The Paris Air Show at Le Bourget may be a novel place to have unveiled it, but nothing like mixing it up to make things more interesting. It was at the recent event that Renault introduced its race-intent Power Unit, designed to the new technical regulations to be used in F1 from 2014.
The F1 Power Unit, officially named Renault F1 Energy in a bid to illustrate its shared DNA with its road-going Energy cousins, is a 1.6 litre V6 direct injection turbocharged unit, with the pressure charging architecture consisting of a single turbine and compressor.
A new Energy Recovery System (ERS) is in place in the Renault F1 Energy, and offers twice the power (120 kW vs 60 kW) and a performance effect 10 times greater than the 2013 KERS. Incorporated in the system are two motor generator units (MGU), an MGU-H (Heat, which handles exhaust energy recovery) and MGU-K (Kinetic, which recovers kinetic energy during braking).
The MGU-K is connected to the crankshaft of the internal combustion engine and is capable of recovering or providing power (limited to 120 kW or 160 hp by the rules). Under braking, the MGU-K operates as a generator to slow the car - reducing the heat dissipated in the brakes - and recovers some of the kinetic energy, converting it into electricity. Under acceleration, the MGU-K is powered (from the Energy Store section and/or from the MGU-H) and acts as a motor to propel the car.
As for the MGU-H, it's connected to the turbocharger. Acting as a generator, it absorbs power from the turbine shaft to recover heat energy from the exhaust gases. The electrical energy can be either directed to the MGU-K or to the battery for storage for later use. The MGU-H is also used to control the speed of the turbocharger to match the air requirement of the engine.
No specific mention of output, but the company says that the maximum power of the new Power Unit will exceed the output of current V8 F1 engines, while radically improving fuel efficiency by around 35%.
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