Chapter 2 of 5 · 1 min read
The Hybrid System
The clever part of the power unit is that it recovers energy that would otherwise be wasted, stores it, and uses it again. The component at the heart of this is the MGU-K — a motor-generator linked to the engine.
- 01
Harvest under braking
As the driver brakes, the MGU-K acts as a generator, turning the car’s momentum into electrical energy instead of wasting it all as heat.
- 02
Store in the battery
That energy is banked in the Energy Store — the battery pack.
- 03
Deploy for acceleration
On the next straight the MGU-K runs as a motor, pouring that stored energy back in as extra power.
The same idea sits in many road-going hybrids — it is called regenerative braking — but F1 does it at an extreme scale, recovering and redeploying large amounts of energy every single lap. The battery (the Energy Store) is deliberately limited in how much it can take in and give out, so the system is less about raw capacity and more about cycling energy rapidly: fill it on the brakes, empty it on the straight, over and over for the whole race.
Because the MGU-K does much of its harvesting *through* the rear brakes, the braking system is brake-by-wire: a computer blends the driver’s pedal pressure with the electrical harvesting so the car slows smoothly and predictably. Get that blend wrong and the brake feel changes from corner to corner — one reason braking consistency is such a prized driver skill in the hybrid era.
Key takeaways
- The MGU-K harvests braking energy and redeploys it for acceleration.
- Recovered energy is stored in the battery (Energy Store).
- It is regenerative braking taken to an extreme, cycling energy every lap.
- Rear braking is blended electronically (brake-by-wire) with harvesting.
- The heat-recovery MGU-H has been dropped; the MGU-K is now much more powerful.