Mercedes is very close to achieving a maximum power of 1000 HP with their dominant Formula 1 power unit, the head of their F1 engine department Andy Cowell confirmed.
Mercedes has been the dominant team in the F1 championship since the beginning of the new hybrid turbo-era 2014, mainly thanks to the dominant power unit and its integration into the whole package.
Energy recovery system can deliver up to 163 HP, meaning that for a total of 1 000 HP the 1,6-liter V6 the engine needs to have at least 837 HP.
Before the 2017 F1 season even started, Renault’s Cyril Abiteboul rightly concluded that even the strongest engines in Formula 1 2017 will not have 1000 HP, but Mercedes says they are very close to that number before the start of the new season.
“We’re close,” Cowell told Autosport.
“I’m sure this will happen at some point.”
Except for its power, the Mercedes engine also stands out with virtually perfect reliability in F1 2017., as the drivers who used them have driven the most miles of all the cars in this year’s championship.
Also, their engines are extremely efficient, so this year they achieved astonishing efficiency of 50% on dynamometer, which is an improvement over the initial 44% in 2014.
This is especially important because of the limited amount of fuel that can be used in the race (105 kg) but also the limited fuel flow at every moment (100 kg/h).
Cowell says the thermal performance of 50% could be transferred on the track as early as next year.
“The answer is at the beginning of next year. We need to see how the power unit will progress in the winter, and we have to balance with the rest of the car.”
“The engines are running on the dynamometer, that’s one thing, and when you go round the lap, there’s work to improve car technology in order to improve both aerodynamics and power unit performance.”
“We’ll see how it all works out.”
Mercedes is the only manufacturer who has been able to finish the 2017 F1 season with up to four of each of the six elements of the power unit (except for a deliberate change in Hamilton’s car in Brazil) with all six cars using their engines, which will be extremely important next year when each driver will have only three engines.