Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Removal of 'black boxes' of little benefit to Mercedes

Andy Cowell says Mercedes will receive little benefit from the removal of black boxes regarding engine development this season.

While certain parts of the power unit had initially been blocked off for development - with that number set to increase each year - 2016 sees the whole power unit opened up in order to allow manufacturers to make improvements. With Cowell saying Mercedes did not want its rivals to have any disadvantages locked in, he also says the change in regulations will not open up large opportunities for the defending champions.

Asked if Mercedes has focused on areas now available for development following the removal of the black boxes, Cowell replied: "Not really, no.

"When we were faced with the rules for 2014 there was a big focus to make sure we put as much performance in as possible knowing we wouldn’t be able to do any more during the season, and we put a lot of effort into the areas we knew would become restricted under the black boxes.

"Those black boxes were put in the technology areas where we thought there wouldn’t be appetite for change and the combustion area stays white forever. One of the black boxes was the architecture of the crankshaft and the position of cylinder one compared to that plain because we said after two years we should probably stop messing around with that. For this year you can work on what you like with 32 tokens."

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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.