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ISTANBUL 2011 vs 2020: A lot has changed since the last TURKEY GP

The Mercedes team made a comparison between Istanbul 2011 and the projection for this year's race, according to which the pole position should take four seconds faster. The first trainings have not confirmed this yet, but we will see how things develop in the qualifications.

From the last race for the Formula 1 championship to Istanbul Park Circuit nine years have passed and the queen of motorsport has compared to 2011 season significantly changed. But the question is, how much have race cars and technologies changed over this period? The visual differences are obvious, mainly due to changes in the rules. For example, in 2020 there are cars wider and longer, with larger wings, lower noses and of course s "Hello" above the cockpit.

But the differences go much deeper, as a cursory glance under the hood reveals how much things have changed in Formula 1 in less than a decade.

How has the engine changed since 2011?

The engines have completely changed. In the 2011 season, they used 2,4-liter V8-atmospheric engines that spun up to 18.000 rpm and weighed 95 pounds. Back then, these were hybrid powertrains, as the engine was connected to the unit KERS, which recovered part of the kinetic energy used during braking.

This gave the driver extra 80 BAM for 6,7 seconds per lap, which he could use at a time of his choice. Thanks KERS the maximum power of the engines increased to 815 km.

Today, the heart of Formula 1 race cars looks completely different. Since the introduction of hybrid regulations in 2014, they have been used in F1 1,6-liter turbocharged V6 engines, weighing 145 kilograms (minimum weight) and reaching 15.000 rpm.

The maximum output power is significantly higher since drive units (PU) they generate more than 100 hp more than the 8 V2011 engines. At the same time, the PUs are significantly more efficient. The 2020 drive unit achieves more than 50% heat efficiency (amount of energy converted from fuel to work). In 2011, the heat efficiency was just over thirty percent.

The efficiency of the V6-hybrid powertrain is about fifty percent.

Increased power, greater efficiency and more weight are largely the result sophisticated hybrid system, used in modern formula 1. This consists of a power supply (EC), control electronics (CE) and two sources of additional power. Then there are the units MGU-K in MGU-H, which “pick up” the energy released when braking and warming up the engine, which, like KERS once did, allows for an additional supply of power in a certain time interval per lap.

Modern hybrid systems also improve the driving ability of cars, as the electrical system can make torque available virtually immediately. That makes it engine performance curve with internal combustion (internal combustion engine, ICE for short) more continuous, for example when shifting up.

Today’s engines also need to be big more durable: in 2011 it was available for 19 races eight engines on the car. Today, teams can only use a much smaller amount of PU components: three internal combustion engines, turbochargers and MGU-H units and two MGU-K units and control electronics.

Not so obvious change has taken place in the field electronic components. Technology in this area has evolved greatly over the last decade. How much electronics in cars have changed can be seen from already the data themselves. In the 2011 season, the F1 car recorded about 500 data channels. Cars by 2020 are limited to 1.500 high-speed data channels and a few thousand channels in the background.

Increased data logging also affects amount of data, which an individual car collects during a racing weekend. On Turkish Grand Prix 2011 18 GB per car was generated over the weekend. There will be almost them next weekend 70 GB.

Changes to the rules in recent years have led to Formula 1 racing cars being bigger and wider in 2020. The length of the vehicle is now more than 5.000 millimeters (in 2011 - 4.800 mm). Today’s cars are also wider: 2.000 millimeters compared to 1.800 in 2011. They are also heavier, partly due to higher weights of hybrid powertrains. In 2011, the cars weighed 640 kilograms, this year they weigh 746 kilograms.

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