Mercedes F1 has revealed the impact on the F1 power unit when the F1 2022 car bounced, saying it damaged the engine.
In the early stages of the 2022 F1 season, Mercedes F1 had an excessive overtaking problem with the W13 rattling heavily on the straights.
With the return of ground effect this year, F1 teams have been looking to run their cars as close to the ground as possible to generate as much downforce as possible.
Porpassing has been a headache for Mercedes F1, failing to consistently compete at the front of the field for the first time in the turbo-hybrid era.
Also, according to F1 team principal Toto Wolff, the fact that F1 power unit development was frozen just before the start of the season has only complicated how to deal with the rebound situation.
“We had some swings with the power unit at the start of the season. I didn’t like some aspects of the power unit’s distribution and driveability,” said Wolff.
“While we were in an icy environment, Hywel Thomas and the team really improved their performance and the team really improved their performance and they were able to deal with the challenging environment of a bouncing car that breaks the engine. He was very reliable.”
“Mid to late season, the engine performance has been good.”
Mercedes F1 maintained high reliability throughout the season and the only major failure during the race was Lewis Hamilton’s car at the last Abu Dhabi F1 GP.
Thomas said maintaining engine reliability is a priority for the team. This was a different line of thinking from that of Ferrari, which claimed to prefer fast but unreliable cars.
Hywel Thomas echoed Toto Vorg’s comments about the damage caused to F1 engines by the ricochet.
“I remember coming back from Bahrain and saying, ‘How are you going to do that? How are you going to put the performance in the car on our side?'” said Hywel Thomas.
“He was like, ‘Look, we’re going to have to make a small-scale profit.’ At the same time, reliability cannot be compromised.”
“At that point in the season it became clear that the engine was really pounding.”
“When Toto Wolff came to Brixworth and saw some parts off the racing engine, he was very surprised to see how hard the underside of the engine hit the ground.
“I think Lewis and George (Russell) looked a little uncomfortable getting out of the car, but the PU was pretty much the same.”
.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1)