Bojan Vrbnjak
We are witnessing a brilliant claim Paddy Lowe, technical director Mercedesa initially hybrid age of Formula 1 in 2014. In the latest edition of the podcast Beyond the Grid, the Briton looked back to the beginning dominance of Mercedes and in doing so issued more than an interesting thesis.
In the first year new power units, Mercedes on the track almost never showed up actual limit their capabilities. Out of fear that he might too much dominance FIA-o led to a reaction in the form changes to the rules, which would slow down the silver arrows. Lowe he says he is Mercedes already in tests before the season found that it is with a new power unit PU106A Hybrid in its own league and far ahead of other engine manufacturers. Out of concern for the fast policy adjustments due to impending boredom, the team in the qualifiers used not only less performance in Q1 and Q2, but also in the decisive Q3.
"Bernie Ecclestone ran around and claimed it was a nightmare, the new engines are horrible,”He remembers Lowe. "This mindset was due to the fact that something would probably be done if Mercedes looked ridiculously good.That was the reason Mercedes he never discovered his maps. “This has been going on for some time. For much of the 2014 season, the engine was never maximally loaded in qualifying,”He claims Lowe, who adds that he also spoke in favor of such a method Toto wolff. "We never fully loaded the engine in the Q1 and Q2 qualifiers. At the time, it was operating almost at idle."Everything was normal until now. With a start Q3 so it's on the command desk Mercedesa there was always tension. For there was a question, to what measures bodo loaded the engine, so as not to convincingly drive in front of everyone else, while at the same time securing a pole position. “There was a debate about how we would wind the engine for the Q3- I heard from Tot: 'It's too much, that's too much!' And I thought to myself, 'But if we don't win the pole position, we'll all look like fools together!'"
If the story The British true, it went well in most cases. Because years 2014 they won 18 fields of positions of the 19 possible. Only v Austria won the first starting row Williams - also with Mercedes engines - which benefited from the mistakes of Hamilton and Rosberg. Head of the Mercedes team Toto wolff he doesn’t want to hear anything from this story of his former technical boss. “Apparently Paddy must have been somewhere other than me. There is no situation where you reduce the performance of the engine so that the rules do not turn against you,”He objects Wolff, which is a story Lowe's takes it relaxed. “We were very competitive in 2014 and I think everyone could see that. It was the beginning of some kind of regulatory environment that wouldn’t change anyway. So yeah, maybe Paddy had some kind of impression."
