Lewis Hamilton’s engine, which failed at the Australian Grand Prix, has been confirmed by Mercedes to be discarded.
After just 17 laps, Hamilton was forced to stop by the side of the track due to a power unit malfunction, ending his race in Melbourne. Mercedes returned the engine to its Brixworth location so that they could determine the precise cause of the problem.
It was hoped they would be able to identify the issue and resolve it in order to make it usable once more this year. Delays resulted from the fact that the nature of the problem was not immediately apparent.
Mercedes has now realized that the engine cannot be salvaged. This indicates that Hamilton is currently using his second power unit of the season, which is not ideal.
Throughout the 24-race Formula 1 season, drivers are only permitted to use four internal combustion engines, which means they must complete an average of six full race weekends. Hamilton lost one after just three, which means there is a much higher chance that he will require a fifth.
If, as now appears inevitable, he is required to take a fifth ICE this year, there will be an automatic grid penalty. Thankfully, Mercedes’ diagnostic efforts have also resulted in some encouraging news for the group.
Their engineers think that rather than an engine design flaw, the issue with the engine was a bottom end failure brought on by a difficulty with quality control. Consequently,
How the likelihood of it being a recurring problem has been determined to be low.
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Nevertheless, even though it was an isolated incident, it ended up hurting Hamilton and the squad. They therefore left Melbourne empty-handed, and George Russell, their teammate, was also left without a point after retiring from the race late on.
Mercedes’ worse start to an F1 season since 2012, with just 26 points after three races. For Hamilton, it has been even worse; his meager eight points at this point in the season is the lowest since he began competing in 2007.
He told reporters, nevertheless, that he is still upbeat about the remainder of the season: “We’ve not started the season where we wanted to be, but we still have a long way to go… We’re only going to keep chasing and battling, and maybe at some point we can be fighting at the front.”