Mercedes provide update on Hamilton's power unit

Mercedes provide update on Hamilton's power unit

Martin Macdonald

Friday 23 November 2018 17:32

Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin has provided an update as to the state of Lewis Hamilton's power unit ahead of the upcoming Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, saying that despite some worries emerging from Brazil, everything looks in place for lights out on Sunday.

Hamilton went on to win the Brazil GP, but Mercedes said following the victory that the Brit had come perilously close to suffering engine failure, with his car struggling with a "failure in the variable inlet system that caused unstable combustion," said a Mercedes statement."

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The five-time world champion already has the 2018 title secured, with Mercedes also winning the constructors' championship, but the team will want to avoid a penalty and a subsequent drop down the grid for the final GP of the season at Yas Marina this weekend.

Shovlin has reassured fans, however, saying everything looks good to go.

We had a lot of 2019 test and development items on both cars in FP1 so that was a very busy session although we were still able to do a reasonable amount of the normal race preparation," The Mercedes engineer continued.

"We also ran through a number of checks on Lewis's power unit and so far it all looks normal which is good news."

Mercedes reported that certain changes and hardware alterations had been made, but it is not thought the changes are significant enough to warrant punishment.

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