Obviously peak power can't exceed max ICE (whatever it is) + 120kW, what I think WB is hinting at (I hope...) is that, the more power it's possible to extract via turbine and then MGUH, the more power is available as average for the lap.
If for instance the MGUH can only provide a recovery rate just enough to "fill" the 4MJ the MGUK can take every lap from ES, then the powertrain will provide max ICE + 120kW for 33s or so of acceleration (conveniently distributed out of corners and up to a certain speed/gear) while for rest of lap power will basically come from ICE alone without contribution from MGUK.
If MGUH on the contrary can provide more, exceeding easily the 4MJ of total recovery per lap, then that's all extra power going directly from MGUH to MGUK and available outside of the "normal" 33s that can be filled by the original 4MJ.
Notice, I simplified the strategy to illustrate the basic concept, in reality it's likely that even just the 4MJ will be split, most to be used at full 120kW rate in acceleration out of corners till a given speed, and part used, at reduced rate, in the high speed range (so to afford using more drag, hence hopefully downforce, while still reaching a convenient peak speed).
Still these are minor details of optimization, also based on different tracks' layout and characteristics, that teams will certainly take plenty of care of but that don't change the fundamental reasoning, the more power the MGUH produces, the more extra power is available for all the (many) parts of the lap where the MGUK can't normally work at full 120kW due to lack of energy.
So albeit the limitation on peak power is insurmountable, in order to have that peak available for the whole full throttle time, we are talking about 6+ MJ of energy that needs to be recovered every lap (without considering the energy the MGUH itself will use to spin up the turbo assembly), braking recovery only gives 2 at best (and more often than not less as I've shown before), the 4+ remaining have to come from MGUH (=from exhaust gasses via turbine) so there's plenty of margin of improvement.
The more power you can get from that, the closer you get to that ideal maximum amount which is to have max ICE + 120kW for the whole full throttle time.
ringo wrote:
89kW is ok, so maybe we can check back on our power estimates.
I know I'm demanding a giant mental effort here, but do you think we can safely approximate that to 90kW?
Actually 90 kW is likely the figure Bruno was given, he then just converted it to hp, rounding to next "nice" integer, for the general audience.
