What appears to be the little engine that could - or the engine of engines in this year's Formula 1 championship if all goes to plan – is still pretty much a secret for some F1 fans out there, with much of its innovative parts being completely unknown.
To somewhat rectify this, the peeps in charge of the official Mercedes-AMG YouTube channel decided to do a little 3d presentation of the new powerplant which, by the way, is no longer called and engine.
The “hybrid power unit”, as Mercedes-AMG engineers affectionately call it, represents an entirely new design for both Formula 1 and motorsport in general.
At base, we are talking about a turbocharged, 1.6-liter hybrid engine with direct injection, but the way that all its distinctive parts work together could very well be presented as witchcraft for an engineer from a few decades ago.
Internally codenamed PU106A Hybrid, the new powerplant is said to develop about 740-750 hp in total, with 160 hp coming just from the ERS (Energy Recovery System) alone, which works together with both the V6 internal combustion engine and the large-sized turbocharge that is fitted to it.
At least in the testing phase at Jerez and Bahrain in the last few weeks, the new Mercedes-Benz power unit has proved to be the most powerful and one if not the most reliable, as Mercedes-Benz-powered cars logged the most amount of trouble-free mileage.
With the 2014 Formula 1 Championship to start this weekend in Melbourne, we can't wait to see if the pre-season predictions about the Mercedes-AMG Petronas team come true, as the race is also expected to feature a lot of DNF cars because of unpredictable reliability.
Alex handled his first real steering wheel at the age of five (on a field) and started practicing "Scandinavian Flicks" at 14 (on non-public gravel roads). Following his time at the University of Journalism, he landed his first real job at the local franchise of Top Gear magazine a few years before Mircea (Panait). Not long after, Alex entered the New Media realm with the autoevolution.com project. Full profile
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