Solving unreliability ‘number one’ for Mercedes – Wolff

Mercedes will leave no stone unturned in pursuit of a solution to its growing unreliability issues, pledged team boss Toto Wolff.

Championship leader Kimi Antonelli retired from the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix with three laps remaining due to an engine problem, the second time in three grands prix that a Mercedes works car has failed to see the checkered flag owing to a power unit problem after George Russell’s car stopped while leading the Canadian Grand Prix.

Defending champion Lando Norris also retired from the Monaco Grand Prix last weekend with a Mercedes engine problem, having also stopped during a practice session with engine issues at the principality. McLaren broke the overnight staff curfew earlier this weekend to undertake precautionary work on the “installation and integration of the power unit” in both cars.

“I'm underwhelmed,” Wolff said. “We can't DNF cars in a kind of regular or continued way.

“Losing 25 points in the constructors championship in Montreal and losing another 18 points today – in order to finish first, first you have to finish.

“Reliability – this is what we need to get on top of, and that's number one. Nobody is happy about that, and we will leave no stone unturned to understand.”

Antonelli’s Barcelona failure looked similar to Russell’s stoppage in Canada, with the car switching off suddenly with what looks like an electrical shutdown.

“I didn’t see it coming,” Antonelli said. “All of a sudden I was at the apex of Turn 5 and just the car gave up.

“It’s a bit of a concern, because we’ve had several issues so far in the year. Our package is really strong, but it is a point that we need to work on, because losing so many points at these kinds of races hurts. Of course I feel very empty emotionally right now because we’re trying to solve what has just happened.

“It is what it is. It’s part of racing. There’s nothing we can do about it. It’s no one’s fault of course.”

Wolff, however, said that the spate of engine problems all had different causes despite superficial similarities.

“We don't know yet what was the cause of the failure,” he said. “Most of the others were battery related, but different failures; they were not always the same, so we need to understand what it was.

“Clearly, the symptom was quite similar, like with George in Montreal, where the car just switched off. We will be really digging deep to make sure that this doesn't happen again.”

Antonelli’s failure to finish cost him 25 points to Lewis Hamilton, who is now 41 points off the title lead. Russell, whom Antonelli had just passed for second place, recovered a runner-up finish to reduce his deficit to 50 points, down from 68 ahead of the weekend.

The Italian, though, reflected positively on his weekend, having been clearly quicker than Russell for most of the grand prix despite having qualified two places adrift of his teammate.

“I need to try to keep the head high, because the pace was good,” he said. “I think we had really strong pace.

“I had one opportunity [to pass Russell] in stint 2 as well. I get that opportunity and it can be a different race.

“We were very quick, and today was really hard to follow in the car because it was so warm. The tires were overheating so much, and the car was just sliding when close to the car in front, so it was hard to manage, but we had really strong pace.

“Of course it was a shame to have an issue with so few laps remaining, but as I said, it is what it is. It’s part of racing, and now we focus on the next one.”