the bhp issue....

[Gt_R]

OKAY..this might not be perfectly sane..but i am currently working on an F1 related project and wish that all of u help me out.

If i take the AsiaTech engine to have 800bhp, what would you possibly rate the power figures of the other engines? From some data collected from Forix, Autocar, and a few other sources. I came up with the following...

1)Ferrari = 860
2)Mercedes = 850
3)Honda = 850
4)Jaguar= 840
5)Acer/Petronas = 830
6)Asiatech = 800
7)European = 760

Unknown = BMW (which i reckon should be as good as the Mercedes/Ferrari)
Renault (i presume should be in the Acer engine's range)

A few things which i collected are that the power diff b/w the best and worst engine is almost 100bhp, and that the most powerful engines hit somewhere in the region of 860 in quals...

Unfortunately, these figures are hard to be determined, and the sources really give different values...is it possible you might heard of different infos and could share...it would be of great help no doubt! Please and thankx!

[Dino IV]

Your values are very unrealistic, Gt_R and will be tough to realize even in testbed conditions.

I'd estimate Ferrari, Honda and BMW at 815 hp @ 18000-18400 rpm maximum. Mercedes will be some 5-10 hp and 500 rpm behind (44,+ mm stroke compared to 41\42 values for the others).

Considering last years acoustic Qauttroute measurement of 805 hp @ 17600-18000 rpm for the Ferrari and Honda and the mention of 795 hp @ 17100 rpm for the Ferrari in Piola's '99 Technical Analysis, that should be quite accurate. The '99 Pug is mentioned there as well for 775 hp @ 16800 rpm. Give them some gain in 2000, like 785 hp @ 17300 rpm. The Ford Zetec will cover for some 775 @ 17000 rpm.

So:
1. BMW, Ferrari, Honda: 815 hp @ 18000-18400 rpm
2. Mercedes, Petronas, Acer: 805 hp @ 17600-18000 rpm
3. Jaguar, Renault: 800 hp @ 17500 - 17700 rpm
4. Asiatech: 785 hp @ 17300 rpm
5. European: 775 hp @ 17000 rpm

What's the project about?

[TeddyG]

I am wondering if the BMW engine is a little more powerful than you say? Possibibly with higer revs than than the Ferrari and the Honda engines due do it's amasing straight line speed (9km faster than the rest in Malaysia!) but the car is perhaps lacking somewhat in their ayrodynamics and downforce making them slower in the corners. I think Brazil with has less corners and more long straights we will see the Williams finishing even better and much closer to Ferrari's overall speed. Am I wrong?

[Dino IV]

Could be, Teddy. But really hard to say.

It's highly unlikely they turn in 815 hp of max power all three but rather with some variation between 810-815. It all depends on the engine-mapping used which will be tailor-made for every track. The speeds we get from the speedtraps are dependent from a lot more variables then power alone as the Arrows demonstrated last year. Another good example is the Ferrari front row at Monza last year where they turned in only just a Top 10 topspeed at the speedtraps but clearly had the most powerful engine to compensate for the downforce setting they choose (and thus gain massively at the Lesmo's). Another good illustration was the difference in topspeed between Alesi and Heidfeld at Sepang because we know the power output of those engines are almost identical. Alesi was 5 kmh faster through S1 and S3 and equally fast at S2.

At Sepang the Williams ran some less downforce and thus less drag than the Ferrari, which made a difference of 7 kmh between 'the brothers' at S1, 2kmh at S2 and 4kmh at S3. In time though, TGF recorded almost the same at T1 and T3 but gained a quarter of a second over Ralf in the twistier second sector. Giving the Michelin the credit for the stickier tire (good mechanical grip) and taking in account the less wing the Willaims carried (less drag) it's quite reasonable to consider their power outputs as roughly the same.

Another thing worth noticing from the Sepang sector times and speeds was the McLaren in the hands of Mika who recorded 6 kmh slower than Ralf at S1, S2 and S3 as well. The really slow S2 (21th, DC 22th 9 kmh slower) might indicate the Merc was laid out for pure peak power and the midrange suffered for one reason or the other. Considering his times they must have set relatively some more downforce (probably at the front). Or they just messed up too much to mention.

The Honda's drove more downforce than the Williams, all four on the less stickier tire, thus recording 'slow' topspeeds but among the highest at S2. No reason to believe they gave in on last years excellent power as well. Let's keep an eye on the bhp though the season and try if we can see some changes in the order as I mentioned above.

Cheers,
Dino