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[NocturnalTendencies]

Perusing SpeedTV's Abu Dhabi GP Chalk Talk video, Steve Matchett mentioned various engine rotation scenarios such as using new engines for circuits like Spa and Monza. That said and other than reliability concerns; is there any noticeable difference (horsepower, etc.) between running a new vs. used engine?

Just curious if the “tired engine” cliché has relevance.

Vid: http://www.speedtv.com/video/formula-1

Cheers

[Jabberwocky]

I was thinking about that a few weeks ago, do you remember when when the so many engines a year thing started, and everyone complained that the Merc engine was not getting as tired

[NocturnalTendencies]

I've infrequently heard these terms loosely referred to by teams in the past Jabberwocky but without elaboration as if it was either no biggie or they didn't want to reveal weaknesses. I was curious if it's a genuine concern or the engines remain strong throughout their lifetime.

Cheers

[bigpat]

Apparently at somewhere like Monza, there can be up to 0.3 sec per lap in running a tired engine. I think Mark Webber was caught by that this year.

I would say Monaco, and Hungary, would show the least effect. Even though the cars are pulling a lot of drag, the speeds are low. I could see somewhere like Spa, or Suzuka, being a place where you need a strong engine too....

I think it is widely known that Mercedes make the most powerful engines on the grid, so a drop off still means they have competitive power.

Funnily Adrian Newey commented at the Indian GP ( as said by Martin Brundle)that the Renault engine is rather peaky in performance, meaning that can't really gear the car to take full advantage of KERS, which results in the RB's bouncing off the rev limiter. Funny, as for a long time, Renault was known for building very user friendly, torquey engines, at the expense of outright horsepower.

[scotty]

The engines do lose some power as pistons etc wear, yes. I heard the Toyota engines used to suffer from the worst depreciation on top of being the least powerful in the first place, adding insult to injury much? They were pretty bulletproof but still...