Williams and Mercedes-Benz Motorsport have this week, announced a "long term" engine partnership from the 2014 Formula One World Championship season on wards.
The Didcot, UK based British team is currently powered by Renault's V8 engine, but, as Formula 1 switches to new regulations for the 2014 season, Renault are charging more than Mercedes and Ferrari for its turbo V6.
Under the terms of the new agreement, Williams will be supplied with a Mercedes-Benz Power Unit (Internal Combustion Engine plus Energy Recovery System) by Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains (HPP) based in Brixworth, UK. However, Williams will continue to manufacture their own transmission.
The 2014 regulations will set the sport's engineers the challenge of completing a 300 km race distance on a fuel load of just 100 kg. To do so, teams will switch from naturally aspirated 2.4 litre V8 engines to 1.6 litre V6 turbocharged hybrid Power Units. To achieve power outputs comparable to current levels from the new Power Unit will require a 30% increase in energy efficiency.
This step forward will be largely achieved through an Energy Recovery System (ERS) that will be able to deploy ten times more energy than the current Kinetic Energy Recovery System (KERS). The new ERS will recover energy from both the exhaust turbine and the rear axle, as well as deploying energy back to both.
These new technical developments will offer significantly greater opportunities for technology transfer from Formula One to real world applications in areas such as battery technology, turbocharging, energy recovery and combustion efficiency.
Frank Williams, the Williams team principal told the
Guardian: 'I'm delighted to announce our new association with Mercedes-Benz for the 2014 Formula One season and beyond. Mercedes-Benz has been one of the sport's most successful engine suppliers and we believe that they will have an extremely competitive engine package. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Renault for their continued hard work since we renewed our engine partnership at the beginning of the 2012 season. We have enjoyed a strong relationship that has resulted in much success over the years, including powering us to winning ways once again last year at the Spanish Grand Prix.'
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