While Mercedes tested a new front wing, Ferrari and Honda engine manufacturers tweaked their hybrid systems, hoping for immediate gains… and future ones.
FERRARI ANTICIPATES 2022
The Formula 1 engine is a hybrid because of its dual nature, thermal and electric. It can be hybrid in two ways when it combines parts with different specifications. This is the case with the Ferrari and Honda power units this season.
In Russia, the Scuderia installed a “new” engine on Charles Leclerc’s SF21 car. As modifications are forbidden during the championship, this innovation actually means that the Italian engine manufacturers had only updated part of their engine at the beginning of the 2021 Formula 1 season.
It is known that a V6 hybrid in Formula 1 consists of a petrol V6, a turbocharger, an energy recovery system and a battery. Ferrari started the season with a new combustion engine and an optimised turbocharger. In contrast, the ERS and battery were from 2020.
In Sochi, Ferrari therefore introduced a new “hybrid system” in the words of the team’s press release. In concrete terms, it is assumed that the MGU-H, MGU-K and the battery have been redesigned (rumours suggest a change from 400 volts to 800 volts, which cannot be verified). The engine would gain a handful of horsepower in Russia and no doubt a little more during the following races (there is talk of around ten), when the reliability of the system will have been proven.
If the power benefit is not huge, it is because the introduction of the new hybrid unit is less about gaining horsepower than about gaining experience on the 2022 engine project.
A design for which the engine manufacturers have no room for error. Next year, in fact, the power units will be frozen until 2025, i.e. three years without the possibility of rectifying the situation. After suffering a substantial loss of power on the 2020 V6, Ferrari has certainly made progress this season, but will need to make more significant progress next year if it is to keep up with the other engine manufacturers.
For this reason, the Maranello engineers have chosen the more innovative of the two parallel projects to develop the 2022 power unit. Rather than switching to a separate architecture (as Mercedes and Honda are currently doing), they would have preferred a design that favours a very compact intercooler.
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HONDA ALSO HYBRIDIZED ITS ENGINE
A few days before the Russian Grand Prix, it was revealed that Honda had started the season with the 2020 specification of its battery and updated it at Spa, in Max Verstappen’s car.
The lighter 2021 model of the ‘energy store’ has taken several years to complete. It is based on a new chemical development, as Honda F1 technical director Toyoharu Tanabe explains:
“There were indeed some updates in the past, but the actual cell technology was from 2015. The reason it took so long is that we didn’t have enough experience or know-how to develop a new cell ourselves. So we collaborated with our research and development centre and the team in charge of batteries for production cars.”
The Japanese manufacturer wanted to introduce its new battery this year, before bowing out at the end of the season, for two reasons. Not only to be able to promote it under its own name, but also to rectify any shortcomings before Red Bull takes over.
In simple terms, the battery stores the energy accumulated by the two energy recovery systems, the MGU-K and MGU-H.
According to the diagram published in Appendix 3 of the technical regulations, the battery can send a maximum of 4 MJ per lap to the MGU-K (at a power of 120 kW, the 4 MJ will be “consumed” in about 33 seconds). But it can only receive 2 MJ. To deliver the 4 MJ, it therefore benefits from the contribution of the MGU-H. This plays a triple role: recharging the battery (but only for 2 MJ) and supporting the MGU-K by sending energy directly to it, without passing through the battery (without flow restriction in this case), restarting the turbine at its optimal rotation speed to offer the pilot an immediate response when he applies the accelerator (it is also used as a blowing instrument, for aerodynamic reasons).
The battery consists of a multitude of lithium-ion cells. Making a battery with such a large storage capacity while remaining compact and light (it must weigh between 20 and 25 kg) is a real challenge for the engineers.
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