The F1 Mercedes cars currently have numerous pieces of tech in place in the car to allow it to comply with the new energy efficiency regulations in the sport some of these include: the new compact battery cell, the light but strong carbon composite skins and the new iron carbon engine components that aid efficiency by reducing the engines friction by up to 50%. These are soon to be joined by a new energy recovery system designed to work by charging the battery from the heat produced from the turbo allowing more energy to be used in other ways.
Although these technologies are designed to be used for the F1 cars the team will have to introduce them into their road cars to ensure that they don’t then break the new costing regulations as they will be able to fund the advances from both sides of the company not just from the F1 budget. Mercedes have already tried this method with the oils designed to aid the F1 engine being introduced to the road cars because they work well with the start-stop technology of the road cars and due to the wind tunnel restrictions they have introduced the effective wind tunnel test and sharing process which has already meant the S-Class is the most aero-dynamic car in the class of car.
29 July 2014
