Mercedes admitted working on engine reliability to make its power unit more competitive. The team is looking forward to introduced better power plant for the remaining Formula 1 races.
Mercedes is working to avoid any grid penalty for the current championship leader Lewis Hamilton. Nonetheless, the team is also working for any uncalled event to replace the power unit.
The concerns surfaced when the newly installed engine in Valtteri Bottas at Italy. But his car required a replacement at Russian Grand Prix, which highlighted reliability issues.
The power-plant replacement put the Finn down the order. The Mercedes team is analyzing the issues faced at Monza and judge if the same could be used at a later stage.
Toto Wolff, Mercedes team boss, admitted that the issue is unsettled at the moment regrading power unit.
Despite teams urge to win eighth championship, it requires commitment to next year season.
“That’s why we’re having a few balls in the air. Because you need to have the right balance between making sure that you really sort out all the gremlins that you have in the power unit. Not only for this year but also for next year’s power unit,” he said.
“Definitely, we are in a phase of assessment on how to continue the season in terms of power units.”
Hamilton was mindful of not over burdening the power units to avoid any chaos.
“Of course I lost one engine. Valtteri’s had several,” he said.
“And there’s been others that Mercedes have seen up and down the paddock.
“So right now, I’m trying to treat my engines, the ones that we put in, with the absolute care when I’m driving.
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“In terms of how much I’m gassing it, how much just revving the things, revving the nuts off it, really trying to minimise the laps that I do.”
Wolff revealed that Bottas Italian spec engine is under inspection for reassessment before Istanbul Park race.
“We want to understand the engine’s performance, and that has given us some question marks,” he explained.
“At the moment we just take it one race weekend at the time. Reassess the performance of the power unit, and then that’s it.”
Wolff asserted that team cannot afford a failure and engine reliability has raised alarms.
“It’s always reliability versus performance, it’s always a fine line that you need to get right,” he said.
“DNFing, obviously, is a no go for the championship. And nobody, neither us nor our competitors, can afford a zero points race weekend.”
