The myth (?) of the frozen PU......

But seriously, how did Ferrari and other manufacturers not know how to shorten the inter-cooler pipping like Merc?

Kimi said Ferrari aren't stupid... yes they are unfortunately

 

What F1 car has ever had this before?

There was once the first guy to put wings on a F1 car...

 

Turbochargers have been around for a while now (not in F1 but in cars in general) and there has always been the challenge of making IC piping shorter. Talk to any car tuner or whoever.

They're a car and engine manufacturer they should be testing every avenue but instead they're sitting on their hands, its a big shame.

Reminds me of the film Rush when Lauda says you have all these facilities and make a crap car haha.

Unfortunately they will learn the hard way and us fans have to suffer

 

Are you not aware that the F1 Turbo era was started by Renault in '77 and existed until '88? Shortening the exhaust manifold and intake piping is restricted by the packaging of the system, the biggest issue with turbocharged engines is cooling ie airflow. A a/a system is best for longer runs although a a/w system will allow greater cooling but sacrifices longevity of the cooling aspect.


What is a PU, I have never heard that term?

 

Power Unit

 

obviously thats why i said not in F1 but in cars in general, maybe put your reading glasses on?

 

IMO lag is not the issue.
Cool intake temps are.
Cooler intake temps means more horsepower and/or less fuel burn.

 

Sure but watching the video of the Merc engine spoke about cooling and less piping equaling more power, so they all go hand in hand.

Plus Ferrari is down on power.

Its all super interesting and applaud Merc engineers.

I wonder if this will eat into Ferrari car sales?

 

The rule of thumbs was that the volume of IC chamber had to be equal to the displacement volume.

The position of the turbo and the length of the IC piping was considered critical compared to the length of the exhaust piping to the turbo.

 

This reminds me of those technical analysis of Gordon Murray: of course, everything looks obvious when it´s already done.

Renault didn´t follow that route either, so I suppose that building it is not so easy as it seems.

 

The length of the piping has more to do with lag than power. It takes more time to fill a larger volume to a certain given pressure. There might be miniscule gains or losses according to the increased surface area of a longer tube vs increased internal friction of that tube. Straightness of flow (turbulence) is more important.

The vid showed how the cooler running of the intake temps allowed to decrease the area (drag) of the intake tunnels.

I'm sure they have calculated the amount of fuel they need and back tracked to the size of the opening they need for proper engine and intake cooling.
If the other teams catch up they have the luxury of opening it up to get even lower temps.
Merc is calling the shots.

 

All good points.

 

...and once upon a time a company named Honda came up with an engine that laid out the cyclinders lower and flatter, lowered the center of gravity, etc etc and in 1988 McLaren won all but one race.

Technology is a big part of winning.

 

Yes its sad Ferrari have not out smarted the rest.

 

I wonder if intercoolers are part of the "frozen" PU package ?

I would find it hard to believe that every team agreed to freeze engines when no-one really knew how they would perform.

An all or nothing gamble for a number of years.