Mercedes leads both the drivers’ and constructors’ championships heading into the final seven races of 2021. But, according to Team Principal Toto Wolff, the Silver Arrows are far from at comfort, with power unit concerns at the forefront of their minds as the season comes to a close.
With his 100th Grand Prix victory in Russia, Lewis Hamilton helped Mercedes maintain their unblemished Sochi record. However, after replacing teammate Valtteri Bottas’ power unit at the Italian Grand Prix two weeks prior, Mercedes took the unexpected decision to give Bottas a fifth power unit in Russia, relegating him to P16.
Wolff said after the Russian Grand Prix when asked about the decision and whether it was a way of ‘stockpiling’ power units for Bottas for the rest of the year: “I think we haven’t only made the cautionary engine change because we felt we wanted to stockpile, but also because we want to understand the engine’s performance – and that has given us some question marks.”
Wolff refused to clarify on what those question marks were. When asked if he thought Bottas or Hamilton would need to take on extra power units this year, Wolff replied, “We’re just taking it one race weekend at a time – and [then we’ll] reassess the performance of the power units and then take decisions.
“At the moment we are reassessing the performance of the power units because we have question marks, and therefore haven’t decided which engines would go back into the pool,” he added.
The power unit issue is particularly severe for teams right now, with Mercedes, like their sister engine suppliers, having to homologate their power units by the start of 2022, with that design then frozen until at least 2025.
And Wolff stated that this is why Mercedes is so concerned about power unit performance right now, considering that they will be stuck with it for at least three seasons beginning in 2022.
“That’s why we’re having a few balls in the air,” explained Wolff, “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 this year but also for next year’s power unit.
“So definitely we are in a phase of assessment, [of] how to continue this season in terms of power units.”
Hamilton now leads rival Max Verstappen by two points in the drivers’ standings, with Mercedes leading Red Bull by 33 points in the constructors’ standings.
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