bhamg

The turbine and compressor are normally sited next to each other in turbo engines. Mercedes have split them so the compressor is at the front of the engine and the turbine at the rear.

This has several benefits.

The inlet air temperature is cooler, which means the team can use smaller intercoolers, reducing weight and taking up less space. The airflow has much less distance to travel from the intake, through the compressor and intercooler into the cylinders. This reduces the pressure loss at the compressor, which increases power.

The design reduces dramatically the amount of piping required for the engine, giving a significant advantage both in total mass and weight distribution in the car. It also inherently reduces lag in the turbo to almost nothing, so less power is required from the motor-generator unit attached to the turbo to spool it up before the drivers go on the throttle, so more of that power can be used directly at the rear wheels.


http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/formula1/26946444

CMC-63

F1 never ceases to amaze me with their engineering, ridiculous. Guess that's what happens when you have roughly a BILLION dollars in budget for research and development haha.

balthaser

This year's F1 might lack a little bit of the engine noise excitement. But technically it's amazing.

Jasonoff

abcut973

Yeah a beauty of technology these F1 engines this year but damn that noise is so terrible!!!

AMG Boost

Sounds like a cool concept. However to fit it to a modern production car might not work. you still need a connecting shaft between the compressor and turbine so it would be hard to fit that in maybe.

m a x i m u s

I actually am digging the new f1 sound. I know some say it sounds like broken headers, but to me it sounds very high tech. plus I love the sound of the turbo spooling up.

abcut973

Funny I actually don't like the turbo whistling

N_Jay

Seems it would add some lag in the mass of the shaft. (and maybe the friction of the bearings)

Maybe the lag reduction from more direct plumbing is larger than the lag added by the shaft?


EDIT:
Reading the article, it is hard to tell if there is a shaft drive or if the electrics are in addition to a direct connection or have replaced the direct connection.
The lag reduction seems to be from electricity spooling up the turbo. (I guess until someone changes the rules and declares this a "supercharging" system and not a turbocharging system.)

balthaser

I bet for the live audience, the noise level at least won't be too far off, if it's not about the same. Before this year they have to put on earplugs or earmuffs to suppress the noise anyway or their hearings will be blown off. But now they don't need to and can enjoy the engine sound directly. We can tell the difference so clearly mainly because we watch it on TV, sound of which was already at a very safe level to begin with.

msheredy

Yep I noticed in that video people were wearing ear protection in 2013 while most weren't in the 2014 segment.

Anyone else get goose bumps for the 2013 soundtrack? Damn those sound wicked and that's coming from a lumpy V8 fan

abcut973

I've been to several F1 grand prix and all the fun was to have my ears blast off by this amazing V8 N/A sound! But I do understand it can be overwhelming.
Might be going the COTA this year

ML63 AMG

You could easily do it if you run the engine in a "HOT-V" configuration (exhaust is where intake manifold usually is by reversing the airflow.)

More and more manufactures are running this configuration because you can run one twin scroll single turbo for the whole engine and it keeps the engine head up high and the intakes cooler down below. Also, in this configuration it could at some point make the conventional alternator completely obsolete and allow the engine to power the electronics directly off the turbocharger generator thereby using all of the exhaust gas energy, and not robbing power off the crank as most alternators do.

Interesting technology for the future!

estrellajon

Btw. Turbos on F1 isn't new. Back in the day 70s - early 80s, you can run any setup motor as long as it's 3.0 liter OR turbo as long as it's 1.5 liters. Turbo torque is amazing but back then, they had heating issues. I've been watching F1 for along time. Any one remember Tyrell team with 4 physical front tires steering the car. Didn't do too well due to weight.