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F1NAC wrote: ↑

23 Aug 2017, 22:51

Do you guys think that Mercedes is trying to avoid that rule that is on after monza (regarding oil stuff that all new introduced PU's from monza onwards must follow?)

Because they had new ICE only 2 races ago?

Almost certainly. Unless there were reliability problems on the previous ICE there's little incentive to upgrade so early, as they've effectively locked themselves out of potential upgrades on that front.

At the same time, they're kind of admitting that they're burning oil in excess of the amounts agreed to post Monza. Not implying anything besides the obvious.

It s silly to think they are doing it for oil consumption unless you think they will run this spec for the rest of the season.

4th spec wasn't due to be introduced until Japan, so them taking the 4th power unit now, before the imposition of the lower oil burn limit isn't telling? Or are they willing to take a penalty later on?

The alternative is that the new spec is substantially more powerful and they want to use it for easy points at spa and monza.

I'll eat my words if this doesn't happen but I am very sure they will easily dominate the next 2 races.

I guess too they will dominate.

Anyway if I remember correctly their 3rd PU did just a couple of races, so they probabily will use the older PU in less power demanding circuit, like Singapore, and use the last evolution in SPA, Monza and so on... So they also avoided the 0,9 lt/100 km limit

It's not that oil has combustion friendly additives, oil increases the reactivity of gasoline.

Interesting to see.. at Spa..
..after the needlessly long (orchestrated) 'safety car' period.. which no doubt enabled fuel saving..

Hamilton was - on the the re-start - able to 'pour on the coals' & easily gap Vettel under max power..
& the 'juice' was clearly on show, as evidenced by the - nowadays rarely seen - visible exhaust flames..

Impressive, & conclusive.. as a mark of what power M-B really does.. have in hand.. well done M-B & Hammer..

Coming into the Spa Race weekend, it was widely expected that Mercedes would run away with the GP due to the power sensitive nature of the circuit.

They brought a new spec engine (which wasn't expected) and still could barely manage to get ahead of Ferrari, who were on the older spec engine. Based on what was on display in Silverstone, the expectation was Mercedes to dominate even with older spec. That did not happen.

And here is a news of FIA enforcing the new rules on Mercedes PU also.

https://it.motorsport.com/f1/news/consu ... za-945275/

I am having a theory.
1. Did Mercedes know, the new rules are going to affect them, regardless of their early introduction of the latest spec PU in Spa, instead of Monza?
2. With their new Spec, are they compliant to new rules and that is why the new Spec was just a match to Ferrari''s current spec? Because, on the power sensitive Silverstone, the old spec Mercedes PU was miles ahead of Ferrari's current spec.
3. Is this what is going to happen to Ferrari too, when they have to introduce their FIA OIl Directive compliant PU for Monza?

J.A.W. wrote: ↑

27 Aug 2017, 17:32

Interesting to see.. at Spa..
..after the needlessly long (orchestrated) 'safety car' period.. which no doubt enabled fuel saving..

Hamilton was - on the the re-start - able to 'pour on the coals' & easily gap Vettel under max power..
& the 'juice' was clearly on show, as evidenced by the - nowadays rarely seen - visible exhaust flames..

Impressive, & conclusive.. as a mark of what power M-B really does.. have in hand.. well done M-B & Hammer..

It's not as clear cut as that.

Hamilton has said that he was in the wrong engine mode at the restart, so didn't have the gap he expected going into La Source. He then locked a brake at that corner, and could hear Vettel was on the power earlier (so much for quiet engines). On the run down to Eau Rouge he didn't use full power, thus allowing Vettel to pull up close behind, before nailing it through Eau Rouge and Radillion.

Doing this force Vettel to pull out from the slipstream earlier than ideal, and without the necessary momentum. Vettel pulled along side, but there after the Ferrari and Mercedes remained level, and as Hamilton had the inside for the corner, there was no way through for Vettel.

After making the engine mode mistake at the restart, Hamilton cleverly turned that to his advantage. I expect if he hadn't held back a little on the run down to Eau Rouge that Vettel would have got a much better slipstream and been able to use the extra momentum to take the lead.

The big advantage that the Mercedes seemed to have was in the second half of the lap, where Vettel had to do more recovery than Hamilton. So, probably, an advantage in the MGUH recovery for Mercedes.

Never-the-less, the M-B's ability to 'spool-up' & extend away, via prodigious power-over-drag capability..
relative to the Ferrari, including all energy utilization ( per visible flame from ICE, as tell-tale) is clear..

Sky's latest video on oil burning https://youtu.be/YJ2Z-JX-EsQ

I think the fans want close racing between multiple teams. I do not understand how giving one team a clear advantage with this burning-oil issue makes it more interesting for the fans. This had been a really good year up to this point, you just could not tell who was going to be champion. I do not hold out much hope for the rest of the season. Spa was reasonably dull. Do we really want that for the rest of the season?

J.A.W. wrote: ↑

28 Aug 2017, 03:24

Never-the-less, the M-B's ability to 'spool-up' & extend away, via prodigious power-over-drag capability..
relative to the Ferrari, including all energy utilization ( per visible flame from ICE, as tell-tale) is clear..

The Mercedes has less drag than the Ferrari