Reliability is a growing concern in the Mercedes, as the team reveals that both drivers suffered from mechanical failures during the race which hindered their performance. Despite these issues, both cars did make it to the finish line, but Toto Wolff admits that “there was a point when we thought neither of them might make it to the flag”.
The weekend started off poorly on Lewis Hamilton’s side of the garage, as he suffered a repeat issue from China in a different power unit. This is despite Mercedes’ investigation at the team’s Brackley facility into the issue that destroyed the Brit’s qualifying session at the Chinese Grand Prix. The failure was related to the MGU-H and the team had previously believed that it was related to insulation in the power unit, but they were clearly wrong, as the reigning World Champion was forced to pull into the garage during qualifying, causing him to miss out on Q3. The team put in a lot of hard work overnight to ensure that Hamilton would keep his P10 grid position and not be forced to start the race from the pit lane. The team will conduct some further investigations into the issue before the next race.
They were successful in getting the car to the grid and eventually successful in navigating the car home, but the team has revealed that water leak may have caused Hamilton to miss out on battling with his teammate for the race victory. “Some really good, aggressive passing manoeuvres and clever racing brought him to P2 – and he was just getting his head down to charge when we saw a water leak and he was losing water pressure,” Toto Wolff, the Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, confessed to the press after the race. “The only thing to do was ask him to back off to bring the car home and fortunately that meant the situation stabilised but cost him the chance of racing Nico.”
Although Hamilton appears to have suffered the most from poor Mercedes reliability, Nico Rosberg’s race victory was not as straight forward as it could have been. The team revealed after the race that he had struggled with MGU-K issues after his pit stop. Fortunately, the team was able to manage the issue and bring the car home under its own power and not on the back of a recovery vehicle. However, this doesn’t erase the fact that the team suffered from reliability issues on both of their cars.
Although both cars were able to make it to the end of the Grand Prix and get a 1-2 result for the team, Wolff admits that there was a serious concern about whether or not both cars would be able to make it to the end. “That race was anything but plain sailing today – it was a pretty stressful experience to get both cars home, and there was a point when we thought neither of them might make it to the flag,” he explained.
As Rosberg strengthens his World Drivers’ Championship lead to 43 points over his teammate, he realizes that although the performance may be positive for the Mercedes, reliability is becoming an increasing concern. However, he feels that the team is strong enough to eventually iron out these issues. “The only down side to the weekend was to see that reliability is becoming a bit of a concern, as Lewis obviously has a problem yesterday and both cars had issues during the race today,” said Rosberg. “But we have a great team behind us and I’m fully confident that we will sort this out.”
Of course, a growing concern among Mercedes fans, specifically Hamilton fans, is that there is a conspiracy within the Mercedes garage and that they are rigging the results in favor of Rosberg. The team has understandably rubbished these claims, but that doesn’t stop the conspiracy theorists from spreading the rumors. Wolff praised Hamilton in China for his positive attitude, despite the events that have unfolded this season. “The guys on my side of the garage are having a really hard time of it at the moment – but I have every faith and confidence in them,” said Lewis Hamilton. “We’ve swapped things round in the garage a bit this season but that is absolutely not the reason we’ve been having issues. It hasn’t been the case for the past three years and I have no reason to believe it would be now.” He continued by addressing the importance of fixing the issues as soon as possible, saying, “I’ve got a long way to go yet this season with not many healthy engine parts left, so we need to do a better job on reliability.”
The team will be looking for resolve their technical issues before the next round of the championship in Spain. This gives the team two weeks to sort out their issues before Formula One returns to Europe for a two race stint, beginning with the Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya on the weekend of May 15.
Weekend Summary: 2016 Russian Grand Prix
More Troubles For Hamilton In Russia
Hamilton’s China Power Unit Restored For Russia
Disaster For Hamilton In Qualifying
Rosberg Almost Retired From The Australian Grand Prix
