Power play

Incremental development is the philosophy in F1, and Mercedes has proved it’s at the top of the engine game

- STEWART MITCHELL

Mercedes’ seemingly insurmountable power unit output advantage over the competition at the beginning of the current hybrid era has eroded with each passing year of the current regulations, and the gap between each power unit has narrowed. However, Mercedes remains at the top of the pack in 2020, with only Honda power in the back of the Red Bull RB16 piloted by Max Verstappen seeming to disturb the two black arrows on outright pace on track.

By combining live GPS data with sector time and lap time information with the FOM data streams off each car, teams can work out how much power another car is using in each sector, and therefore the energy strategy, and even the efficiency of the competitions’ hybrid systems. Using such analysis, it is hypothesised there is a 25bhp delta between the best of the field and the worst.

There were no significant changes to the Formula 1 power unit regulations for 2020. But, in early June 2020, Formula 1 management froze development, restricting the four-engine manufacturers to a certain number of specifications of internal combustion engine and hybrid elements for the remainder of the current power unit period, ending in 2025.

The regulation revisions stated that for 2020 no changes are allowed to any component within the internal combustion engine, turbocharger, MGU-H, fuel or oil, and only one change is permitted to any of these parts for the 2021 season. Additionally, only one specification change to the MGU-K, control electronics package and energy store is allowed between the start of the 2020 season and end of the 2021 season.

Dyno testing