Importance of split turbo not overplayed - Mercedes

The importance of a split turbo design in its power unit has been a major factor in Mercedes' recent success, admits Andy Cowell.

When the new V6 power unit regulations were brought in, Mercedes opted to split its turbo so that the compressor sits at the front of the engine and the turbine at the rear. It's a solution which has not been copied by its rivals so far, and when asked if that is a situation which surprises him or if the significance of the design has been overplayed Cowell - who is managing director of Mercedes High Performance Powertrains - replied: "I don’t think it was overplayed.

"Is it the silver bullet? I think it is something where there are a lot of positive contributions that go into make that decision, so it’s not done for one reason, it’s done for many reasons to make it something that we think is still attractive.

"I think the thing that goes against it is that it’s bloody hard! In the whole debate there wasn’t one big reason why we should do it, but there were a lot of medium-sized reasons why we should do it.

"On the contra side of the table there was the question of ‘bloody hell, how are we going to do this?’. That was the thousand pound gorilla. But there was nothing that said it couldn’t be done, it was just that it hadn’t been done. And that’s quite fun, isn’t it?"

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