Mercedes have revealed they have changed more parts of the power unit for this year than in any other season since 2014.
A year later than originally scheduled, Formula 1 has finally pressed the reset button on the technical regulations in the hope that this iteration of F1 cars can actually follow each other closely and create more natural wheel-to-wheel racing.
As a result of the new regulation changes, launch season has already seen some extreme-looking sidepods leading to some very tight-shaped Coke bottle designs at the rear.
With space at an absolute premium as teams try and make their 2022 challengers as aerodynamically efficient as possible, Mercedes have given an insight into how the engine has had to be considerably repackaged along with other sacrifices and compromises that have had to be made.
“For 2022, it has been a wide and deep project, and we have changed more parts of the PU for this year than in any season since 2014,” Hywel Thomas, head of the Mercedes engine programme, said at the W13 launch.
“Because it’s been such a significant change, we modified our overall approach to design and development.
“We started earlier and had more points along the journey, where we could experiment with some of our technologies.
“And it wasn’t a case of spreading the same amount of effort over a longer period, it was about having a very high level of activity over a longer period.”
New Mercedes technical director, Mike Elliott, spoke of the wholesale changes from a chassis perspective and revealed that the aero gains have been coming in “big chunks” given that there is now much more room for rapid development at the start of this new era.
“On the chassis side, the changes are huge,” Elliott said.
“We haven’t had a change as big as this one in my career.
“I think there are three aspects to this: first, the way the regulations are constructed is very different, particularly for aerodynamics, and that has a big impact.
“Second, what they are trying to achieve with the aerodynamics means the cars are fundamentally a different shape.
“Third, this is the first time we will have attempted such a big change under a cost cap.
“Engineers love a challenge and therefore it is a fantastic opportunity to do something fresh.
“In the aerodynamic world, normally you are chasing after little bits and pieces, but with such big regulation changes, the gains have been coming in big chunks which is quite satisfying.
“On the flipside, we’ve had a period of success, winning the last eight Constructors’ titles and this is a reset.
“All the teams have started from scratch with the model provided by F1 and you don’t get to carry over the benefits or fix the issues from last year’s car, so everyone began this journey at the same level.
“Getting to the desired aero shapes has meant a complete internal repackaging, right down to the electrical layout and where we fit things like the ECU.
“The suspension has been redesigned to account for the loss of hydraulics and remote springs, now banned in the new regulations.
“Hopefully, you will also see that we have taken another step with how tightly packaged the sidepods and engine cover are. To get to this is not just a shrink-wrapping exercise but requires a huge amount of redesign and simulation to make it work.”
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