As it lifts and moves forward, the car’s brain tells the V6 to keep accelerating and diverts 350 kW to the battery. But there is another way the engine can recharge the battery and it happens when the driver’s foot is still on the accelerator. F1 calls this “super trimming” and as it happens, the car’s power output to the rear wheels is significantly reduced – any power going to the battery can’t go to the rear wheels, and the V6 only has 400kW to offer. So superclipping has been limited to 200 kW, leaving the other 200 kW (268 HP) to power the car.
So sometimes an F1 car has 750 kW (1,005 hp), sometimes it has 400 kW and sometimes it may only have 200 kW.
Like the other 21 cars on the track, but not in a coordinated way. The software that governs hybrid systems is capricious, deciding when to initiate super trimming and when to increase or decrease the MGU’s power based on how much you’ve already spent on the lap and how much it thinks you’ll need.
What is the problem?
The new engine regulations were created to get automakers more excited about the sport, before many of them started phasing out electric vehicles. It worked: Audi and cadillac and sling signed to join Ferrari and Mercedes. But as I’ve described previously, the new formula means the cars run out of power for a lap, particularly during qualifying, when the goal is to drive the car to its limit.
As we saw In Japan, this has effectively neutralized all fast corners in F1, because you can achieve a shorter total lap time by using that energy elsewhere. There is no real problem with lift and inertia during a race; As stated before, it is already common practice in IndyCar and endurance racing. But in qualifying, that’s another matter, and watching the cars rise and slide through Turn 130R at Suzuka in Japan was something that demoralized virtually every racing fan this writer knows. Driving it seems to be worse: McLaren’s Lando Norris described it as “soul destroying.”
