(Mercedes AMG PETRONAS F1 Team)
Mercedes Executive Director (Technical) discusses what the team have learnt from season, what thy can expect from this season and the power unit.
What has been the focal
point of our learning from 2014?
PL: It’s no secret that
reliability let us down on a number of occasions in 2014. Thankfully, over the
course of the season overall, this did not fall in an asymmetric way between
the drivers – or in a costly manner to our Constructors’ Championship ambitions.
But we know we need to up our game. No matter how good things might seem, there
is never a scenario where you can afford to leave points on the table. Making a
car reliable is a long game and a lot of effort has gone in on that side. It’s
not about fixing individual issues but about raising quality across the many
thousands of parts and processes involved.
Speaking of reliability,
more will now be required from gearboxes in terms of durability. How tough a
task is this to achieve?
PL: During the first year
of the new Hybrid formula, there were two notable aspects to the rules
governing the gearbox. First, there was a ‘joker’ available which
permitted teams to change their ratio specification once during the year, which
is now lost. This means teams have to pick their ratios for the entire season
before Melbourne. Many teams took advantage of the ‘joker’ in 2014 to make
performance gains rather than provide an insurance policy – running shorter
gears up until Monza before changing to a longer ratio set for the remainder of
the season. This won’t present an issue, however, as teams are now familiar
enough with the Power Units to set ratios for the season with reasonable
confidence.
The more significant
change, however, is that previously teams had five opportunities per driver,
per season, to change the physical components of the ratios. In effect, this
meant that ratio components could be changed halfway through the six race cycle
life of each gearbox. This option is now gone, which represents a far more significant
change. Teams must now design ratios which will genuinely last six race
distances, which has been a key obstacle to overcome through the winter.
The most obvious change,
visually at least, comes in the form of the nose. What is the theory behind
this change and what else will we see different on the F1 W06 Hybrid?
PL: While it has been
widely quoted that regulations governing the noses of the cars have been
changed with aesthetics in mind, this is actually misleading. The primary
reason for the alteration has been to achieve the original height targeted by
rules introduced for 2014. This was, to a greater or lesser extent, bypassed by
every team last season, as the regulations were not quite tight enough. The
objective behind the regulation itself is one of safety – ensuring
compatibility with the range of different impacts that Formula One cars can
experience. An example would be contact between the nose and a rear tyre, as we
saw when Mark Webber launched into the air at Valencia a few years ago. The
required nose height has been achieved by putting in place a number of
additional constraints concerning the front nose sections.
A by-product has been the
disappearance of some rather unfortunate looking designs as seen in 2014. Our
nose was one of the shortest on the grid in 2014 and, in my opinion at least,
one of the most attractive. It remains as such for 2015, albeit a little lower
to comply with the new regulation. The core concept is to keep the nose as
short as possible, with the mainplane of the wing as far forward of it as
possible. This has produced a ‘clinging on by your fingernails’ kind of
appearance where the wing attaches to the pillars, which is a big challenge to
deliver structurally. Front wing stiffness tests today really do push the
limits of engineering – particularly when coupled with the requirements of the
front impact test.
The other more obvious
visual differences concern the rear wing – which will move to a central, single
pylon configuration for structural and aerodynamic reasons – and the external
front suspension, which is an even more extreme version of the innovative
concept we introduced last year.
And under the covers?
PL: One of the big
challenges of 2014 with the new Power Units was cooling – particularly the
charge air cooling, which was a significant new element. Now in its second year
of evolution, we have been able to go through the analysis loop to find
performance through a better optimised solution – the objective being to find
the best net performance at the full range of temperatures experienced through
a season.
Another technical talking
point of last year was the ban on FRIC, which came around quite quickly and
unexpectedly. The suspension concept in the W05 was built around the presence
of the FRIC system. The W06 suspension system has been designed without FRIC
from the outset, which has presented opportunities to re-optimise in this area.
For all teams – and more
notably drivers – weight was a key consideration in 2014. How will this alter
for 2015?
PL: When the rules were
put together for the new generation of Power Units, it was quite tricky to
estimate what weight would be required to incorporate the new systems into a
car. The number that was picked was quite aggressive – something which became
apparent as the season drew closer. Some teams were content with the previous
limit, while others were finding it very challenging. A 10kg increase was
agreed only by majority vote, which is why there has been a notice period for
the rule to be introduced for 2015. In addition the 2015 tyres are around a
kilo heavier than last year due to improvements to the rear construction, so
the final weight limit is 702kg – an increase overall of 11kg.
As always, it’s a matter
of choosing how best to use the extra weight for the most performance – not
necessarily a chance for the drivers to start eating cakes! Saving weight has
always been central to the sport – creating efficient structures that are
lighter but also stronger and more aerodynamically beneficial. We have put a lot
of work into finding those few percentage points on every single component.
On the topic of safety,
further changes have now been introduced to provide improved driver protection
– talk us through these?
PL: Firstly, the Zylon
anti-intrusion panels on both sides of the survival cell have been extended
upwards to the rim of the cockpit and alongside the driver’s head. This was an
area which was identified as having the potential to be stronger than it has
been in the past and these changes will address that. In certain incidents, it
will certainly be beneficial to the safety of the driver.
Furthermore, in an
additional bid to improve safety, a Virtual Safety Car (VSC) system has been
implemented to ensure drivers slow sufficiently under certain conditions.
This
was successfully trialled during practice sessions towards the end of last
season and has now been introduced fully for 2015. It can be used to neutralise
a race without having to introduce the safety car itself by enforcing a speed
profile to which the drivers must adhere.
This addresses one of the pitfalls of
waved yellow flags. While drivers are expected to slow significantly in such
circumstances – and the stewards will look for throttle lifts accordingly –
what constitutes a ‘lift’ can be subjective. These can be very minor and yield
little speed reduction. Of course, racers being racers, they will always be
inclined to push the boundaries. So, the VSC is a mechanism to manage those
mid-range incidents where it will be much safer to force the drivers to stay
well within the limits of the vehicle.
© Ben Johnston 2015
No comments:
Post a Comment