Quote:
Originally Posted by Exfso
Listening to the commentators this morning and they reckon that talking to Mercedes, that they know where they can get another 60hp from that power unit over their winter break. The mind boggles that is even more catch up that is required by Renault and Ferrari if that statement is correct.  |
Hi Peter,
When it comes to engines next year, things are even more complex than that.
In order to reduce costs, there was a rule introduced that started just
before the beginning of the season this year that throttles engine
development over a seven year period.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by FIA F1 Power Unit leaflet 2014
The development cycle is scheduled according to an available set of elements that can be developed each year.
The Power Unit is divided into families of functions, with each family being given a certain importance,
labelled as category 1, 2 or 3 components. For example, the pistons are ranked 2, while the
ignition system is ranked 1.
The complete Power Unit is made up of the sum of these ranked items, with the complete Power Unit being represented by the total number, 66.
Each year, each Power Unit manufacturer will be allowed to choose what parts of the engine they wish to develop and will spend a set ‘budget’ of ‘tokens’.
This development budget decreases each year across the seven-year schedule.
For 2015 the budget available to teams is 32 tokens (close to 50% of possible development) but for 2018 the budget drops to 15 tokens (less than 25% of
possible development).
|
See
http://www.fia.com/sites/default/fil...4-A5-light.pdf
To police this, each team had to hand-over one of their engines to the FIA
just before the start of the season. The FIA reserved the right to then
conduct a random audit, comparing the engine they had "on file" to
one being used by a team at any one time. This process was referred
to by the FIA as "power unit homologation".
It might be argued that Hamilton and Rosberg's incredible run of podium
finishes this year was actually set in motion by Mercedes engineers
several years earlier when they first sketched on the back of the napkin
the idea of how to minimize turbo lag.
When each of the teams had to open their kimonos at the pre-season
testing in Bahrain, it would have been immediately clear to the
Renault and Ferrari engineers that their designs were inferior to what
Mercedes had innovated.
Speaking of kimonos, it is therefore interesting that Honda, who
plan to introduce their engine next year, would possibly
have the benefit of having seen what everyone else had already come
up with.
With the Mercedes design so much better than Renault and Ferrari's,
it therefore comes as no surprise that there was much talk at Sochi
about allowing an "unfreeze" period in 2015. Otherwise Mercedes would
dominate for years to come.
Quote:
|
Originally Posted by James Allen
Those who favour the unfreeze point to F1 as a pinnacle of innovation and technology in motorsport and say that this does not align with the concept of freezing technology. But it has been F1′s policy for some time in the interest of saving costs, along with restricting the number of engines
|
See
http://www.jamesallenonf1.com/2014/1...-the-question/
Back on October 10th, The F1 Strategy Group, which had representatives
from six of the eleven teams, passed a vote in favour of an unfreeze.
Mercedes were initially against it, slamming it as "ridiculous".
However, on November 8th, Mercedes said they were willing to
"compromise".
See
http://www.auto123.com/en/racing-new...e?artid=172739
Mercedes engineers apparently believe they will still have the technical
edge over their rivals because their design is just that much different
and because they have hinted that they too have other upgrades up their sleeve.
But today the news is that engine unfreeze talks have stalled :-
http://www.grandprix247.com/2014/11/...e-talks-stall/
