Re: How long before Hamilton / Merc gets handicapped?
Posted: Mon Aug 31, 2020 6:14 pm
pharriso wrote: I have heard that they were burning engine oil as fuel...
What they were doing were developing special engine oils that could be burned as extra high octane fuel. The crankcase breathing system was then used to burn the fuel at time they wanted to get some more fuel/power.
So the cars would have a few liters of oil allowance that they were burning during the race as extra fuel. Allowing bypassing of fuel flow limits, fuel specifications and fuel capacities etc.
This was banned by making the cars breath the case case to air. Hence why a lot of cars now have an additional smaller "exhaust" pipe above the main one.
The Ferrari sitaution is a little sad but it seems to be the result of them doing something of questionable legality and developing there car around it. Now they don't have the extra power from it their car is no longer competitive. In the end they made their bed and now they their stuck in it for a while until they can make some fundamental changes/improvements.