Andrew Shovlin details Mercedes\u2019 suspension misstep after \u2018confusing\u2019 European run<\/a><\/p>\nHywel Thomas: God knows how the paddock knows our power levels!<\/p>\n
Appearing alongside Wolff was Mercedes HPP managing director Hywel Thomas, the engineer responsible for overseeing the entire engine programme.<\/p>\n
He revealed that, in the last major regulation change when F1 ditched V8s for the hybrid V6s, he believed Mercedes was in a state of peril ahead of the 2014 season; fears that turned out to be completely unfounded as the engine proved the class of the field.<\/p>\n
Joking that he feels \u201creally similar\u201d about his engine\u2019s prospects for 2026, he admitted that there is rarely an off-season in which he believes Mercedes has found enough power and reliability and that \u201ceverything isn\u2019t good enough\u201d.<\/p>\n
But, more positively, he reckons the three pre-season tests \u2013 one in Barcelona and two in Bahrain \u2013 will be sufficient to iron out any kinks before the racing season begins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s enough for our preparation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of investment over the years in dynos, in the way that we run in the factory, even virtual running, and to get yourself prepared.<\/p>\n
\u201cGetting that first test will be important to shake it all down, because there\u2019s so much interaction, so much new\u2026 car, tyres, everything. So I think that\u2019s probably long enough to keep us going.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pecking order, we never think we\u2019ve got enough power, we never think we\u2019ve got reliability, and we never think we\u2019re the best at putting that down on the track.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you always think you\u2019re a bit behind and you\u2019re always pushing to get that extra bit, I don\u2019t think that\u2019s a bad thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Addressing the rumours of Mercedes being a step ahead, he said, \u201cQuite frankly, I don\u2019t know how much power we\u2019re going to get to the first race, so God knows how the rest of the paddock knows what we\u2019re getting there!\u201d<\/p>\n
But Thomas did reveal that the nature of the regulation changes opens the door for someone to steal a march on the rest of the field.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlways possible. Definitely always possible,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough the regulation set was put together in a way to try to avoid that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo there are some constraints on there that do constrain you to certain ways of doing things. So if that\u2019s gone well, it\u2019s less likely that someone\u2019s going to steal a march.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut who\u2019s to say someone hasn\u2019t found a loophole, hasn\u2019t found the amazing thing that nobody else has?\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked about the factors that will differentiate the five power unit manufacturers from each other this year, and whether it\u2019s as simple as down to just how aggressive each manufacturer has dared to be while striving for reliability, Thomas said that it will play a part.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the project was very much of our own building,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe elements all existed, so you\u2019re talking about putting incredible stretch targets on yourself and taking some leaps and doing that.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it was all created by ourselves. It wasn\u2019t unlike the fuel, where the sport\u2019s gone, \u2018You\u2019ve got to do this\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, it was more, \u2018How are we going to pull this together? What should our part targets be, and where should we be investing our cash?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause, at the same time, we\u2019ve been added into a PU cost cap, so that\u2019s another competitive element that all of a sudden appears.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhere advantages come from, I think there are probably three elements, I\u2019d say. Crank power is always going to be. We love crank power, and that\u2019s going to be one of them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe efficiency of the electrical system, the more efficient you are with your electrical system, the more time you\u2019re going to be able to keep it on, which means you\u2019re going quicker.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I think the third element is, how does it all work together? How do you make that work together? How do you transiently get, use all that energy? How do you transiently use the power? How do you interact with the car, a completely new car?<\/p>\n
\u201cHow do you interact with the driver? The driver is going to be able to do one straight incredibly quickly, if they really want to, but they\u2019ll be knackered for the rest of the lap, so they can\u2019t do that even if they want to.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo that strategic element and working out where you use all of this, I think, is that there\u2019s a big part of that too.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, while the way the racing will play out requires a big change in thinking from the driver and team in terms of execution, the actual overhaul of the regulations hasn\u2019t been as revolutionary as the one introduced in 2014.<\/p>\n
\u201cI remember back to when we were first talking about those regulations around 2012\/2013, you looked at it, and you thought, \u2018Oh, my God, there\u2019s stuff in here that we\u2019re genuinely inventing\u2019,\u201d Thomas laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat electric turbo, running an electric motor at over 100,000 rpm, these things just didn\u2019t exist, and we were having to invent that stuff. What a push and what an incredible project. Plenty of dips in the road, but that was incredibly difficult from a hardware point of view.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think this 2026 regulation set, any element within it, you can take a battery, we can take the electric motor of 350 kilowatts, they exist.<\/p>\n
\u201cOkay, they don\u2019t exist in an F1 framework. They don\u2019t exist in the right size, the right shape, but they do exist. So, in that way, this regulation set doesn\u2019t feel as big.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut what is going to definitely change with this regulation set is the interaction with the driver. Because of the electrical aspects of it, we are generally going to be slightly energy-limited.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it\u2019s going to be working with the driver to make sure they\u2019ve got the right energy at the right time to defend, to attack, to go as quickly as they can.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s definitely going to need some real thought from the driver and from the engineers around them to understand how to go racing and how to do this the right way. I think that is a bigger challenge than the one we faced in a similar area around 2013\/2014.\u201d<\/p>\n
Read Next:\u00a0Max Verstappen \u2018is motorsport\u2019 as Red Bull boss hails single-minded approach<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The rumour mill suggests Mercedes will have the power unit to beat at the start of the F1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":394909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[573],"tags":[64,63,817,813,816,818,945,44,17165,85,4703],"class_list":["post-394908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-formula-1","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-f1","tag-formula-1","tag-formula1","tag-home-page","tag-mercedes","tag-news","tag-popular","tag-sports","tag-toto-wolff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/394909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}