Williams F1 Team and Mercedes-Benz enter long-term engine partnership; downsized turbo hybrid Power Units
30 May 2013
The Williams F1 Team and Mercedes-Benz signed a long-term engine partnership from the 2014 Formula One World Championship season onwards. Under the terms of the agreement, Williams will be supplied with a Mercedes-Benz Power Unit (Internal Combustion Engine plus Energy Recovery System) by Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) based in Brixworth, UK. Williams will continue to manufacture its own transmission.
The 2014 regulations require covering a 300 km (186-mile) race distance on a fuel load of just 100 kg. To do so, teams will switch from naturally aspirated 2.4 liter V8 engines to 1.6 liter V6 turbocharged hybrid Power Units. To achieve power outputs comparable to current levels from the new Power Unit will require a 30% increase in energy efficiency.
This step forward will be largely achieved through an Energy Recovery System (ERS) that will be able to deploy ten times more energy than the current KERS. The new ERS will recover energy from both the exhaust turbine and the rear axle, as well as deploying energy back to both.
These new technical developments will offer significantly greater opportunities for technology transfer from Formula One to real-world applications in areas such as battery technology, turbocharging, energy recovery and combustion efficiency.
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