STILL THE TOP GUN BUT…
While the Mercedes power unit remained the best in the field in 2016, the clutch proved troublesome all year long and ended up playing a defining role in the outcome of the title fight between eventual champion Nico Rosberg and runner-up Lewis Hamilton.
The German seemed more at ease during starts, though he lost the lead from pole position in Hungary and Germany. His British rival, for his part, endured sluggish getaways from pole on four occasions (Australia, Bahrain, Spain, and Italy), while also losing many positions in Japan where he was on the front row.
Reliability wise, the 2016-spec PU106C was remarkably efficient… except on Hamilton’s Mercedes W07. The triple world champion suffered ERS issues in China and Russia but the biggest blow came in Malaysia when a failure took him out of a race he was comfortably leading.
WHAT TO EXPECT IN 2017?
With the minimum weight of the car rising from 702kg to 722kg, the fuel limit has been raised from 100kg to 105kg, perhaps also to make up for the expected increase in drag due to wider tyres and new-look wings.
The much-maligned engine development token system has been canned, which should allow rival suppliers to play catch up. Renault has been working on an entirely new concept, while Honda said it already had several upgrades in the pipeline in 2016 but could not introduce them all under the tokens regulations.
Finally, faster cars mean that the power units will need to be more robust to cope with higher demands.
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