Breaking news
Formula 1
Three engines per year rule "no new science" - Mercedes
Formula 1's move to three engines for the full season in 2018 will not require any "new science", says Mercedes' engine chief.
Lawrence Barretto Matt Beer
Edited: Jan 25, 2018, 11:45 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
This year drivers will incur grid penalties as soon as they use more than three internal combustion engines, MGU-Hs or turbochargers, rather than the previous four.
Andy Cowell, head of the High Performance Powertrains arm that produces the engines Mercedes has used to win the last four F1 titles, said teams should not find the latest change taxing as it simply continues the trend begun with 2004's one-engine-per-weekend rule.
"The move to the three engines means that you need to do seven races with each power unit, rather than five," Cowell told Motorsport.com.
"That's a reasonable step forward but for the last 10 years every single engine engineer has had a progressively increasing life requirement from everything that he or she's been working on, and so it's not a new science, it's just a different number.
"We had qualifying engines when they were permitted but we then said no that's ridiculous to have a qualifying engine and then fit a race engine, it's going to be the same spec of engine throughout a race weekend. That was the first time.
"That's the point where you have to balance off qualifying performance and race durability.
"Then we said it was two race weekends and then we said it's eight engines per driver and then we said it's five power units per driver, because KERS was completely free, and it's all done for cost."
The electronic elements of the power unit will be further restricted, with only two MGU-Ks, control electronics and energy stores allowed per driver in the season.
"It's attention to detail on those bits," said Cowell.
"You will see what's been consumed by the drivers this year - the energy store and the control electronics are the lowest numbers out of all the teams. So that's probably their easiest area to extend the life.
"Often with electrical components, as long as you've not got high-temperature components, they will last so long as the mechanical design of the support of all the electronic components is robust.
"So if you've managed the vibration mounting, then those parts will last a long time."
Cowell is certain the 2018 engines will be at least as powerful as last year's versions despite the increasing lifespan.
"It's what the engineers have completely accustomed to managing and our ambition is always to not compromise our qualifying pace, nor our race pace but not have a DNF or need a grid penalty," he added.
"In some areas it's a balance between raw power and life, in other areas it's battle between raw power and mass."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Alonso admits interest in NASCAR test
Next article Force India, Sauber withdraw EU complaint against F1
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Lawrence Barretto
Sirotkin, Stroll to have two race engineers each
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sirotkin, Stroll to have two race engineers each
Hamilton "sacrifice" saved Mercedes an hour of testing
Formula 1
Formula 1
Hamilton "sacrifice" saved Mercedes an hour of testing
Kubica regrets being "too honest" about driving limitations
Formula 1
Formula 1
Kubica regrets being "too honest" about driving limitations
More from
Mercedes
Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
12 h
Charles Leclerc penalised for Liam Lawson clash; Kimi Antonelli and Oliver Bearman also punished after F1 Brazilian GP
Kimi Antonelli: "Weird" spin and car instability cost F1 Brazilian GP win
Formula 1
Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
13 h
Kimi Antonelli: "Weird" spin and car instability cost F1 Brazilian GP win
Latest news
Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
46 min
Who slept worst last night: Fernando Alonso
Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Qatar GP
1 h
Carlos Ezpeleta: Qatar GP “noise” left MotoGP unnecessarily exposed
Oscar Piastri splits from Mark Webber management
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Sao Paulo GP
1 h
Oscar Piastri splits from Mark Webber management
WEC drivers question lack of full-course yellow after heavy Monza crash
WEC
WEC WEC
Monza
3 h
WEC drivers question lack of full-course yellow after heavy Monza crash
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe