Hamilton’s new MGU-K a ‘precautionary’ change

Finley Crebolder
Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton’s car has been fitted with a new MGU-K for the British Grand Prix, but it’s merely a precaution according to Mercedes.

Each of the teams with Mercedes power units were scheduled to receive a new spec of the part for next weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

However, Hamilton headed out to track at the start of FP1, where he finished in P2 behind Max Verstappen, with it already fitted.

Given that drivers are only allowed three per season, it seemed rather early for him to be taking his second.

However, according to the team, the change was made just as a precaution following some concern found in data after the last Grand Prix.

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“It’s a precautionary change one race earlier than planned due to some data anomalies after Hungary,” a Mercedes spokesperson told Autosport.com.

“It’s an updated spec of MGU-K for reliability reasons, which will be on all cars from next weekend.”

With their pace so strong, reliability is the area that Mercedes is most concerned about and the one receiving the most attention going forward.

However, after some worries about both cars making it to the finish at the season opener, there have been no major issues since.


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With this race weekend set to be a warm one though, such concerns may return, as James Allison recently stated worries about how the car will run in hot weather.

“I’d note that we’ve had two quite cool tracks,” he told Autosport.

“So far it was warmish in the first race of the year, but that was also the race where we were least convincing.

“So we would like to find out just how swift we can be when the track is roasting hot, and whether or not we can still show the sort of tyre management and pace under those conditions that we’ve been lucky enough to show in the opening races of the year.

“Every car on the grid has a sword of Damocles hanging over it pretty much every lap, because they are all experimental vehicles with any number of ways that they can catch you out, or actually, you disappoint yourself for not having seen it coming.”

Valtteri Bottas and the Williams and Racing Point drivers will all receive the new spec next weekend as originally planned.

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