Mercedes engines have 100 BHP advantage over Renault
- This topic has 13 replies, 10 voices, and was last updated 10 years, 2 months ago by
.
- Posts
A while ago, there was this rumour flying around, it seems this wasn’t as wide of the mark as first anticipated.
Rob White confrimed to Ted Kravitz during the first test, that their engine power output was 600bhp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJtenemHPJMMeanwhile, Mercedes engine chief Andy Cowell admitted their turbo engines are able to deliver around 700 bhp – without ERS
http://www.auto-motor-und-sport.de/formel-1/mercedes-motorenchef-andy-cowell-exklusiv-drei-mal-so-viele-teile-wie-frueher-8032979.htmlIf such a gap exists, I’d be very surprised if much of it wasn’t closed by the time the season starts.
It’s unfortunate for Renault since they were already dealing with reliability issues; imagine having to try and continue engine development when the base you’re dealing with isn’t stable to begin with anyway. I wanted Vettel to deal with some difficulty and adversity this season, but not like this.
I’ll remain optimistic and hope they can pull it together for early in the season. A few races on the backfoot may not hurt them too much in the end, since the end has double points…
I dont remember Mercedes claiming their engine generated 700bhp… at least I hope not. A 100 bhp is a massive difference in performance. Big enough for the Mercedes powered cars to be at the front followed by either the Renault or Ferrari engined cars
I simply don’t see where 100HP should come from. With the limits on fuel consumption, the Mercedes engine would have to be a whopping 16.6 percent more fuel efficient then the Renault. With so strict regulations, I simply cannot see that happening.
I don’t really believe that, unless the figures are quoted as what power outputs the engines were running at maximum during the Jerez test. In which case that is entirely believable, since the Renault kept setting fire to itself!
700bhp would be an amazing figure from such a small engine though (which bearing in mind has to contend with much less fuel and much more distance than an 80’s engine). Add ERS to that and you are swiftly approaching 900bhp…
Well… so it is true.
Mercedes engines produce a 690bhp + an additional 150 bhp from ERS
Renault (according to the Taffin interview) produce 600bhp + 160bhp from ERSFerrari are the big question mark. But if I had to guess, they would be marginally better than Renault in terms of performance. The only positive of the Ferrari engine is their cooling I guess.. which could lead to smaller sidepods and less aero drag.
I have a bad feeling that this season is going to be a Mclaren vs Mercedes battle. Let’s hope I’m wrong
“I have a bad feeling that this season is going to be a Mclaren vs Mercedes battle. Let’s hope I’m wrong”
What wrong with that? I’d quite like to see that battle :-)
Let’s hope Ferrari can be in there as well. Speaking of which:
“Reports in Italy say (Ferrari) engine designer Luca Marmorini has devised a unique system that stops the flow of fuel when the driver is not accelerating, improving not only fuel consumption but also the effect of engine-braking.”
I really hope it comes down to reliability and that Alonso and Raikkonen have a titanic WDC battle, off the back of a smart Ferrari engine. But Ferrari could push Alonso to be number 1 driver (they pay him $20m, Kimi $10m). Mercedes could have a lot of poles, possibly for Hamilton, but I don’t want them to win after vetoing the weight limit increase (which is ironic now that their car is overweight). They can have 2015 instead, probably for Hamilton.. defeating Button in a powerful McLaren-Honda would be tasty.
I’m not surprised that the engines are more powerful than predicted.. did people forget that this is F1 engineering? In no time (before the engine freeze) they’ll be back up on power and back down to old lap times!
Ferrari are the big question mark. But if I had to guess, they would be marginally better than Renault in terms of performance. The only positive of the Ferrari engine is their cooling I guess.. which could lead to smaller sidepods and less aero drag.
In terms of power output, I believe that Ferrari will be somewhere in the middle. My guess would be the Ferrari V6 producing around 650 bhp (excluding ERS).
Ted Kravitz on his notebook stated that the general consensus in the paddock is that Ferrari has the best solutions for cooling, he said something like “Their radiators are practically the same size as last year which is amazing given the extra cooling requirements this year”.
On the basis of the first test, you’d have to say it looked like the power delivery of the Mercedes was working a lot better than the Ferrari, even if the ultimate power didn’t seem any different.
But I can guarantee that none of the engines were running at their potential output during the first test anyway, so the speeds you saw there were basically meaningless. All of the manufacturers will be coy about what the engines are putting out, so when a Renault guy says that the engine is capable of 600bhp, it’s not going to be a realistic appraisal of what their particular engine is capable of. It may be more, it may be less, he’s just quoted the ‘official’ figure. We can maybe be more confident of the figure quoted for the Mercedes engine, and at the very least we can extrapolate that the engine is more powerful than predicted and the cars will be quite a bit more powerful than the V8s. But how the three engine manufacturers stack up against each other is pretty much anyone’s guess until we see the cars driven at anything approaching their potential.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.