Mercedes AMG Formula One team leads both the championships after 15 race in the 2021 calendar.
And team feels they can achieve a good result in next two race at Turkey as well as Austin. However, according to Team Principal, Toto Wolff, the Silver Arrows might suffer at the Mexican Grand Prix.
Red Bull won Mexican GP back in 2017 and 2018 in the form of Max Verstappen, whereas Mercedes won back in 2016 and 2019 with Lewis Hamilton at the helm. Now after a year’s hiatus, the grid heads back to Mexico City, and Mercedes are concerned that it might affect the title race.
The title fight between Red Bull and Mercedes has never been this intense in Hybrid era. However, with the Mexican GP back on the F1 calendar, Wolff and Mercedes are skeptical about achieving a victory, as the track has favored their rivals Red Bull more than their car.
As quoted from Formula Passion. “I think Turkey is a good track for us. And Austin too. Then it will be a little more difficult in Mexico , which has been our Achilles heel every year. We hope that it goes back and forth between us and Red Bull and that we reach a grand finale at the end.” (Translated from Italian via Google).
High Altitude of Mexico City will Impact Car performance
Mexico City sits at an altitude of 2,250 metres above sea level, by far the highest of any circuit on the F1 calendar.
This has very significant implications upon the main performance parameters of the car. But more interestingly, the extent to which these changes effect each car differ and hence we invariably get something of a shake-up in the competitive order of the teams.
Taking a look at how the thinner air of such an altitude affects each of those car performance parameters will give some insight into why that shuffling of the pack tends to occur here.
At the lower pressures of high altitudes, air molecules spread out more so the air becomes less dense. The air in Mexico City will be approximately 25% less dense than that of a sea-level circuit such as, say, Bahrain. It will have around a quarter fewer air molecules in it. This has serious implications upon both the aerodynamic and engine performance of the car.
After taking Russian Grand Prix win this past weekend Mercedes hope to repeat the same in Istanbul. Last year when the grid visited Istanbul Park, it was the Brit who came out on top, claiming his record equaling seventh world title.
Now, as they return to Turkey for the 2021 season, Hamilton hopes to lead his Brackley-based squad into glory once again and further extend their lead in the championship.
Engine power
In a naturally-aspirated engine, the thinner air directly reduces the power potential. With less air to burn it cannot achieve the same force of explosion within its combustion chambers. However, turbocharged engines such as those currently used in F1 do not suffer this effect directly because the pressure of the air fed to the combustion chamber is controlled by the turbo. A lower density of air allows the turbo to simply spin faster to achieve the same air pressurisation (and therefore density) as at sea level.
But there are complications. Each of the four engines has an official turbine ‘burst point’ – the maximum speed at which it is safe and at which a failure would not result in the bursting of the turbo casing and the spreading of high-velocity debris all over the track. This burst point speed of each engine design is verified and homologated and provided to the FIA. The turbos cannot be run beyond this speed, regardless of the regulated limit of 120,000rpm. That simply means if the burst speed could be made as high as 120,000rpm, they would be allowed to run at that. But the burst speed is usually below that limit.
