Managing Director of Mercedes-AMG Petronas High Performance Powertrains Andy Cowell is content that Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport can become the best on all technicalities with their W10 that can propel them to their sixth successive championship success in the 2019 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
The Brackley-based unveiled their challenger for this season on Wednesday 13 February at Silverstone as part of their shakedown run.
Cowell gave an insight on the changes to Mercedes‘ power unit, considering the changes to the technical regulations for this year.
“We’ve made changes to the cooling architecture of the Power Unit, which hopefully provide aerodynamic benefit on the car and also provide efficiency benefit on the Power Unit – so, hopefully a win on both the chassis and on the Power Unit,” Cowell said.
“Right at the heart of the Power Unit is the conversion of fuel into heat release in the combustion chamber and useful work out of the crankshaft. We have made steps on the combustion efficiency and on the ERS system.
“The marriage between the turbocharger assembly with the MGU-H, the inverter, the cells and the MGU-K: that whole system is now capable of operating more efficiently and helping with energy deployment through a race.”
Credit: Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1, Silverstone Valtteri Bottas, Shakedown
Petronas have played a huge part in helping Mercedes build up the team’s car performance and reliability since the German’s outfit takeover from Brawn GP in the 2010 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.
“The fuel is right at the heart of the combustion and making sure that the chemical composition and the thermodynamic architecture of the Power Unit are working together exceptionally well is key to thermal efficiency,” Cowell mentioned.
“Petronas have continued to work well with our thermodynamic engineers, we’ve run many candidates on the single cylinder and on the V6 engine to derive a new fuel for 2019.
“Petronas also provide the lubricants for our car which play two roles: to make sure that components don’t contact, it’s key that there is an oil film between highly loaded components both for reliability and for friction reduction.
“If you can keep components apart the friction is lower, and the wear is lower, but the lubricant also provides cooling within the engine. It’s a critical element of the engine, it’s the lifeblood of the engine for its survival.”
A change in the technical regulations is the maximum fuel allowance for the races. This has increased from 105kg in 2018 to 110kg for this year.
“If you have got an efficient engine with efficient aerodynamics and you are prepared to do a little bit of lift and coasting, then you have the opportunity to start the race at less than 110kg,” Cowell explained.
“For every 5kg of weight you save, it’s about two tenths of a second a lap quicker, so there is a natural reward to starting the race a little bit lighter.
There is still a competitive edge from making an efficient car – both Power Unit and aerodynamics – and racing smartly to make sure that you have good pace at the start of the race as well as through the race.”
