Which F1 Engine Is Fastest in 2022?

all right guys so a few days ago I made a video about whether or not I think Red Bull will dominate the new Formula One era it's on my channel if you want to go check it out feel free to do so but in that video I only briefly touched on why Mercedes dominated from 2014 to 2020 but I didn't really mention one of the key elements to their success in the last few years and that was their power unit or for new fans or anyone who doesn't know what that is it's simply the engine of the car essentially on the Formula One calendar pretty much most tracks have a long straight where the DRS or drag reduction system is typically activated during the race oftentimes these straights are some of the best overtaking spots on the track So the faster the engine in the car the higher the advantage you have on the straights the more likely you can overtake and stay ahead in these particular and crucial areas of the track some tracks have shorter streets where overtaking may be a bit more difficult and the power units play less of a part but they are few pretty much the best example of this is Monaco where you can get away with a weaker power unit since the track relies a whole lot more on aerodynamics but if a team can produce a car with the fastest power unit and nail the aerodynamics they pretty much make one of if not the fastest car on the grid and that is precisely what Mercedes had done for the past few years it was only when Ferrari managed to close the gap in terms of power units that they could pose a threat to Mercedes and of course in 2019 a light was shined on the legality of said power unit and the following year Ferrari pretty much had the worst engine on the grid then in 2021 the Aero regulations were changed which mainly compromised the aerodynamics of low rake cars or cars that run their floor at less of an angle and Mercedes was one of those cars whereas Red Bull wasn't and that allowed Red Bull to fight for the title once again because where Red Bull lacked in Horsepower as opposed to Mercedes they made up for it in aerodynamics so they were fostering Corners whereas Mercedes were quicker on the straights this sort of leveled out the front of the field and made for some great racing now I know I went a bit off topic but I just wanted to highlight how crucial the power unit really is it's like the performance ceiling you can improve Arrow or redesign your suspension but making power unit changes throughout the season is really quite a bit more expensive so you can have the best arrow on track but if your engine can't output the same horsepower as other cars on track you'll be at a noticeable disadvantage in the long run so how do this season's power units stack up against each other well first things first I have to mention that power unit development has been frozen from last season so basically only minimal changes can be made to the engines and the most important changes that have affected the power of these engines this season is the switch from E5 fuel to E10 Fuel and what that means is now 10 of the fuel used in these 2022 cars are made up of ethanol which is a renewable form of fuel now the engines needed tweaking and adjustments to adapt and use this new fuel in the most efficient way possible and those adjustments are what have made the 2022 power units either slower or faster compared to their 2021 counterparts alright so with all that out of the way let's get to the power units the slowest one this season or the one that has adapted Wars to the new fuel is in my opinion the Mercedes power unit now this may come as a super price to people but if you've been watching F1 this season you would have noticed the distinct disadvantage that mercedes-powered cars have on the streets McLaren Aston Martin and of course Mercedes all suffer from this Williams is the exception but this is all clear when you see their speed in technical parts of the track they are by far the slowest so my guess is they've managed to build a very low drag car that can take a hundred percent advantage of the power unit they've been dealt with but on the flip side they don't produce enough downforce to hamper their straight line speed but it affects their cornering speed a lot and overall makes their lap times slow next up is the Renault power unit or the Alpine power unit whatever you want to call it they're the only team who use it and what's funny is they pretty much remain in the same place they've always been they're not particularly known for their engines in fact they're not particularly known for anything other than winning the championship with Alonso back in 05 and 06 but yeah like I said there's nothing special about this engine it's quicker than the Merc engine and that's about it it doesn't sound very good either so no points in that department this is definitely a bit of a shame considering that Alpine this season can really be quick at times but they're really Limited in the power unit department and that really costs them a lot and on top of that it's quite hard to really say where the engine Stacks up against the rest because there's only one team that uses it but since there are only four power units I'd say this is a fairly accurate guess right so next up is the Ferrari power unit at the start of the Season it seemed to be the quickest or at least in line with the Honda or rideable power unit but now it's noticeably slower on the straights not that they've gotten any slower since the start of the Season it just seems like Red Bull have done something to get so much quicker just look at Monza for example Red Bull were running a much higher downforce setup on a track that you would typically want to have the least drag possible and of course when increasing down Force you also increased drag so that's clearly not ideal just look at the rear wing Red Bull Run at Monza it looked comically bigger than any other and still they were quicker at the fastest track in F1 now I don't think that's a coincidence just take a look back at spa a couple of weeks ago the Red Bulls were flying in qualifying and dominated the race whereas Charlotte Clair at Ferrari was battling George Russell in a Mercedes it's honestly ridiculous how fast Red Bull are now but I think that's mainly down to the Honda or Red Bull engine just being so fast so yeah I think it's safe to say that the Red Bull power unit is easily the best out there right now and Ferrari comes in second but that's what I think guys if you have something to add be sure to do so down in the comments below it also helps a lot with the algorithm if you do so and if you enjoyed this video at any point at all please consider liking and more importantly subscribing to help with the growth of this channel but really thank you guys for watching and on that note I hope you all have a blessed night and I'll catch you all next time foreign

Channel: The Formula Lab

Views: 11,794

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Id: CWDcACzNmzE

Length: 6min 47sec (407 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 13 2022