More bad news for Merc? FIA crackdown on oil burn...

I believe an F1 car burns anywhere from 3 to 5ltrs of oil given said track due to setup mods. I also think, just like every molecule of fuel is tested before and after the race, officials will start testing oil additives(Petronas) that react with the fuel to give them(MB) that added boost...not till 2018 though. Plus an article came out(March 2017 I think), with regards to MB & Petronas, of how Petronas fuel and lubricants can give the Mercs an added boost....Toto mentions he did not want to go into details as the info. is sensitive.

 

I just don't believe their (Wolff's) claims that it's all clever mapping (implying that anyone can do it without using oil). As far as I know they're using oil to lower DET so they can run more boost for a few laps.

 

I say good for Mercedes, they found a way to increase performance. I liked the days when you could run toululene and all those exotic fuels ... the track smelled much better!

Seriously - its this kind of technological stuff that makes F-1 what it is. let them innovate and skirt un clear rules... that is where advances come from.

 

Its called additives. Petronas can call them detergents, scrubbers or whatever(technically speaking) but it was (past tense) a loophole that these "additives" acted as a reacting agent upon detonation with the fuel to give the W08 and past variants that added boost during qualifying. Most of us knew this already and since the starting of the FIA clamping down on all this oil tactics....this tactic has been put to an end....for now.


FIA close Mercedes' qualifying loophole

Mercedes' qualifying dominance of recent years may not be a factor in 2018, after the FIA moved to close loopholes the Silver Arrows had exploited to make Saturday gains. Race director Charlie Whiting hopes qualifying sessions will be closer after new regulations were drafted to govern teams' use of oil burn.

Mercedes qualified on pole in 15 of the 20 races last season, Lewis Hamilton eclipsing Michael Schumacher's record in the process.

Ferrari shared the other five between Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen, with rivals Red Bull often left vocal critics of their practices on Saturdays.

Burning oil had given Mercedes a huge advantage over one lap and Red Bull team principal Christian Horner voiced concerns that the low volumes involved in those short bursts of running would be difficult to govern.

But Whiting moved to calm those fears, by laying down the FIA's new rules.

"We've closed down all the things that they were able to do last year, mainly via oil spec," explained Whiting.

"Not only was oil being burned a little, but they were putting things in the oil to aid combustion, because there was no real oil spec last year. Now there is.

"Now they have to approve oils. They can only use approved oils, so they give us a sample just like they do with fuel, and that has to be approved and that is the only oil that they can use.

"We've tightened up the engine rules in Article 5 of the Technical Regulations, and we've also routed the breather that can no longer go back into the air intake which was the biggest issue.

"That has to go out the back like virtually every other racing car in the world. And we've told them they can't use more than 0.6 litres per 100 km. All those things combined I think will do the job."

https://www.gpfans.com/en/articles/866/fia-close-mercedes-qualifying-loophole/

 

We’ll see. Secret oil tanks will no doubt be disguised as a water bottle, or maybe the halo is hollow and full of rocket fuelled oil

 

F1/Liberty needs to just make one official supplier for fuel and oil and require all teams to run whatever they offer. Plus they can make more money by getting one of those big companies to sponsor F1 rather than individual teams. They already run single manufacturer tires.

 

I can just see it now WalMart SuperTech official oil supplier of F1

 

Mercedes state they are in compliance with oil burn rules in last years PU. Interesting to see how this will show in qualy for all teams.

--Mercedes has insisted that the oil burn changes will not affect its performance, with team boss Toto Wolff adamant that the final spec of engine it used in 2017 was well within the 0.6l limit.

"The targets that have been set last season of the 0.6 level, we have met immediately - we have that in the autumn," he said during an event with fuel partner Petronas this week.

"We brought the engine early [to Spa] but we met the limits of 0.6."--

 

All the fia needs to do is mandate that one engine map can be used during the entire weekend, and customer teams have to have the same map just as customer teams were mandated a couple years ago to have the same spec hard components and upgrades as the works teams. Merc cannot run that setting more than a few laps. This fixes all.

 

At least now, owners of Ferrari road cars that burn a bit of oil out the exhausts can proudly say: "Yeah, that's F1 spec right there!"