© Photo | MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS

Ideal climate in the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team garage

ebm-papst garage cooling system to be used for the first time at the 2015 PETRONAS Malaysian Grand Prix at the end of March


ebm-papst has been an offi­cial Team Partner of MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS since 2014 and has devel­oped a special cooling and heat extrac­tion solu­tion for the garage of the 2014 FIA Formula One World Construc­tors’ Cham­pions. Ambient temper­a­tures and humidity are very high in Malaysia and Singa­pore, and the working temper­a­tures in the team garage can reach up to 40°C. An effi­cient and effec­tive cooling system in the garage there­fore crit­i­cally improves the working condi­tions for both the team and its two drivers, Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.

MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS will be using the ebm-papst garage cooling system for the first time this season at the Sepang Inter­na­tional Circuit in Malaysia. “We are really looking forward to having the ebm-papst cooling system oper­a­tional in our garage this weekend in Malaysia. During the race weekend, the pace of work is extremely hectic, and it can be a really tough chal­lenge for the drivers, engi­neers and mechanics in the partic­u­larly high heat and humidity loca­tions. It will be a huge help to us if the temper­a­ture in the garage is comfort­able, enabling the team to perform to the best of our ability” empha­sises Paddy Lowe, MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Exec­u­tive Director (Tech­nical).

garage cooling ebm-papst-2

An effi­cient and effec­tive cooling system in the garage crit­i­cally improves the working condi­tions for both the team and its two drivers. (Foto: MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS)

The garage provides space for the team’s two race cars, mechanics, aero­dy­namic, elec­tronics and IT special­ists as well as car parts and tyre storage areas. It’s a large area that is completely open at the front, allowing heat to come in. The specially devel­oped water-cooling system cools the crit­ical working areas of the garage down to room temper­a­ture. With dimen­sions measuring 1 m by 2 m by 90 cm and a modular air distri­b­u­tion system, the cooling unit can be config­ured for use in garages at the different Formula One circuit around the world, where dimen­sions and layouts can vary quite signif­i­cantly.

Gareth Jones, Managing Director of ebm-papst Auto­mo­tive & Drives (UK) Ltd, who was respon­sible for devel­oping the garage cooling system, adds: “During the prepa­ra­tions for the garage cooling I always joked with the team that it is our mission to make MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS offi­cially the coolest team in Formula One”.

ebm-papst, a global tech­nology leader in venti­la­tion and drive engi­neering, became an Offi­cial Team Partner of the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS Formula One Team last year. Prior to this, Formula One had changed its rules for the 2014 season to incor­po­rate greater energy effi­ciency and hybrid tech­nology. Fan specialist ebm-papst has since devel­oped energy-effi­cient attach­ment cooling solu­tions for the MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS F1 W05 Hybrid and F1 W06 Hybrid cars, which cool the temper­a­ture-sensi­tive compo­nents of the vehi­cles down to the optimum oper­ating temper­a­ture. These fans in the side­pods and roll hoop open­ings of the car are an essen­tial compo­nent of the car’s temper­a­ture manage­ment system. Further­more, devel­opers at ebm-papst and MERCEDES AMG PETRONAS hold tech­nical working groups to share exper­tise and best prac­tice on aero­dy­namics.

Keeping Cool in Malaysia – Feature at www.mercedesamgf1.com

Required fields: Comment, Name & Mail (Mail will not be published). Please also take note of our Privacy protection.

  • Mohamed Ameur on said:

    Hello,
    I’m Mohamed Ameur. I’m an inde­pen­dent researcher and inter­ested in the diffu­sion of air in busy envi­ron­ment.
    Indeed, we can assume that the air diffu­sion effi­ciency can be improved with a fabric diffuser.

    However, there is one very impor­tant point that is not mentioned in your article. This point is about the unifor­mity of air at the outlet of the fabric diffuser. It should be noted that the holes parti­tion you used in the fabric diffuser does not allow this unifor­mity. All the air comes out almost at the end of the fabric diffuser due to the increased pres­sure inside the tube (pres­sure regain).

    I will be very inter­ested to discuss with you as well as consider collab­o­rating together to set up an optimal model.

    Regards,
    Mohamed Ameur.

    • Katrin Lindner on said:

      Dear Mohamed Ameur,
      Thanks for your inter­esting work on our air ducting!
      Orig­i­nally the holes that were put into the flex­ible duct where defined by the areas that needed to be fed with air. The diam­eter and spacing was defined by how far away they were from the cooling system and how much cooling was required in each area. There was some trial and error with addi­tional holes being added after initial testing but now the system is performing well.

      We may take a deeper look into opti­mising the duct at a later stage.

      Best regards,
      James Cooper