2016 Mercedes AMG Petronas F1 Team - Mercedes

[Phil]

No, from what i understand, the engines are sealed. Use it and it cant be altered (without penalty). Given you can use 5 engines per season, it's up to the team to allocate them wisely so that they can also use the available tokens to upgrade it. E.g. you wouldnt use 5 engines for the first 5 races because you will no longer be able to carry out updates. You use one for as long as you can, then plan your token usage on the unused unsealed engines.

This is pretty much in line with what AMuS reports. According to the article there from this weekend, Mercedes have now got 6 tokens left. It is uncertain of those 6 will be used and when. When they will, Nico will profit, but Hamilton (and the team) think having fresher and more engines will offset that. They dont believe those 6 tokens will yield a huge advantage (at this point).

[dans79]

No, from what i understand, the engines are sealed. Use it and it cant be altered (without penalty).

I thought it was the individual components that where sealed, hence the reasons they carry individual penalties.

[nevill3]

The tokens may be used to upgrade the two components that Hamilton has only used three of so far......Control electrics and energy store.

[turbof1]

No, from what i understand, the engines are sealed. Use it and it cant be altered (without penalty).

I thought it was the individual components that where sealed, hence the reasons they carry individual penalties.

It depends.
-You have the homologated components (ICE, TC, MGU-K, MGU-H, ES & CE) which you can only have 6 penalty-free allocations of each component. Any change, no matter how small, to any part of these components, requires a new allocation to be inserted. But only of that component! So a for instance a change to the TC will only require a new allocation of the TC, not the whole PU. These pieces are interchangeable.
-However, there are also none-homologated components. These are mostly auxilliary things, like pumps, hydraulics, support, etc. These component have unlimited allocations and can be changed any time. However, some of these none-homologated pieces do require useage of tokens to change specification.

The tokens may be used to upgrade the two components that Hamilton has only used three of so far......Control electrics and energy store.

In theory possible but unlikely given these usually do not bring any performance advantage. My guess is that they are used on none-homologated components which require tokens.

[djones]

If I was Hamilton, I'd actually quite like to be on a slightly lesser spec engine.

It would mentally destroy Rosberg losing. And in every interview, I'd point out he has the faster car.

On a more serious note.....

If Rosberg gets a slightly more powerful engine, he still has less of them. So it might be 5% more powerful. But Hamilton can run his engines 5% harder.

[basti313]

If I was Hamilton, I'd actually quite like to be on a slightly lesser spec engine.

It would mentally destroy Rosberg losing. And in every interview, I'd point out he has the faster car.

On a more serious note.....

If Rosberg gets a slightly more powerful engine, he still has less of them. So it might be 5% more powerful. But Hamilton can run his engines 5% harder.

True. The benefit of running the engine harder should be better than a few tokens for the last races and engine saving.
Plus Monza last year...Ham has three on track tested engines, while Ros might face a situation like last year with a "dead on arrival" engine.

[Sevach]

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... rg-810810/

It sounds like those 6 tokens will go unused, but Mercedes is leaving it's options open.

Hamilton won't take a penalty for an eventual evolved engine.

[diego.liv]

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... rg-810810/

It sounds like those 6 tokens will go unused, but Mercedes is leaving it's options open.

Hamilton won't take a penalty for an eventual evolved engine.

I don't see it such a big dilemma: IF the possible upgrade comes in Japan, Lewis would have had to do Belgium, Italy, Malaysia and Singapore, whilst Rosberg could have use his current 4th ICE and the 3rd one as strong back up (less stressed than Lewis' allocations), maybe 3rd for Singapore only. Everyone get the 5th upgraded.
Reliability concerns or whatsoever made Merc/Lewis to decide for 3 new ICEs in Belgium, not so much controversy. And Lewis can also use the possible upgraded one, not such a problem to star 11th/12th while everyone else has lost focus on 2016 championship

[adrianjordan]

http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/merce ... rg-810810/

It sounds like those 6 tokens will go unused, but Mercedes is leaving it's options open.

Hamilton won't take a penalty for an eventual evolved engine.

I don't see it such a big dilemma: IF the possible upgrade comes in Japan, Lewis would have had to do Belgium, Italy, Malaysia and Singapore, whilst Rosberg could have use his current 4th ICE and the 3rd one as strong back up (less stressed than Lewis' allocations), maybe 3rd for Singapore only. Everyone get the 5th upgraded.
Reliability concerns or whatsoever made Merc/Lewis to decide for 3 new ICEs in Belgium, not so much controversy. And Lewis can also use the possible upgraded one, not such a problem to star 11th/12th while everyone else has lost focus on 2016 championship

No he can't use any more new engines (ie: upgraded engines) without incurring further penalties.

[Moose]

No he can't use any more new engines (ie: upgraded engines) without incurring further penalties.

Right, I believe the point being made though is that if they found 6 points worth of upgrades that were so worth it that they should give him one, it's likely that he would only start 11th/12th, not at the back, since those upgrades would likely only affect one of the 5 engine components. That said, starting 11th is likely more of a penalty than starting 1st with an engine that's 10bhp down on your competitors, especially when he's in a situation now where he can run his existing engines ragged.

[carisi2k]

On the other hand on the ROS:RIC comparison you can see, that both cars are equal in fast and mid speed corners.

Yes, because that is where RBR's High down force set up is beneficial.

You can break the cars in to 3 general areas.

1. slow speed - The car is dependent on mechanical grip/tires and chassis compliance. RBR is behind here, not by much but they are still behind. The reason Lewis can break late is because the car has good mechanical grip.
2. mid speed - Down-force is king here, because, the cars still have more power than it can actually utilize. RBR is focusing solely on this point, as you would expect since this is the teams strength and has been for years.
3. high speed. You are now into the realm of low drag and max power being important. RBR is behind here as well, as can be seen by them being down 8-9 kph on the long straits. The extra down-force from #2 hurts them here, but this has been the team philosophy since the v8 era.

Apparently Mercedes have been using a hydraulic active suspension at the front. Maybe this could explain the mechanical grip advantage Mercedes has.

[Mark4211]

Annotating wheel adjustments: Onboard pole position lap - Singapore 2016
https://streamable.com/twj8

[Mark4211]

Annotated wheel adjustments: Pole position lap - Malaysia 2016
https://vimeo.com/185127214

[GoranF1]

Does Hamilton need new PU(penalty)?

[Cold Fussion]

He took what 3 new units are Spa so I would expect he'd be fine to the end of the season. He should really take a chill pill from airing his conspiracy theories to whoever will listen though.