DiogoBrand wrote:I'm not saying they should run engines over the limit during testing already expecting them to blow. What I am saying is that they shouldn't run them on a lower performance mode than they will during the season, otherwise they may have some engine malfunctions during the season, when it's way more costly. And about track time, what they could do is run an entire day in a 'safe' mode, and then at the end of the test day run it at full beans, so if there is a malfunction they'd have the whole night to change the unit.
If they are running the powertrain a bit more conservative than intended during race weekends, it could be due to scarce track test time.
They can run complete powertrains on sophisticated dynos, and they can do in-car powertrain runs on the AVL-type rolling road chassis dynos. So maybe a high-confidence way to thrash a large number of engines quickly.
Vehicle dynamics in terms of on-track aero and handling traits can be simulated, but not as reliably as the engine stuff, so scarce track time gets focused on vehicle dynamics performance rather than powertrain reliability.
For this to work you need a minimum baseline level of powertrain reliability, plus confidence in the correlation between on-track powertrain stress vs on-dyno stress. Honda may have reached that level of confidence in their program.
Mercedes probably did dyno-based powertrain testing that was equivalent to 70 round trips to the moon before the on-track testing at Barcelona even started.
