Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsTechnical

Customers choose exhaust configuration - Mercedes

©MercedesAMGPetronas

Mercedes customers will choose whether to have one or two additional exhaust pipes this year, with the manufacturer opting for two.

New regulations regarding the exhausts require the 2016 cars to have a separate pipe from the wastegate which exits out of the rear of the car. Since 2014 the wastegate pipe has fed directly in to a single main exhaust pipe. However, it was acting as a silencer and so this year's regulations have been introduced in an attempt to increase the noise from the power unit.

With the regulations permitting up to two wastegate exhausts, Mercedes AMG High Performance Powertrains managing director Andy Cowell says each of the customers will be allowed to make their own decisions over whether to have one or two additional pipes.

"It’s team choice," Cowell said. "We say that [the wastegate exit] is where you start and the pressure drop mustn’t be greater than X with a flow rate of Y, so it will be interesting to see what a lot of the cars have got."

Mercedes released a video of its new power unit for its 2016 car - the W07 - firing up on Monday, with a configuration of two wastegate pipes below the main exhaust.

This year Mercedes will also supply Williams, Force India and Manor with power units.

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.