Mercedes engine strategy revealed as customer teams to get Australian GP upgrade

Mercedes is understood to have employed different engine specifications during pre-season testing as the German manufacturer navigated the challenge of supplying four teams under completely new regulations.

The Brackley-based outfit opted to provide its customer teams with a proven specification, enabling them to complete their test programmes without reliability concerns. Meanwhile, the Mercedes factory team gained exclusive access to the latest development version of the M17 E Performance unit.

This approach proved logistically sensible, as manufacturing components for a single team presents considerably fewer challenges than producing parts for four separate outfits.

Whilst the variations between engine types were likely minimal, differences were present. With homologation scheduled for March 1, Mercedes faced pressure to capture the correct specification before the season commenced.

Formula 1 regulations maintain strict equality requirements between factory and customer teams. Article 1.4 of Appendix 4 within the technical regulations explicitly states that each engine manufacturer must submit one homologation file applicable to all supplied teams.

Only fuel specification, engine oil specification, and wiring are permitted to differ between competitors. Software settings must remain identical to prevent customer teams from lacking access to higher performance modes.

The reliability-focused approach during pre-season testing allowed Mercedes to ensure its customer teams could complete meaningful running whilst the factory squad pushed development boundaries with their W17.

For the Melbourne season opener, McLaren, Williams and Alpine can anticipate receiving the same specification as the factory squad, delivering a welcome performance boost as the championship battle commences.

McLaren team principal Andrea Stella offered a broad hint as to Mercedes' test strategy, albeit without commenting "too much in terms of specification of hardware".

Speaking to the media, including RacingNews365, Stella said: “I think that's part of the strategy that HPP deployed in terms of supplying the hardware, the power units, to the customers and to the works team.

“It's certainly been an intense and pushed programme for power unit manufacturers, not only for the teams from a chassis point of view, but what is important is that the right specification is available for race one.

"I have to say that the power unit we had during this test behaved extremely reliably and gave us the opportunity to do all the tests that we wanted to do, and also learn about the interaction between power unit, chassis and driver."