The two qualifying sessions held on Friday and Saturday afternoon at the historic Silverstone circuit produced an incredibly close battle. Unlike the opening rounds of the season, Mercedes no longer enjoyed the overwhelming advantage in energy management that had previously made the Brackley-based team the benchmark.
With every thousandth of a second proving crucial on the former military airfield, Mercedes made full use of every tool at its disposal in the fight for pole position.
According to The Race, the Brackley squad revived a clever interpretation of the qualifying energy management regulations that it had already used earlier this season before the FIA prohibited that particular approach following the Japanese Grand Prix.
The original interpretation of the regulations
As many will remember, the original regulations required the MGU-K to progressively reduce its power output in 50 kW steps before the battery became completely depleted. The purpose of this rule was to prevent a car from suddenly losing its electric assistance, which could create dangerous speed differences during qualifying, especially if one car was completing a flying lap while another was beginning one.
Mercedes and Red Bull had found a way around those regulations by deliberately switching off the MGU-K. Doing so activated a specific protection mode that allowed the system to use the full 350 kW of electrical power without following the mandatory power reduction ramp, although it came at the cost of keeping the energy recovery system inactive for around 60 seconds.
Executing this procedure just before crossing the finish line at the end of a qualifying lap provided a significant advantage, as the MGU-K reset period would take place during the cooldown lap rather than affecting the next flying lap.
Because the FIA had originally designed this operating mode to protect the power unit in the event of an electrical system failure, the governing body decided that the tactic could no longer be used for performance purposes starting from the Miami Grand Prix.
Mercedes’ new interpretation
As Formula 1 has demonstrated countless times over the years, engineers are exceptionally skilled at reading between the lines of the technical regulations. Mercedes appears to have done exactly that by carefully studying the revised wording of Article C5.12.6.
The regulation states that teams are exempt from following the mandatory 50 kW power reduction steps whenever the driver’s power demand becomes negative, or when the internal combustion engine is producing negative torque and the ERS-K output must be reduced further to satisfy the driver’s request.
This explains the unusual behaviour displayed by the Mercedes drivers during qualifying. As clearly shown in the telemetry traces, both drivers completely lifted off the throttle just before crossing the finish line, allowing them to exploit the full 350 kW of electrical power until the very last moment without triggering the gradual power reduction.
In doing so, Mercedes once again demonstrated its ability to interpret the Formula 1 technical regulations with remarkable creativity and attention to detail. The team also carefully evaluated the trade-off of sacrificing a small amount of power in the final metres of the lap in exchange for maintaining maximum electrical deployment for longer, ultimately producing stronger acceleration where it mattered most.
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