A CONVENTIONAL EXHAUST MANIFOLD
As early as 2014, Renault went for a conventional manifold design to expel exhaust gasses and feed the turbine. Having initially followed another philosophy, Mercedes came up with a distinctive log manifold, before switching to a Renault-like installation this year. Each cylinder has its own exhaust, with the pipes then merging into the collector. On the picture above, the three openings are easy to see, which corresponds to the number of cylinders you have on each bank of the V6.
The length and diameter of the pipes, the collector angle, etc. all these elements have a critical impact on how well an engine can ‘breathe’. The very same pipe can have several different diameters in order to create shock waves that resound back and help improve charging. Taking into account fluid dynamics and vibrations in the exhaust gas column, engineers eventually come up with complex, tangled and twisted pipe designs, which are optimised to reach better turbocharging efficiency.
With F1 engineers always eager to shed more weight off their cars, any exhaust manifold is made out of thin metal sheets. However, this solution increases heat loss, hence all engine suppliers wrapping up their exhaust pipes in a kind of insulating blanket (see picture) in order to maintain heat in the manifold and foster the expansion of gases.
Renault Sport F1 Director of Operations Rémi Taffin recently told F1i that Viry had mostly focussed on re-designing the combustion chamber, as well as reviewing the inlet and exhaust systems on its power unit. Indeed, the internal combustion engine (ICE) remains the biggest source of power and the cardinal element in the performance cycle.
“The ERS and battery are obviously very important and must work flawlessly for us to perform, but these components are not actually generating performance in the first place,” he said. “It all starts with the ICE.”
