2018 Canadian Grand Prix, Montreal June 8-10

[turbof1]

The real talking point here is that Mercedes are confident enough that the PU1 units will all be able to do an extra event over and above the expected "life" of the units.

It actually isn't. Most of the components have to do 7 race weekends...

True, but it is common to change the first PU before the average time because it has to do all the FP and races whist the second and third will have an old PU's to help them do the FP's. So I guess it is not optimal to have one PU for 7 races but instead have the first PU for less races (lets say 6) then the other two for 7/8 races each but resting during all the FP. I think the first PU of the season is always the one with most mileage if it doesn't break.

I remember a tweet last year with the mileage of the first Ferrari PU and with was unbelievable, probably because it did so many FP after introducing the second.

However, you can just the future FP mileage of the old PU earlier for the race mileage, using the new PU for the substracted FP time because you saved mileage on it by introducing it one race later? It just means you have to reshuffle a bit, but eventually you can get back to the same planned mileage on each PU before introducing the 3th. The reason why you they normally introduce a new PU at Canada is b/c these PUs are worn a bit and you need the power here. Conversively, if we had more ordinary circuits for this and next race, and Canada would be the 9th event, you'd see the manufacturers prefering to delay the second PU to Canada. Of course you can't endlessly delay the second PU introduction, but I think that is reasonable.

[djones]

I guess from Hamilton's point of view, at least he was cruising in Spain and Monaco. That must have saved a good percentage of 'maximum power' allocation.

[dans79]

IF i had to guess, I'd bet they found a QA issue during assembly of the units. The announcement seems far to late to be an issue found on the test bench.

Tinfoil time:
Since Ferrari's "Dual" ES was deemed legal, they are implementing one themselves, as they see a benefit.

[Big Mangalhit]

However, you can just the future FP mileage of the old PU earlier for the race mileage, using the new PU for the substracted FP time because you saved mileage on it by introducing it one race later? It just means you have to reshuffle a bit, but eventually you can get back to the same planned mileage on each PU before introducing the 3th. The reason why you they normally introduce a new PU at Canada is b/c these PUs are worn a bit and you need the power here. Conversively, if we had more ordinary circuits for this and next race, and Canada would be the 9th event, you'd see the manufacturers prefering to delay the second PU to Canada. Of course you can't endlessly delay the second PU introduction, but I think that is reasonable.

I'm so sorry but I can't quite understand with you wrote in the beginning.

I partly agree with you about changing in the power hungry circuits (next cycle probably at SPA) especially cause they can introduce a new one sooner and the rotate and older one for slower circuits. I do disagree they would delay the introduction of the SECOND PU. Just because the first PU is very especial cause it HAS to do all the mileage of all the FP whilst any other PU you introduce generally has an older version (2nd PU you can use 1st; 3rd you can use 2nd...). So even though I think you can easily postpone the introduction of other PU's the first change optimally needs to be a bit sooner than the average

[Big Mangalhit]

IF i had to guess, I'd bet they found a QA issue during assembly of the units. The announcement seems far to late to be an issue found on the test bench.

Tinfoil time:
Since Ferrari's "Dual" ES was deemed legal, they are implementing one themselves, as they see a benefit.

The ES is quite independent of the PU no? they usually rotate them around especially this year with only two ES allowed.

[Big Tea]

Until they introduced the first unit, they had no 'real world' knowledge of its life. Could the 'issue' actually be that it is far better than they had estimated?

If nothing is coming to the end of its usable life, and the power drop off is less than they had estimated, having an extra event on the engine gives them all sorts of flexibility, including maybe extending the next change into a further development period? There is also the chance the engine could be damaged during an accident, so having a spare weekend or two in their pocked could be a bonus there too.

[dans79]

IF i had to guess, I'd bet they found a QA issue during assembly of the units. The announcement seems far to late to be an issue found on the test bench.

Tinfoil time:
Since Ferrari's "Dual" ES was deemed legal, they are implementing one themselves, as they see a benefit.

The ES is quite independent of the PU no? they usually rotate them around especially this year with only two ES allowed.

but you would most likely need some kind of changes to the PU to take advantage of changes to the ES.

[Juzh]

The real talking point here is that Mercedes are confident enough that the PU1 units will all be able to do an extra event over and above the expected "life" of the units.

It actually isn't. Most of the components have to do 7 race weekends, some components 10.5 race weekends, which means this PU would have been reused anyway, probably allocated to FP1 and FP2, possibly even FP3 of the next 7 race weekends.

FP3 is pushing it too far. Unless there's an imminent failure or crash, no one will change engines after fp3. They all do it on friday night/sunday morining before fp3.

[turbof1]

The real talking point here is that Mercedes are confident enough that the PU1 units will all be able to do an extra event over and above the expected "life" of the units.

It actually isn't. Most of the components have to do 7 race weekends, some components 10.5 race weekends, which means this PU would have been reused anyway, probably allocated to FP1 and FP2, possibly even FP3 of the next 7 race weekends.

FP3 is pushing it too far. Unless there's an imminent failure or crash, no one will change engines after fp3. They all do it on friday night/sunday morining before fp3.

Probably pushing that too far indeed .

[kptaylor]

So if one of the Merc or customer cars suffers an off and loses an engine or component, what will they be replaced with? Older spec or newer QA-issue spec?

[notsofast]

If cost savings is the only reason for engine restrictions, then Mercedes ought to be able to just take Sirotkin's engine and put it in Hamilton's car. That engine has a lot fewer miles on it.

[LM10]

IF i had to guess, I'd bet they found a QA issue during assembly of the units. The announcement seems far to late to be an issue found on the test bench.

Tinfoil time:
Since Ferrari's "Dual" ES was deemed legal, they are implementing one themselves, as they see a benefit.

Is it that easy to kind of spontaneously change the ES philosophy mid-season? Ferrari has been following this path since 2014.

[djones]

Not sure how true it is, but apparently the Merc engines already got to Canada and were then sent back again.

I think it was also called a "quality" issue. So I dunno... it suggests to be a manufacturing problem rather than design flaw.

[MtthsMlw]

Not sure how true it is, but apparently the Merc engines already got to Canada and were then sent back again.

I think it was also called a "quality" issue. So I dunno... it suggests to be a manufacturing problem rather than design flaw.

AMuS reports that during inspection they found a 0.02mm inaccuracy on the crankcase.

Edit: report updated 0.2 mm -> 0.02mm

[dans79]

AMuS reports that during inspection they found a 0.2mm inaccuracy on the crankcase.

I find that hard to believe. I can easily maintain that all day every day in my garage machine shop. If it's true several people need a pink slip.