Mercedes will not run its new ‘phase two’ power units more conservatively following the failure Lance Stroll suffered in his Racing Point yesterday.
The manufacturer introduced its latest specification for all six cars using its power units this weekend. However Stroll’s new unit was replaced for his previous engine after he experienced a spectacular failure during second practice.“It came as a surprise to us,” Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff admitted. However he remains confident in the reliability of the new power units.
“We have been running those engines on the dynos and still believe that what we have seen on the dyno counts. You can’t turn them down or run them differently because of a failure – that is very difficult to judge, to somehow change the way we run the engine.”
“Of course we’re not happy for Lance and for Racing Point,” he added. “They’ve missed a complete session with the new engine that went bust.
“So we need to understand what it was, which we don’t at the moment, so there remains a question mark over what happened. But overall I’m happy that we introduced a fresh engine and just take it from there, try to learn with every mile we are going to run these engines.”
Stroll, who qualified 17th, said having to switch back to the new power unit “had a big impact on the final result” in qualifying.
“I missed out on doing any laps in final practice and we had to go back to the old spec engine, which is several tenths down on performance,” he said.
“The guys and girls in the garage did a great job to fit the new power unit in time for qualifying, but I just felt on the back foot going into the session. Without these problems, I’m sure I could have gone further in qualifying.”
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Joe
9th June 2019, 11:27
Oil leaks, was it I saw elsewhere. Does that even have to be an engine issue per see or could that be an installation error?
RocketTankski
9th June 2019, 11:38
Lance demanded rocket boosters, but it needs some further work.
[TR]
9th June 2019, 11:51
Clearly a mistake. Stroll is a benchmark for F1. Mercedes would do well to follow his lead.
Angelina
9th June 2019, 18:02
“Having to switch back to the old power unit had a big impact on the final result in qualifying”. What’s his excuse for the past 6 qualifying sessions (excluding the 5/6 before that as he was with the boat that is Williams)