F1 News: Mercedes Struggles With Powertrain After Regulation Changes

Hywel Thomas, the man in charge of Mercedes‘ powertrain, has admitted that building the new engine for the car has turned into a “massive terror” after it was originally thought to only take “little rearrangements” after last year thanks to the cars now using E10 fuel.

2022 sees some of the largest rule and regulation changes in the sport’s history, not only because of the change in aerodynamics, but also thanks to the introduction of E10 fuel. E10 fuel is made up of 10% ethanol, and because of this, teams are finding it hard to extract power from the more environmentally friendly mix.

But now, teams are racing to fully complete their engines before the year 2026 where they will be frozen as the F1 puts together its new engine formula.

Mercedes chief technical officer James Allison said the following:

“All the goodness that you can possibly pack into it has to be packed into it now, or forever hold your peace.”

Thomas, managing director of Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrains division, also added his opinion:

“There’s just so much great work, I think, done by the team, especially the way that it sits within the car.

“We all know how much work’s gone in to get it into the car. The front of engine [is] just completely different. I guess over the years, we kind of talk about the front of engine, but almost every year, we’re rearranging it.

“But this wasn’t a little rearrangement. This has been a massive terror,  but it’s to make it look like that, isn’t it? So we all understand.

“And [with the] exhausts, again, I guess it’s another one of those items – you kind of look at it every year, and we tweak it here, we tweak it there. [But] what’s under there is completely, completely different.”