion ratio as the CR was only 7:1)
NOTE - (RETRO-EDIT)
what I had in mind was that wastegate-open ...
the mgu-h turbine is mechanically contributing somewhat to driving the compressor
not that the mgu-h was contributing electrically

Anyway i think this the area where Ferrari is making gains. More open wastegate time, more energyboost during open wastegate and better recovery during the lap they are using this mode.