Mercedes address power unit concerns after alarming George Russell DNF

After a humiliating Brazilian Grand Prix for Mercedes, which included George Russell failing to finish, the team has at least one piece of positive news to take away from Interlagos.

Having been the closest challenger to Max Verstappen and Red Bull at the United States and Mexican GPs, Mercedes headed to Brazil riding a wave of momentum, arriving at the Interlagos circuit where Russell claimed their sole victory of F1 2022.

However, the nostalgia soon wore off as Mercedes realised they were in for a tough weekend.

George Russell power unit plans not impacted by Brazil DNF

After unexpectedly high tyre degradation saw Mercedes slipping backwards in the Brazil sprint, Lewis Hamilton predicted a rough race to come, this ringing true as he limped to a P8 finish.

Russell meanwhile did not make it to the finish line, Mercedes retiring his W14 due to rising power unit temperatures, though the team do not expect a knock-on effect into the final two rounds, as that power unit was at the final race of its lifespan anyway.

Instead, different PUs will be fitted into Russell’s W14 for the Las Vegas and Abu Dhabi GPs to complete the season.

Asked if Russell’s power unit is okay for the final two rounds, Mercedes’ head of trackside performance, Riccardo Musconi, said in their Brazilian GP debrief: “In a nutshell, yes.

“George will be on different power units for the next two races as was originally allocated, so there is no issue from that point of view.”

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Musconi shed further light on the issue which forced Mercedes into giving the ‘retire the car’ order to Russell, revealing that “quite worrying” pressures and temperatures could be seen on the data.

At that point, they believed the PU was on the cusp of failure and pulled the plug on Russell’s race.

“The power unit used in Interlagos was meant to be its last race weekend so why did we retire his car?” Musconi continued.

“We started seeing some pressures and temperatures that were quite worrying and it got to a point where we were quite convinced it was about to fail.

“To avoid a possible fire and damage other parts of the car, the logical conclusion was to retire the car.”

With two rounds of F1 2023 remaining, Mercedes hold a 20-point lead over Ferrari in the battle to claim P2 in the Constructors’ Championship.

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