Barcelona is a very demanding circuit - Haug

The Spanish Grand Prix at Barcelona next weekend, fourth round of the 2007 F1 World Championship, is the home Grand Prix of McLaren driver Fernando Alonso, who leads the Drivers' ranking with 22 points. His team mate Lewis Hamilton is level on points and third overall. Kimi Raikkonen is second, also with 22 points. Prior to the start of the European season, Vodafone McLaren Mercedes leads the Constructors' table with 44 points ahead of Ferrari with 39 points. Norbert Haug talks about the Spanish GP.

“According to the rules, the engines are sealed by the FIA. For an external inspection, all peripheral components such as airbox, hydraulic set, and electrical harnesses are removed and checked between the races. In addition, we examine the engine for leakage and analyze the oil. The combustion chambers are checked by a so-called borescope, a kind of endoscope, which is inserted through the sparkplug hole to examine valves, pistons and traces at the cylinder liners. Afterwards the engines are stored in their boxes until the next Grand Prix.”

“Barcelona is a very demanding circuit not only for drivers and cars, but also tough for the engines. This is due to the very fast corners with a lot of full throttle sections and also to the 1,000-metre long front straight where the cars run at full throttle for 13 seconds. In total, 70 percent of a lap will be driven under full throttle.”

“There are 12 Mercedes-Benz technicians at site; six mechanics, two race engineers, one engineer for operating conditions, one truck driver who is also responsible for logistics, one electronic/IT specialist and the head of the technical team at the race track.”

“After the specifications of the engine and the parts used have been fixed, there are possibilities for improvements to the ancillaries outside, for example the airbox, the fuel injection and intake system, the water and oil pumps as well as the development of fuels and lubricants”.

“Following the restrictions by the new engine rules, the importance of fuels and lubricants has increased further. Developing more competitive lubricants and fuels in co-operation with our Partner ExxonMobil, we focus on further reducing friction and optimising combustion. As everywhere in Formula 1, this is pushing the technical frontiers. These continuous enhancements of fuels and lubricants resulted in a significant increase of engine performance. In the medium term, also the production engine development and the cars will benefit from these results.”