Are Mercedes facing engine penalties after Austria double DNF?

Mercedes have conceded that they are yet to ascertain whether Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas will face penalties further down the line after their retirements at the Austrian Grand Prix. A hydraulic failure put paid to Botts' race in Spielberg, while Hamilton pulled out late on with a fuel-pump issue.

Pole-sitting Bottas lost the lead to Hamilton on the opening lap and was touring in second when he retired on the 14th lap.

Mercedes' failure to pit Hamilton when the Virtual Safety Car was prompted then dropped the world champion from first to fourth after pit-stops were completed, enraging the Brit, who received an apology from the pit-wall.

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Hamilton pushed in an attempt to claw back points, and fears were raised that he had pushed Mercedes' new power unit too far, however technical director James Allison remains confident they will not race under the shadow of penalties at the British Grand Prix this week.

"They weren't the same failure, they were entirely different," he explained.

"On Valtteri's car it was a hydraulics failures, starting in the power steering but being felt ultimately in the ability to shift the gears, which caused his car to stop.

"And in Lewis's case it was a failure of the fuel pump, meaning we couldn't deliver fuel to the engine, and so we had to stop there as well.

"Entirely separate failures, and neither of them in any way related to the introduction of the new power unit.

"Are we going to have any consequential replacements of parts that might cause us sporting penalties? We hope not.

"We think both of the failures that we had were confined to the items that failed, and they're both things that can be replaced without having to break into the sealed areas of the car that attract sporting penalties.

"However, I say we hope not, because every time the car stops in an uncontrolled way, where a failure happens and the system is then shut down in a manner that is unusual, and the car can suffer all manner of unknown gremlins, we can't be completely sure until we've done all the necessary checks to be certain that the bits of the car that are sealed, and which do attract sporting penalties, weren't in any way affected by these uncontrolled shutdowns.

"So we've got a bit of work on our plates at the moment to try and make sure we're not taking any undue risks with parts that were not to do with the failure, but might have had some consequential damage as the car shut down.

"But we don't think so, we think we'll be in good shape for Silverstone."