The seventh hybrid season of Formula 1 is reminiscent of the first, as the series has once again become an engine formula. Anyone with Mercedes power drives in the fron and the power unit differences are blatant again.
Since the hybrid technology, the picture changed. Suddenly, aerodynamics was no longer the key, but engine performance. Almost like in the 1960s or 20 years later in the turbo era. In 2014 the power determined the order and Mercedes was vastly superior.
In retrospect, Ferrari team boss Mattia Binotto admits: “In 2014 we had over 80 hp less than Mercedes.” Renault is said to have had 50 hp. Mercedes hit everything on the wall in the first hybrid year, winning 16 out of 19 races. Customers also benefited from this. Williams finished third in the standings, McLaren fifth and Force India sixth.
In the following years, Ferrari and Renault gradually climbed back up. Only Honda didn’t get the same results for a long time. From 2017 at the latest, aerodynamics again determined the ranking. Then the opponents had to recognize that Mercedes was now also building the best chassis. Or was it right with its concept of low vehicle employment. The aerodynamic regulations play into the cards of the Mercedes philosophy because it is becoming increasingly difficult to drive up at the back without stall.
From 2018, the hierarchy on the engine market changed. Suddenly Ferrari took command of the engine. As we have to assume today, with methods that are not quite in line with the rules. According to Toto Wolff, the Ferrari engines were sometimes measured with up to 70 HP more. Renault and Honda had caught up with Mercedes. Renault operations manager Remi Taffin ventured to the statement that the four engines were within 20 HP last season.
That has turned completely upside down this season. After three races, it can already be said that Mercedes with its latest engine specification is vastly superior and Ferrari has slipped into nowhere. Renault and Honda are in the middle of it. The French have consolidated their engine at the 2019 level. Durability was a priority. Honda has found performance and is now on par with Renault. A little worse on a lap, a little better over the race distance. Mercedes justifies the huge leap over the winter with the fact that Ferrari’s power had led to inovations in the engineering office in Brixworth in the past two years. First of all, Mercedes had to assume that Maranello had actually found the magic wand.
How big the differences in performance actually are is still difficult to determine after three races. The teams need the car’s aerodynamic drag values for a GPS analysis. At the beginning of a season, they are always based on rough assumptions. The more data is added, the more precisely this size can be determined and thus the share of engine power in top speed and when accelerating. Red Bull believes that Mercedes wins four tenths per lap on the power passages. Mercedes rates this share rather to one and a half tenth. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. According to initial estimates, Mercedes has 25 HP more than Renault, 30 HP more than Honda and 50 HP more than Ferrari.
At the moment, we can only rely on lap times, best sector values and top speeds from Spielberg and Budapest to prove this thesis. In both cases, we examined the first sector in the qualification trim, because that’s where the power share is greatest. Interestingly, the Hungaroring delivers the more honest result. In Hungary, all cars were traveling with maximum downforce. So the same conditions. In the qualifying session for the first Spielberg race there were considerable differences in the approach of the teams. Red Bull and Ferrari had trimmed their cars for a lot of downforce, Renault and McLaren for less.
Let’s start with the lap times and let’s limit ourselves to the four engine manufacturers. The three Mercedes teams won an average of 0.62 seconds in Spielberg compared to the previous year. In Budapest it is 1.75 seconds. At Renault and Honda, the progress is more modest. The two Renault teams are 0.48 seconds faster on average in Austria and 0.85 seconds faster in Hungary. Honda gained 0.18 seconds on the Red Bull Ring and 0.45 seconds on the Hungaroring. It will be embarrassing for Ferrari. The lap times of Ferrari, Haas and Alfa Romeo are on average slower than 2019. In Spielberg by 0.87 seconds, in Budapest by 0.1 seconds. This is no coincidence, but a clear statement about the contribution of the engine to the lap time.
The misery of the Ferrari teams
If you have too little downforce or too much air resistance, you can somehow solve your problems. Ferrari, Haas and Alfa Romeo, on the other hand, will suffer from engine misery for a long time. A fast redesign of the internal combustion engine is seen as the reason for the blatant drop in performance. It was not until November 2019 that it became apparent that the FIA would control the flow rate of the gasoline more strictly and block other loopholes with a series of technical directives. There was not much time left to react.
The ranking of the power-relevant sections shows just how dramatic Ferrari’s deficit is. Ferrari is generally the last at the top speed. The later the measuring point is on the straight line, the worse. Compared to the customer teams, this speaks for more downforce, but also for more air resistance. This realization also underlines the sector time. The more corners there are in the corresponding power sector, the better it looks for Ferrari. In Budapest, Ferrari achieved fifth fastest time in sector 1 with three corners. In Spielberg only eighth. There is only one curve for two straight lines.
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