The summer shutdown isn't just for the racing teams. It's also for the Power Unit manufacturers too, with work in Brixworth stopping as team members enjoy a hard-earned break.
It's been a strong season for our colleagues at Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains, with strong Power Unit performance and reliability across the four teams who run Mercedes-AMG power.
Just before work stopped in Brixworth, we caught up with Hywel Thomas, Managing Director of Mercedes AMG HPP, to see how the season has gone so far. Including the challenges of the hardware and software freezes.
Hywel Thomas: "This is the second year of the performance hardware freeze. That still allowed us to do reliability upgrades over the winter and we corrected several areas we'd learned about over the previous season. We also had the software freeze for the first time. That was a real departure for us and took some thought on our approach to it. And then we had the challenge of getting lots of hardware together for the first hardware drop. We also weren't entirely sure of the sort of performance the cars would have this year, the amount of bouncing, downforce and therefore amount of full throttle time. It all seemed a bit up in the air, so we tried to keep an open mind and be ready for whatever came."
Part of that reliability push has been on how we make the perfect race weekend
Hywel Thomas
HT: "The biggest surprise and disappointment we had was the first three events. We suffered a DNF in each event across the works and customer teams. That really forced us to focus on understanding how we got into that situation and make sure we weren't just putting sticking plasters over the issues. That characterised the first quarter of the season. It caused a lot of reflection and change in the way we were doing things to make sure we didn't have further repeats. Part of that reliability push has been on how we make the perfect race weekend. For example, the perfect Friday when we take the Power Unit out of the box. We've had too many issues on a Friday, so we've done an enormous amount of work to try and understand what the Power Unit is going through, to make sure we've got all our set-ups correct."
HT: "Reliability has always been a key aspect for us. Any DNF is hugely detrimental, and we could see that at the start of the season when we had them. That's nothing new, but there is even less of an excuse now because we are not permitted to add performance."
HT: "With the freezes and therefore the requirement for us to optimise, that makes the relationship even more important. You are not just talking about how to optimise the Power Unit, but the entire car, the driver and what part the Power Unit is playing in that. There has been a lot of emphasis on driveability, cooling, really getting to grips with driver, chassis, and Power Unit interaction."
It's been good to see some strong results for all the teams we power
Hywel Thomas
HT: "There's a lot of pride involved in all our Power Units. We have a lot of people embedded in all the different teams and when the product is successful, that's all we want from the work we do. Our biggest focus is always on the works team but it's also important that all our customers are receiving a fast, reliable product. We supply Power Units to four teams, and they all run the same PETRONAS fuel and lubricants, too. We have scored a total of 13 podiums so far this season, with our works team and two customers. It's been good to see some strong results for all the teams we power."
HT: "The F1 seasons are long. The number of races, and both double and triple headers. It's a tough season. The great thing about the shutdown is everyone is away. It means you can leave your work on the Friday evening and when you come back, nothing has changed. You really can have a proper break and it's very helpful. I'm looking forward to it and it's very well deserved for everyone at the factories."
HT: "After the shutdown very little changes in terms of our current race programme. We've got to make sure we're completely reliable, we've got to find whatever lap time we can, we need to optimise everything and make sure we are listening to what the Power Unit is telling us, the car is telling us and the drivers too. There are still opportunities out there. At the same time, there is a big focus on the 2026 programme. The amount of time we've got gets shorter every day and the size of the task isn't getting any smaller. Focus is shifting to that project during this year to make sure we start the next regulation cycle in the most competitive shape possible and we are working closely with our Title and Technical Partner PETRONAS as these new Power Units will run 100% fully sustainable fuels. That's a big challenge."
HT: "We've been working with PETRONAS for many years now, so we have a great relationship with them. We both have the same shared goal and passion, the no stone unturned mentality and trying to maximise every opportunity we can. Despite the limitations within the technical regulations, we've been pushing hard with PETRONAS to find gains and their products have really contributed to the performance and reliability across the works team and our customer teams. We need to keep working together in this way through the remainder of the season, alongside the big focus of the 2026 programme."