Lewis Hamilton suffered technical issues in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix, which prevented him from setting a timed lap and required an engine replacement for the race. However, the team may be using that engine for this weekend’s Russian Grand Prix, as Mercedes believes that they have pinpointed and repaired the issue.
Following the incident, the team believed that an MGU-H issue had caused the failure. Mercedes sent the failed power unit back to their facility in Brixworth to be stripped and analyzed by their team of engineers. At the facility, they stripped the MGU-H, the motor generator unit that converts the heat from the exhaust gases into electrical energy that can be used to power the MGU-K. The team of engineers in Brixworth suspect that the failure was related to the insulation, but they also found debris in the oil system.
As a result, the team has replaced the power unit’s turbocharger and the oil pumps. Feeling confident that they have fixed the issue so that it will not occur again, the team will be shipping the engine to the Sochi Autodrom, where it will be kept on-hand as a spare power unit. That means that if the team needs to change the power unit, this is the replacement that will be going into the car. The team has ran numerous tests and computer simulations to ensure that the issues from China won’t resurface in a later event.
The restored power unit will be transported to the Sochi Autodrom in time for the third Russian Grand Prix this upcoming weekend.
