© Sam Bloxham for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix ltd.
Mercedes team boss James Allison says the team does not yet know what caused Lewis Hamilton’s power unit failure, but they will find out “in short order”.
Lewis Hamilton suffered his first DNF of the 2024 season at the Australian Grand Prix, when his Power Unit failed on lap 17.
In Mercedes’ race debrief video, Technical Director James Allison said the team is not yet aware of what caused the issue.
“We do not [know],” the Briton said.
“The power units will return to the safe hands of the guys at Brixworth [Mercedes’ power unit factory], who will be able to figure out what let go.
“All we know is the symptoms at the time, which was a rapid loss of oil pressure followed by a shutdown of the engine to protect it because when you know you’ve got catastrophic loss like that, the best thing you can do for the future is kill it there and then. And then you have not just got like a load of molten metal.
“You have normally got a fairly clear evidence chain of what caused it. And then that lets you work better for the future. So, we do not know yet, [but] Brixworth and HPP [High Performance Powertrains] will do in short order.
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“And no doubt as soon as we know then they will jump with their characteristic energy to make sure that any risk that happens on any other engine is mitigated as best we can.”
As for where Lewis could have finished had his Power Unit not failed, James said:
“We know from his first stint that he was going along okay on those soft tyres, it was never going to be a long stint, but the car hung onto them adequately well compared with the estimates we had made beforehand.
“He was not really on the medium tyre for long enough before retiring for us to have much intelligent things to say about that.
“But if you just take George’s pace as a guide and say Lewis could have matched that, then my guess is he would have been on for something like four points,” he concluded.
