“All we are doing is really trying to balance”- Mercedes reveals why they didn’t use “spicy engine” in Qatar

Tanish Chachra | 25/11/2021
"All we are doing is really trying to balance"- Mercedes reveals why they didn't use "spicy engine" in Qatar

Mercedes revealed in Qatar that Lewis Hamilton didn’t use its new engine in Brazil that caused wreckage in Brazil earlier this month.

Lewis Hamilton, without any hindrance, won the Qatar Grand Prix, but it was surprising to know that the Briton wasn’t using his new engine in Losail, which caused havoc for Red Bull. Later, Toto Wolff confirmed the reports by saying he would bring the ‘spicy engine’ in Saudi Arabia.

When asked why Mercedes didn’t use the fresher engine against Red Bull, considering that the battle is of margins, Mercedes’ Andrew Shovlin revealed why his team took this call.

“Of the remaining circuits, Qatar has got the shortest amount of straight-line [sections], the shortest amount of full-throttle running, and it’s got an awful lot of cornering,” said Shovlin on the team’s post-Qatar GP debrief.

“The power advantage you get from that engine in Qatar is much smaller than if you run it at the two remaining circuits. We are trying to balance the mileage across the pool but make sure that there is less of a penalty when we use the less powerful engine.

“That also means, when we get to the final two tracks, we are going to have the most power that we possibly can.”

Also read: Lewis Hamilton has more Formula 1 race wins than most countries

From where did Mercedes get pace with the old engine?

As far as the older engine is concerned, it got brutally beaten by Red Bull in Mexico and the United States. When asked to Shovlin from where Mercedes is getting its pace from the older engine, he gave several points.

“Well, if you think about it in a very fundamental sense, you make your lap time from a combination of the straight line, where the drivers are at full throttle, and then the cornering performance,” added Shovlin.

“Now, in some recent tracks, we’ve been matching Red Bull in the corners and extracting a benefit in the straight line. But in Qatar, it ended up being the opposite. We were matching them in the straight line and finding all our time in the corners.

“So, where does that time come from? Well, there are two areas. One is the downforce that you can get on the car, and clearly, our package was working quite well there, helping us generate a lot of apex speed.

“But then also you’ve got the balance of the car, and that’s the thing that we tune with the mechanical settings.

Also read: Lewis Hamilton wants his future teammate George Russell to be World Champion

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
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About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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