Mercedes waged a titanic battle for the drivers’ and constructors’ titles with Red Bull throughout 2021, but had to face a series of grid penalties in the closing races of the campaign over reliability fears. their power units.
The regulations limited teams to the use of three main power unit components for the 22 races, but the two Mercedes drivers had to exceed this limit in the midst of a battle with the energy drink cars.
Valtteri Bottas used a total of six internal combustion engines during the year, the driver using the most during the course, while Lewis Hamilton used five.
Mercedes customer teams McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams also had to fit a fourth power unit in the second half of the year.
With the freezing of the engines in F1 since the beginning of this 2022, it was urgent that Mercedes solve its problems immediately so as not to lose performance compared to the rest of the suppliers.
But, with a few weeks to go before the new power units roll for the first time in pre-season tests, McLaren revealed what they expect from the German brand’s engines during this new period.
When asked by Motorsport.com about the information McLaren had received from Mercedes about the engines, chief executive Zak Brown said early reports were encouraging.
“We felt like there was a good development,” Brown explained. “Fortunately, we had good reliability last year, and it’s not just the power unit there. We did a good job with the engine, so reliability hasn’t been at the same level of concern as with others.
“I spoke to Toto [Mercedes team boss Wolff] last week about it, and he was quite optimistic,” he said. “I think the power unit fight will be tighter than ever, but I’m not worried.”
During last season, Wolff commented that Mercedes’ engine problems in 2021 were a consequence of having to be more aggressive to match the power of the 2019 Ferrari.
“They put a lot of pressure on us, and we came in with a power unit in 2020 that was right there, but maybe it pushed us too hard,” said the Austrian manager. “If you’re constantly on the lookout for performance, sometimes reliability lags behind, and I guess this is what happened.”
