Pre-ignition/detonation is not an issue with direct injection engines. Detonation is an issue if you induct a fuel air mixture prior to compressing it. With direct injection the fuel is only injected it at the point you want it to combust, and can be sprayed in after initial ignition as the piston is descending. That was the biggest technological leap forward that took Diesel engines out of the smelly, noisy, dirty pinging lazy lumps they were to today’s smooth running and quiet engines.
Apparently that’s not true for a thing like an F1 engine
According to brother in law (and i will check) the problem is you still need time for mixing. 15,000 rpm is i think quite differnt to say 6,500 in a diesel.
The numbers are 15,000 rpm is 125 hz or 4 milliseconds to go round once. Or 90 degrees of rotation every millisecond. The problem is that if you inject late enough to avoid knock then you don’t have enough time for fuel air mixing. This is probably made worse by the fact that you are trying to make max power from a certain rate of fuel delivery. Incomplete mixing will reduce effeciency
I myself wouldn’t believe tha knock was an issue it but his academic field is combustion physics. His research method is filming flame propagation in engines as the run. Shell have just checked his research kitty another 3 million to do work on their fuels. So convincing him he is wrong won’t be easy andto be honest its unlikely that he is wrong. But if you can come up with a convincing argument I’ll give it a go
knocking also gets a mention in this renault press release
http://www.autoblog.com/2014/01/22/renault-energy-f1-2014-power-unit-official/