Stuttgart [Germany], April 2 : Mercedes technical director James Allison admitted that the team's dismal start to the 2024 Formula One season has prompted questions about the relationship between simulator results and track performance.
Mercedes have shared some insight into the investigations going on at their dedicated F1 power unit facility in Brixworth after Lewis Hamilton's engine-related retirement from the Australian Grand Prix.
Hamilton was forced to pull off the track after just 17 laps of racing at Albert Park, with teammate George Russell's late accident adding insult to injury and marking Mercedes' first double DNF since the 2018 Austrian Grand Prix.
When asked during the team's post-race debrief video if they knew what caused Hamilton's failure, Mercedes Technical Director James Allison replied, "We do not. The power units will return to the safe hands of the guys at Brixworth, who will be able to figure out what let go. All we know is the symptoms at the time, which was a rapid loss of oil pressure followed by a shutdown of the engine to protect it."
"When you know you've got catastrophic loss like that, the best thing you can do for the future is kill it there and then, and then you have not got like a load of molten metal. You have normally got a fairly clear evidence chain of what caused it and then that lets you work better for the future. So, we do not know yet, [but] Brixworth and HPP [Mercedes High Performance Powertrains] will do in short order," Allison said as quoted by Formula 1.
"No doubt as soon as we know then they will jump to with their characteristic energy to make sure that any risk that happens on any other engine is mitigated as best we can," Allison said.
Allison emphasised, however, that there are no serious concerns about the team's reliability going forward, with "all our focus" concentrating on extracting more performance from the W15 and coming closer to the front of the field.
"DNFs are thankfully a rare thing for us. We have drivers who are particularly good at keeping it on the island and our reliability overall is a strong point. It is unusual to have a double DNF like that. It is certainly not something we expect to punctuate our season. What we are more focused on is the pace because if you get the pace sorted out the season will be okay whatever happens," he commented.
Following the first three rounds of the season following their double DNF in Australia, Mercedes is fourth in the constructors' standings, below McLaren, Ferrari, and Red Bull.
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