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Mercedes Formula 1 boss Toto Wolff says “we love” that title rival Red Bull is devoting time to querying the Mercedes power unit with the FIA.
As reported by The Race ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend, Red Bull has made a query to the governing body regarding the sensors of the Mercedes power unit that record the engine’s inlet plenum temperatures.
Mercedes revealed when it launched its 2021 car that significant work had gone into developing the plenum to produce more power from the internal combustion engine.
The inlet plenum is believed to have walls that can be filled with super-cooled liquid would more effectively cool the air within the plenum chamber, which would be useful in a brief burst during the acceleration phase.
By regulation, the plenum air temperature must be at least 10-deg above the external ambient temperature (as an average over the lap) and the FIA sensors track this to ensure compliance.
“We love the fact they are spending time on these things and researching and very welcome very much any initiative they wish to do and then look at it,” Wolff told Sky Sports F1 when asked about the query.
“If that is a distraction for [the] other team, that is good. This always happens.
“[I am] used to this and it’s the normal course of events.”
Wolff said on Friday at Zandvoort that he first heard about the query “a couple of days ago”.
He added: “I would wish we have some kind of special solution, but it’s the modus operandi in Formula 1, business as usual.
“Queries are being taken to the FIA, questions are being asked. It’s completely normal.”
Any super-cooling of the liquid in walls in the plenum does not imply that the air within the plenum is below the legal minimum temperature but it would certainly cool it more effectively and the lower the temperature, the more dense the oxygen content and the greater the combustion will be.
Red Bull is questioning whether the temperature sensors are situated in a place that would capture any dipping below the legal minimum.
“As is the nature with all technical clarifications, they go continually between all the teams, and those clarifications are usually to ascertain if something is in the eyes of the governing body acceptable as a solution,” said Red Bull team boss Christian Horner when asked by The Race to clarify the intent of the query.
“And then, of course, if it is you follow suit. But we’ve had numerous of those this year with our car and I think it’s something not unique to Red Bull and this topic certainly isn’t unique to Red Bull.
“Obviously, that dialogue between the engineers within their forums as well, within the technical working groups, is an ongoing process, so I’m sure it doesn’t come as any great surprise.”
