Mercedes, Renault and Honda fire up 2019 engines

With pre-season testing kicking off in just over a weeks' time, teams are putting the final touches on their cars before they are launched and shipped to Barcelona.

Last week, Ferrari released the audio of its new engine firing up at its factory in Maranello. Now the other manufacturers have followed suit ahead of the new season.

Mercedes enters the year as reigning champions for the fifth consecutive year and will once again supply engines to its works team, the newly branded Racing Point team and Williams, who is looking to bounce back from a dreadful 2018 season.

Renault will also supply its works team as well as McLaren, who failed to successfully develop the MCL33 last year, leaving it to end the season competing at the back of the grid.

Its long-relationship with Red Bull dissolved, who opted to sign with Honda. The Japanese manufacturer spent the 2018 campaign with its sister team Toro Rosso, meaning 2019 will mark the first time since it rejoined the grid that it will supply more than one team.

Replies (6)

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  • The Mercedes again sounds like a beast, the Renault sounding better compared to last year, yet still sound way tamer than Merc', and the Honda again sounding completely different to the rest. I wonder what the Ferrari will look like, they tend to have the best sounding engine IMO.

    • + 0
    • Feb 9 2019 - 15:41
  • It's gonna be a fun week! Drivers, Start Those Engines!

    That Honda idles like a bucket of bolts. Where's the audio for Ferrari? Guess we'll have to start perusing other F1 sites again as the season ramps up.

    • + 0
    • Feb 9 2019 - 18:22
    • Ferrari released their clip a few days ago. At any rate, if I wanna hear what the cars will sound like, I tend to not search for that among the more conventional medias. Listening to these up here even is nice and all, but tell us very little of what the cars will sound like. Youtube tend to be better for direct comparisons.

      • + 0
      • Feb 9 2019 - 18:34
  • Major Tom

    Posts: 152

    Sounds right rough to me!

    • + 0
    • Feb 10 2019 - 00:27
  • boudy

    Posts: 1,168

    The Renault sounded like a beast very angry, I wonder if the reverse is what you need for actual power generation. So the less noise the more energy is captured through the MGU-H.

    The Honda sounded smooth with no real throttle aggression. Mercedes PU sounds really good with consistent harmonics unlike the Honda. Could Honda be doing some kind of trickery using during the exhaust phase in their engine?

    • + 0
    • Feb 10 2019 - 07:47
    • Yup, but one can still pretty clearly hear the typical French Eeeeaaaaauuuu in the Renault engine. ;) As for Honda: possible but unlikely. I find it more likely that they ran a different program than Mercedes, hence the stark contrast. I also find it likely that Renault ran a different program to the other two.

      • + 0
      • Feb 10 2019 - 09:35

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