Mercedes Delay Upgrade due to Quality Issues

The Mercedes F1 team have opted to delay their planned upgrades due to reliability concerns. They had originally planned to introduce significant upgrades for this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.

According to the world champions, “quality issues” meant that their power-unit would be used at the subsequent race in France instead.

As a result,The team will now race with a below par engine at a circuit where power is important.

However, Mercedes insisted that the decision would not affect performance or reliability.

They said that the engine was not doing more miles than intended. The original plan was to use it at the Hungarian Grand Prix at the end of July. This was because engine life would be less of an issue there.

Mercedes’ decision will also affects Force India and Williams, who will have to stick with the engines that they have been using since the start of the season.

Meanwhile, Rival engine manufacturers Honda and Renault are pressing ahead with planned power-unit upgrades this weekend.

However the upgrade isn’t privy to all Renault-powered teams. Instead, it depends on how it would affect their closeness to penalties for excessive engine usage.

Red Bull technical director Adrian Newey said that Daniel Ricciardo would likely receive a 10-place grid penalty this weekend. This was because, new parts were required to fix an engine problem that the Australian suffered in Monaco.

Newey predicted that the Renault upgrade was worth about 0.1 seconds a lap.

Both Toro Rosso drivers, Pierre Gasly and Brendon Hartley, will have an upgraded Honda engine.

Ferrari are also expected to use an upgraded engine for all their teams, but this has not yet been officially confirmed.

Defending champion Lewis Hamilton has admitted that the delay could allow rivals Ferrari and Red Bull to catch up. But, we can be sure that, Hamilton and teammate Valtteri Bottas will put up a fight.