Mercedes Power Unit Hardware & Software

[MrPotatoHead]

What i wanr to know is how does the system know it is aend of straight when the driver is still somping hard on the throttle? Must be GPS right?

Not GPS. See Alonso at Spa this year.

[AJI]

What i wanr to know is how does the system know it is aend of straight when the driver is still somping hard on the throttle? Must be GPS right?

Not GPS. See Alonso at Spa this year.

Super interesting. The car must 'learn' the track by steering inputs, brake/throttle inputs, suspension loadings etc.., to know its track position?

[MrPotatoHead]

What i wanr to know is how does the system know it is aend of straight when the driver is still somping hard on the throttle? Must be GPS right?

Not GPS. See Alonso at Spa this year.

Super interesting. The car must 'learn' the track by steering inputs, brake/throttle inputs, suspension loadings etc.., to know its track position?

Not so much learn as pre programmed from the factory and tweaked on site.

[AJI]

Not GPS. See Alonso at Spa this year.

Super interesting. The car must 'learn' the track by steering inputs, brake/throttle inputs, suspension loadings etc.., to know its track position?

Not so much learn as pre programmed from the factory and tweaked on site.

Great, there goes my sense of awe, once again...
I'd like to think it could adapt by itself, but i guess that'd be a driver aide.
Non standard laps must play havoc with the ERS, and a spin or a SC would be a nightmare scenario...

[gruntguru]

we also see so-called 'lift-and-coast' means instantly switch from K motoring to K generating well before the braking zone

Also interesting to not that K generating is not max during "lift and coast". In fact the period shown is not true "lift and coast", it is a period of ES charging under WOT conditions at near Vmax where the 80 - 100 kW sacrificed will make litlte difference to either velocity or lap time.

[henry]

The driver brake curve deviates very slightly from “off” at the moment the K switches off. So maybe the switch to ES charging at the end of straight can be triggered by the driver with full throttle and a very light application of the brakes.

Of course this looks like publicity material so maybe the curves have been adjusted from their true shape.

[Craigy]

we also see so-called 'lift-and-coast' means instantly switch from K motoring to K generating well before the braking zone

Also interesting to not that K generating is not max during "lift and coast". In fact the period shown is not true "lift and coast", it is a period of ES charging under WOT conditions at near Vmax where the 80 - 100 kW sacrificed will make litlte difference to either velocity or lap time.

I wonder if WOT always = max fuel flow rate. I suspect not.

[PlatinumZealot]

WOT is WOT.
No question mark. Not a question.

[Zynerji]

I believe that drivers should have full control of the power delivery and recovery settings.

In my view, allowing the computer to automatically change schema's for performance gain based upon track position is a driver aid.

[dren]

we also see so-called 'lift-and-coast' means instantly switch from K motoring to K generating well before the braking zone

Also interesting to not that K generating is not max during "lift and coast". In fact the period shown is not true "lift and coast", it is a period of ES charging under WOT conditions at near Vmax where the 80 - 100 kW sacrificed will make litlte difference to either velocity or lap time.

Basically what they were doing back with the original KERS.

[Postmoe]

Not GPS. See Alonso at Spa this year.

Super interesting. The car must 'learn' the track by steering inputs, brake/throttle inputs, suspension loadings etc.., to know its track position?

Not so much learn as pre programmed from the factory and tweaked on site.

Should be AI with no pre-programming, learning track by track. And obviously, with some kind of voice control AND artificial voice over radio messages.

[Webber2011]

we also see so-called 'lift-and-coast' means instantly switch from K motoring to K generating well before the braking zone

Also interesting to not that K generating is not max during "lift and coast". In fact the period shown is not true "lift and coast", it is a period of ES charging under WOT conditions at near Vmax where the 80 - 100 kW sacrificed will make litlte difference to either velocity or lap time.

Basically what they were doing back with the original KERS.

Isn't going back to something like the original KERS one of the proposals for when the new PU rules come into place ?

[godlameroso]

WOT only means max fuel flow @ and above 10,500 rpm. Below that they are below the fuel limit, you would think that means max power would be at 10,500 rpm, I'm pretty sure it's not though. If only someone here knew more or less the region these heads are designed to flow at, I'm guessing ~6,000 - 12,600rpm. I'm also guessing there's an RPM in that range that these engines really don't like to be at, and some compromise has to be made to run the engine to unoptimal speeds to avoid spending too much time in that "bad" RPM range.

[PlatinumZealot]

I believe that drivers should have full control of the power delivery and recovery settings.

In my view, allowing the computer to automatically change schema's for performance gain based upon track position is a driver aid.

Full control by the driver is not practical because of the complex energy transfers but the drivers do control the mode of the system by turning a switch. The mercedes has 7 modes and the Honda has at least 5. It is not clear how many Renault and Ferrari have yet. But yeah, basically the driver turns the mode switch to shift the balance of energy harvesting and deployment strategy. I think that's enough additional work for them in the cockpit. It would take away from racing if they had to control every single energy transfer IMO.

[Tommy Cookers]

'going back to something like the original KERS'

kinetic energy recovery means turning some of the loaded car's speed and only that into electrical and electrochemical energy
I look forward to the implementation of genuine KERS, and to its supervision by the stewards

the present ERSs and all the KERSs that ever scored a point largely tap fuel energy not kinetic energy
so they emulate a large and totally illegal fuel accumulator in effect to evade the fuel rate limits
over limit fuel rate use at lowish speeds would save more laptime than that lost at corresponding high speed fuel saving rate

ok such Rsystems also can save fuel by power diversion, improving ICE efficiency when partial powers are applied to the road