James Allison reveals a major failure in Hamilton’s power unit in Melbourne, with the cause still unknown.
Mercedes F1 Technical Director James Allison has stated that Lewis Hamilton’s power unit experienced a “major” failure in Melbourne, though the trigger remains unidentified.
The Mercedes High Performance Powertrains (HPP) division in Brixworth is under a tight deadline to identify the cause and potentially implement countermeasures on the power units already en route to the Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka.
When asked during his Australian GP debrief if the cause of Hamilton’s engine failure had been discovered, Allison confirmed: “We don’t know yet.”
“The power units will return to the safe hands of the guys at Brixworth, who will be able to figure out what went wrong.”
“All we know are the symptoms, namely a rapid loss of oil pressure followed by an engine shutdown to protect it, because when you know you have a major failure like that, the best thing you can do is turn it off immediately. The internal safety system worked to prevent a mess of connecting rods or molten metal! This potentially saves the engine for the future.”
“Normally, you have a fairly clear chain of evidence of what caused this sudden stop. And that allows you to work better for the future.”
“So, we don’t know yet. Our guys at HPP in Brixworth will know shortly. And undoubtedly, as soon as we do, they will use their energy to ensure any risk occurring on any other engine is mitigated as best as we can.”
Ultimately, Mercedes saw neither of its drivers cross the finish line, with George Russell being eliminated in a crash while attacking Fernando Alonso for 6th place. And had Hamilton still been in the race at that stage, Allison believes that a modest 8th place is the final position the seven-time world champion could have achieved.
“We knew from his first stint that he was doing well with those soft tires, it was never going to be a long stint, but the car was holding up well enough compared to the estimations we had made before the race.”
“He didn’t really run on medium tires long enough before retiring for us to have very precise things to say about what would have happened next. But if you just take George’s pace as a guide and say Lewis could have matched that, then I guess he would have scored about four points (that is, 8th place).”
Hamilton Melbourne Power Failure. Hamilton Melbourne Power Failure
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