Photo: YouTube Screenshot
As most of you probably already know by now, Mercedes-AMG Petronas is currently the Big Kahuna in the 2014 season of the Formula 1 championship.
In the past couple of weeks there has been a lot of speculation concerning the main motives behind the way in which the Anglo-German F1 team absolutely obliterated their competitors on the track when it comes to performance, with most of the talk revolving around the engine powering the F1 W05 single-seater.
Officially called “PU106a Hybrid Power Unit”, the powerplant is a 1.6-liter V6 with a rather weird turbocharger and which also makes good use of the kWs developed by an electric motor.
To say that the thingamajig is the result of the new Formula 1 rules would be a huge understatement, especially since, despite all three F1 engine manufacturers following the same rules, the Mercedes-AMG version is quite a bit “more equal than others.”
Some say that there are anywhere between 80 hp and over 100 hp between the innovative PU106a and the Hybrid Power Units developed by Ferrari and Renault, with the Mercedes-powered teams being light years away in terms of performance.
According to the folks at The Axis of Oversteer, the odd split-turbocharger is not the only advantage that the Mercedes-Benz engine has over its rivals, and the performance gap also comes thanks to a clutch-like system that can momentarily decouple the turbine at the rear of the engine from the compressor situated at the front.
What advantage would this engineering witchcraft create, you may ask? Well, ex-Ferrari engineer Claudio Lombardi thinks that decoupling the turbo from the compressor should allow the latter to spin without the added resistance of the turbo when it is driven exclusively by electric power.
This would make the engine – okay, hybrid power unit – have a much more responsive acceleration when exiting a corner, for example. Along with the advantages given by the split-turbocharger solution, it's not wonder that the Mercedes-Benz powerplant is not only the most powerful, but also the most responsive and the most fuel efficient in the current Formula 1 championship.
Officially called “PU106a Hybrid Power Unit”, the powerplant is a 1.6-liter V6 with a rather weird turbocharger and which also makes good use of the kWs developed by an electric motor.
To say that the thingamajig is the result of the new Formula 1 rules would be a huge understatement, especially since, despite all three F1 engine manufacturers following the same rules, the Mercedes-AMG version is quite a bit “more equal than others.”
Some say that there are anywhere between 80 hp and over 100 hp between the innovative PU106a and the Hybrid Power Units developed by Ferrari and Renault, with the Mercedes-powered teams being light years away in terms of performance.
According to the folks at The Axis of Oversteer, the odd split-turbocharger is not the only advantage that the Mercedes-Benz engine has over its rivals, and the performance gap also comes thanks to a clutch-like system that can momentarily decouple the turbine at the rear of the engine from the compressor situated at the front.
What advantage would this engineering witchcraft create, you may ask? Well, ex-Ferrari engineer Claudio Lombardi thinks that decoupling the turbo from the compressor should allow the latter to spin without the added resistance of the turbo when it is driven exclusively by electric power.
This would make the engine – okay, hybrid power unit – have a much more responsive acceleration when exiting a corner, for example. Along with the advantages given by the split-turbocharger solution, it's not wonder that the Mercedes-Benz powerplant is not only the most powerful, but also the most responsive and the most fuel efficient in the current Formula 1 championship.
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