Barcelona, Spain - Formula One pacesetter Mercedes will try out a new 'megaphone' style exhaust in testing next week as the sport seeks ways of raising noise levels and placating fans angered by the new, quieter V6 engines.
The team said the 'prototype solution' to boost tailpipe noise would be put on the car at a scheduled test in Barcelona after Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, the fifth race of the year.
Reports had earlier suggested they could do so in Friday practice but the team said that would not happen.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
German media quoted Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff earlier in the week as saying that possible solutions ranged from the very complex to putting a “simple megaphone at the back”.
Formula One has ditched the raucous, screaming 2.4-litre V8 engines with their twin exhausts this season in favour of turbocharged 1.6-litre V6 power units with energy recovery systems and a single tailpipe.
Critics panned the softer sound at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix with promoters complaining and the sport's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone saying the noise needed to be louder.
Reuters