(Renault Sport F1)
Formula One returns to on track action this weekend at the Belgian Grand Prix at the legendary Spa Francorchamps and is one of two extremely high speed circuits in succession with the Italian Grand Prix coming up in Monza in September.
Renault head to the Belgian Grand Prix having taken victory last time out at the Hungarian Grand Prix when Daniel Ricciardo took his second victory of the season following his maiden Grand Prix win at the Canadian Grand Prix in Montreal earlier this season.
Infiniti Red Bull Racing has stated that they believe that they won't be in a position to take another victory until the Singapore Grand Prix in September.
Speaking about this weekend's Grand Prix in Belgium where Red Bull Racing's Sebastian Vettel took victroy last season Renault Sport F1's Head of Track Operations commented:
'It’s fair to say that Spa is the hardest circuit of the year for the Power Units. There are long periods of wide open throttle, sweeping, high speed corners, hard stops and several important changes of altitude. Any one of these factors would be taxing for the new units, but the combination over one awesome 7km lap is enough to make even the hardiest engineer nervous.
The lap proper starts on the climb from La Source to Les Combes. The driver will put his foot firmly on the throttle and will not lift for around 25secs until he reaches the top of the hill at Les Combes. It’s the longest period of wide open throttle on the calendar, more than 20 times the length of a soccer pitch, and the ICE will be stressed to its absolute maximum at this point. But it’s not just the length of this straight, it’s also the changes in altitude that will load the internals both laterally and vertically. At the highest point the circuit rises to more than 600m and the turbo will be rotating at close to its limit; over 100,000rpm or almost 2,000 revs per second! We’ve had the experience of this relatively high altitude in Austria and can afford to be a bit more aggressive here so rotational speeds could be even higher.
After the braking point for Les Combes the driver will go into sector two, which switches the onus to the ERS and energy recovery. The MGU-H will continue to recover energy through the high-speed flowing corners such as Pouhon and Fagnes, and will feed this to the MGU-K and ICE on the next period of throttle through Blanchimont.
The best opportunity for the MGU-K will be the Bus Stop chicane, which the driver approaches at over 300kph and brakes down to just 75kph. The lap is long, and fuel consumption correspondingly high, so these opportunities are manna from heaven to bring everything down into the 100kg allowed limit for the race. We may also practice overloading the ICE to further increase electrical power. This is where we inject slightly more fuel than necessary into the ICE to produce more overall power, which in turn allows the MGU-K and MGU-H to recover more energy to recharge the battery.
While we know that Spa will be a big test for the Power Unit, we know the circuit well and our preparations have been thorough. We’ll go there ready to attack and take advantage of any opportunity.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
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