'Strange noises' on Mercedes V6s, reliability in doubt

Red Bull’s thesis is confirmed: if Mercedes is somewhat limited on reliability this year, it is because the fight in the championship is very close.

Indeed Lewis Hamilton has changed heat engine for Turkey and will have a penalty of 10 places tomorrow. Even more worrying, the new engine of Valtteri Bottas mounted at Monza very quickly gave signs of fragility.

Toto Wolff reveals it and therefore recognizes it today: Mercedes is at the limit on reliability. And doesn’t even understand why his heat engine makes strange noises… As bizarre as they are worrying!

“It’s delicate, when you start to push the limits of engine performance, you run into a few hurdles. Our engines have been the most reliable since the introduction of the turbo hybrid V6s in 2014. ”

“ Because these limits are pushed back, we have seen examples of, say, unusual noises in the heat engine that are not yet fully understood at this point and therefore caused some problems. In the past we had engines that failed and now it’s about containing the problem, because in this phase there is no question of redesigning the parts. »

Changing thermal engine for Lewis Hamilton was therefore obvious in Istanbul. Although Mercedes will also be able to use old V6s, especially in free practice.

“It was clear that we had to take the fourth unit power. The question is how and when do we want to deploy unit number three, which is still in the pool. “

” This is something that we will have to assess in the next two races because we might decide not to. use that on Friday or use that too, say, on Saturday or Sunday. »

And why not have changed all the other parts of the power unit? Christian Horner has already suggested that by changing only the heat engine, Mercedes will put the other components of Lewis Hamilton’s power unit under pressure.

But Toto Wolff believes that Mercedes made the right choice.

“The other parts, like the turbo or the other auxiliary elements, are in very good condition. good condition and very easily within mileage limits; and therefore we did not need to take new components. »

Solving the reliability problems becomes urgent for Toto Wolff and Mercedes: because the engines will be frozen for three years at the beginning of next year.

“The balance between performance and reliability has always been the key metric over the past two years. years, and it will be the same in the future. We will not carry over any deficit to next year, because the deficits have been understood and it is now a question of finding solutions to remedy them. “