Ferrari power unit: why MGU-K failed on Nico Hulkenberg's Haas VF-23 car in Australia

Nico Hulkenberg in Baku will have to mount a new MGU-K on the second Ferrari power unit 066-7, which was introduced in Australia. The German driver will therefore have to use the third motor generator which recharges the kinetic energy during the release phase, the last one before having to take a penalty on the starting grid.

As we recall, in the Australian Grand Prix, Nico Hulkenberg finished the race in seventh place with the Haas VF-23, gaining his first points with the United States team led by Gunther Steiner, but was unable to rejoin parc fermé on the return lap because he had to park his car on the side of the track due to the failure of the MGU-K.

The failure has led to some concerns among Ferrari’s engineers, since the Maranello team’s power unit was expected to be safe from technical issues after the four failures that occurred last year on Haas cars and not only.

A very thorough investigation into the cause that would have led to Nico Hulkenberg’s stop at the end of the Melbourne race, the first with the new component, was launched in Maranello. A situation that triggered a real alarm in the engine reliability area: the results have brought out a major aspect in the life of the power units, especially if the Grands Prix in the future could have a matrix similar to that of Australia with possible interruptions due to the red flag.

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The power units that were homologated by the FIA last year and which will be used until the end of the 2025 Formula 1 championship are very delicate and need to follow precise strategies to function perfectly, otherwise there is the risk of undermining their life cycle with sudden reliability problems.

Nico Hulkenberg’s MGU-K allegedly broke because it went outside the correct operating window in terms of temperatures. Each component of the hybrid system has its own cooling system which must undergo specific work cycles to ensure the expected life of the individual parts.

The topic may seem simple, but the matter is in fact very complicated: let’s say that each power unit has been designed to theoretically last seven race weekends. Each appointment includes free practice sessions, qualifying and the race, if the format has not been revised based on the Sprint Race weekend, as will be the case in Baku in the next round of the 2023 Formula 1 campaign.

Well, every ignition and every engine shutdown must undergo a series of procedures that have to be performed with painstaking care in compliance with the times and temperatures of use. The way in which the crazy Australian GP in Melbourne unfolded, with three red flags and as many restarts, has put the power units of the single-seaters in serious difficulty, because they were subjected to sudden cooling and heating that were not foreseen and, above all, cannot be anticipated.

The individual components, in search of maximum performance, are extremely tight, with minimum tolerances, but it is enough not to respect one of the procedures envisaged to put an element of the power unit at risk.

The Australian race with sudden interruptions and restarts dictated by the race direction may have contributed to sending Hulkenberg’s MGU-K into a failure if the Haas mechanics and technicians were unable to comply with the correct steps. In short, the question seems complex and whoever manages the GP will also have to take into account these aspects which may seem secondary, but which could have an important weight especially in the budget cap era.