Mercedes are concerned their Austrian Grand Prix retirements could lead to a grid penalty at Silverstone this weekend.
A fuel pressure problem ended Lewis Hamilton’s race and a loss of a hydraulic pressure forced Valtteri Bottas to retire.The team’s technical director James Allison said the team hopes to avoid any penalties at the British Grand Prix. “We think both of the failures that we had were confined to the items that failed and they’re both things that can be replaced without having to break into the sealed areas of the w car that attract sporting penalties,” he said.
However Allison said the team is still looking into the effect the retirement had on its cars.
“Every time the car stops in an uncontrolled way, where a failure happens and the system is then shut down in a manner that is unusual and where the car can suffer all manner of unknown gremlins, you can’t be completely sure until we’ve done all the necessary checks to be certain that the bits of the car that are sealed and do attract sporting penalties weren’t in any way affected by these uncontrolled shutdowns.
“So we’ve got a bit of work on our plates at the moment to make sure that we’re not taking any undue risks with parts that were not to do with the failure that might have had some consequential damage. But we don’t think so – we think we’ll be in good shape for Silverstone.”
Following Sunday’s race Lewis Hamilton told media he was concerned he might have to take a penalty at Silverstone. But Hamilton is not in immediate danger of receiving a penalty.
As both drivers retired from the race Mercedes will not incur a penalty for fitting new gearboxes to their W09s. Hamilton can also change all six different parts of his power unit once more without receiving a penalty.
However Bottas has already used his final allocated energy store and control electronics, and will take a penalty if new examples of those are fitted.
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Markp
3rd July 2018, 18:45
Be nice if they both fail again and wipe out their artificial tyre advantage. If so expect Pirelli to reintroduce the special tyres at 3 or 4 of the remaining races.
CarWars (@maxv)
3rd July 2018, 22:29
Tin foil hat much? Last time i checked the Ferrari’s were great on the tires. Merc was struggling..
Justin C.
4th July 2018, 0:56
@maxv
He’s referring to the thinner tires used in Spain, France and now Britain this weekend. Mercedes owned both races so far on those compounds. Read up a bit.
Esploratore (@esploratore)
4th July 2018, 0:57
He’s right in the fact that those special tyres favour mercedes, I don’t think pirelli will introduce them for even more races though, if they do, they’re mercedes fans, considering mercedes, even with the tyres teams agreed about at the start of the season, are still strong and generally the team to beat.
Robbie (@robbie)
4th July 2018, 2:20
As I recall, ahead of the first race where the shaved tires were used, SV pointed out that it was through Mercedes and (I forget the other team) lobbying for these tires back during pre-season testing and that that is very normal and that Ferrari simply didn’t share the same concerns back in Feb, so didn’t feel the need to push for the tires.
Some people took that to mean he was accusing Mercedes of having an unfair advantage, yet he was never doing that at all…just pointing out that Mercedes may do better on them than on the ‘regular’ tires, because they had pushed for them. When all was said and done SV admitted, after comparing shaved and unshaved tires in the post-Spain test, a unique opportunity, that in fact Ferrari likely benefitted from them too.
KGN11
4th July 2018, 9:37
You guys surely have a habit of omitting information so as to vilify a team or driver.
RBR, McL & Ferrari complained about the severe blistering they were experiencing in testing, AMuS then reported that Mercedes had requested to Pirelli’s they changed the tyres. AMuS then later clarified that no such request was made. Seb in Spain then accused Pirelli of making tyres that suited Mercedes because he struggled with those tyres in the race. The following week when they did the test, he tried the unmodified tyres and he suffered the same issues and he then came out and admitted that his struggles had nothing to do with the change in tyres as he would’ve suffered the same with the original ones. Seb was directly accusing Pirelli, because he actually said so.
And just to add, they didn’t have any modified tyres in Austria and Mercedes locked out the front row. I know you’re then going to say, “but they suffered with blistering”… well apart from Ferrari, everyone suffers with severe blistering, which was partly to do with the increase in track temps on race day, which was the highest it had been at anytime during the weekend.
N
4th July 2018, 10:18
“He’s right in the fact that those special tyres favour mercedes”
No he’s not. After the Spanish GP during in-season testing, Ferrari and Vettel got to try the old tires around the very same circuit they had just raced on with the new tires and both admitted that they would have been even worse off using the old tires.
It baffles me how so many people keep touting this nonsense that they are special merc tires.
RB14
4th July 2018, 12:42
MarkP – biggest troll in the game back on his hype wagon.
RB14
4th July 2018, 12:43
Be nice if you forgot about this website and went and joined your troll pals on PF1 too
ruliemaulana (@ruliemaulana)
4th July 2018, 3:45
James Allison
Gary
4th July 2018, 8:43
After they get the broken down Mercedes back to the factory, when they go to start the car for the first time, as the onboard computers are booting, they have to press and hold the Shift key, and tap the F8 key repeatedly until the Recovery screen appears, which put the startup in “Safe Mode”
KGN11
4th July 2018, 9:38
This headline is way over the top
Potsie (@potsie159)
5th July 2018, 14:59
Agreed. Come on Keith – surely you had looked at the James Allison video that you posted in your “Mercedes assumed they would get second chance to pit Hamilton” that you had published half an hour before this article. James Allison made it quite clear that they hoped why would not have a penalty due to their cars being shut down in an uncontrolled manner at Austria. I think that saying that Mercedes is ‘concerned’ in your headline when they actually said something difference is exactly the sort of reporting that Kimi was talking about when he responded to David Cofts’ question at the Austria drivers press conference. Kimi said something along the lines of ‘It doesn’t matter what I say, you will write whatever you want to anyway’… please down reduce yourself to Crofty’s level Mr @KeithCollantine
Potsie (@potsie159)
5th July 2018, 15:00
edit – I meant to say – please *don’t* reduce yourself to Crofy’s level Mr Collantine.
Jackson
5th July 2018, 2:44
Good because if it wasn’t for them, we’d at least have 4 engines allowed rather than the ridiculous 3