Mercedes engine boss Hywel Thomas said the team’s power unit has gone from having “little rearrangements” to something which has been a “massive terror” for them in developing this year’s car.
The 2022 regulations have been widely described as being some of the biggest car changes in Formula 1 history, with a completely different rule set to work towards as the sport designed a specification of car with the specific aim of trying to improve the racing on show.
The power unit has been one of the areas less affected by the regulation changes in the grander scale of the new rules, but Thomas explained that there have still been wholesale changes made – particularly with the shape of how it fits in the car.
Another significant element is how the teams are incorporating the new E10 fuel, made with 10% ethanol, which has caused something of a headache in trying to make up the slight power deficit that comes with the more sustainable fuel mix.
But topping it all off, every power unit manufacturer needs to get their products in as strong a place as possible because, once the season starts, an engine freeze is set to be introduced in the sport that will halt their development until the new engine formula is introduced, which is scheduled for the 2026 season.
With that in mind, in the words of Mercedes chief technical officer James Allison: “All the goodness that you can possibly pack into it has to be packed into it now, or forever hold your peace.”
Thomas, managing director of Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrains division, spoke about how the team’s previous designs had effectively been made redundant in some ways compared to what they have in front of them now.
“There’s just so much great work, I think, done by the team, especially the way that it sits within the car,” Thomas said in an explanatory video on Mercedes’ YouTube channel, talking through the biggest changes on the car for 2022.
“We all know how much work’s gone in to get it into the car. The front of engine [is] just completely different. I guess over the years, we kind of talk about the front of engine, but almost every year, we’re rearranging it.
“But this wasn’t a little rearrangement. This has been a massive terror, but it’s to make it look like that, isn’t it? So we all understand.
“And [with the] exhausts, again, I guess it’s another one of those items – you kind of look at it every year, and we tweak it here, we tweak it there. [But] what’s under there is completely, completely different.”
Keyword: Mercedes describe ‘massive terror’ of engine revamp