By no means has a Components 1 staff been extra dominant than Mercedes for thus lengthy. From 2014 to 2021, 159 Components 1 races have been held. Of those, Mercedes received 111. Lewis Hamilton and Co. owe this excessive win fee of 69.81 % over eight seasons to a really particular a part of the staff: the engine producer in Brixworth. Hywel Thomas, Managing Director of the engine manufacturing unit in West Northamptonshire, now revealed the ingenious trick that after laid the inspiration for eight Constructors’ World Championships in a row.
Hywel Thomas: The ignition system was a milestone
When it turned identified in the summertime of 2011 that Components 1 automobiles can be powered by V6 turbo hybrid engines from 2014, the initially deliberate four-cylinder engine was already operating on the engine check bench at Mercedes AMG Excessive Efficiency Powertrains in Brixworth. That is how early Mercedes acquired concerned within the improvement of contemporary Components 1 engines. However Hywel Thomas sees one thing else as a turning level: “The invention of our prechamber ignition system was a milestone.”
“When it first got here up and we appeared on the outcomes on the dyno, we have been actually impressed,” mentioned Thomas. Really, the engineers and the drivers all the time had a alternative: to drive a wealthy petrol combination with plenty of gas and little air within the combustion chamber (greater petrol consumption, excessive efficiency). Or select a lean gas combination with little gas and a whole lot of air within the combustion chamber (much less gas consumption, much less energy). With the pre-chamber ignition system, Mercedes engineers discovered a solution to mix the perfect of each worlds.
The key drawback of the lean gas combination was that it was very troublesome to ignite and, because of extra frequent misfires, there was a big lack of energy because of the unburned gas.
Mercedes Energy Unit: Extra energy with decrease gas consumption
The engineers in Brixworth subsequently designed a small antechamber and positioned the injection nozzles and spark plugs there. This pre-chamber creates a neighborhood space through which basically a wealthy gas combination prevails. Upon ignition, jets of flame are produced that are subsequently able to igniting a lean-enriched combustor with out misfiring. This allowed drivers to drive a really lean combination, whereas the even combustion produced considerably extra energy.
Along with the lead in expertise, one other benefit arose from this innovation: the considerably decrease gas consumption enabled Mercedes to start out the races with much less gas and subsequently much less weight. It took Ferrari a yr to meet up with the ignition system, however the Mercedes energy unit remained the final word for years.
Not solely the prechamber ignition system turned related for collection manufacturing
Precisely that system is now getting used increasingly in highway visitors, Thomas reported: “You possibly can see our pre-chamber ignition system increasingly typically in highway automobiles. These days, combustion engines are literally probably not being additional developed, however we’re seeing these pre-chamber ignition programs increasingly often – and that comes immediately from Components 1.” On the identical time, the engine boss complained concerning the lack of consideration: “That ought to truly be a extremely huge story…”
Thomas emphasized that Mercedes was not only a pioneer for road traffic with combustion engines: “Something that we are also seeing more often now is the part of the pack in which the batteries are stored. We designed this as a cylindrical, liquid-cooled cell. If you look at the recent trends in battery packs in electric vehicles, this is exactly the path that series manufacturers are taking.”
“If I had to answer that question a few years ago, I probably would have had a hard time. But I think in the last two or three years we’ve seen these technologies from Formula 1 flow more and more into series production,” summarized Thomas.
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Revealed : 2023-07-19 16:13:00
