So we’ve seen the intense battle between Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton this year. Max parking his car on top of Lewis’ in Monza, Lewis being pushed onto the curbs in Imola and Max being fired off into the barrier at Silverstone.
But we’re engineering nerds here, so let's dive into the battle between Mercedes and Red Bull’s engineers this year - because they have been trading blows as well.
Both have found incredible breakthroughs in engine performance and aerodynamic advantages - so dive in and explain just how they have done it.
There is some juicy engineering to get into for this one…
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This development race has come down to two main factors - engine power and downforce. We’re going to start with the engines.
Now in 2020, the engine was the main factor that gave the Mercedes the edge over the Red Bull Honda. They quite simply had more power, meaning they were much quicker at circuits like Monza and Spa.
However, Mecedes often weren’t the fastest in a straight line. As one of the main benefits of more power is that they can load the car with more downforce and not pay the price on the straights.
This, combined with the longer wheelbase design, meant that the Mercedes was faster in the medium and high-speed corners - but the agile chassis of the Red Bull meant that they were quicker in the slower corners.
Now, for 2021 - this seems to have flipped. Honda really have upped their game with an amazing push in engine development. And whilst a lot of this is kept secret, for obvious reasons, there is a decent amount we do know.
They have made massive performance gains that have meant that they were actually faster than the Mercedes on the long straights in Austria - something that was definitely not the case last year.
The first factor is that the engine is much smaller than last year and it looks to be the smallest engine on the grid, meaning that the rear-end of the car can be packaged much tighter.
This reduces drag and allows for better flow to the downforce generating components at the rear of the car. Something that really worked for Red Bull back in the Sebastian Vettel days - when Renault actually took a hit on power to create an engine that allowed for improved aerodynamic performance.
The smaller engine allows them to use a shorter wheelbase, whilst also keeping the centre of gravity slightly lower down, and concentrated in the middle of the car. It goes to show that even the engine on a Formula 1 car is designed to enhance the aerodynamic performance too.
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