It has been a difficult last couple of races for Mercedes, having failed to finish either of their cars in the top five places.
Andrea Kimi Antonelli was close to achieving a podium in Imola before a power unit issue forced him to retire, while George Russell only managed seventh place after finishing behind the Williams of Alex Albon.
Mercedes would suffer more headaches in Monaco when Antonelli crashed in qualifying, and then Russell suffered a power unit problem, which put both of them outside of the top ten.
Fernando Alonso would go on to suffer a power unit failure in his Aston Martin during the race, which is also made by Mercedes, making it an unusual three failures in a row for the manufacturer.
Discussing the situation on The After Lap podcast, journalist Alberto Fabrega highlighted a problem that Mercedes could be dealing with that is similar to Ferrari’s.
Mercedes dealing with a reliability issue that is impacting ride height
Mercedes had to raise the ride height of their cars in Imola and Monaco, mostly because of the bumps at Imola that have posed an issue for them throughout this current regulation set.
In Monaco, all the teams raise their cars, which is suspected to be behind Ferrari’s surge to competitiveness despite Charles Leclerc warning that the slow corners would pose a problem.
Ferrari had to raise the ride height of their cars after their double disqualification in China, which later caused issues for them at other tracks. Mercedes might now be forced into copying that same change, according to Fabrega.
Fabrega: “Mercedes in Imola they had a retirement, then in the qualifying session [at Monaco] Russell’s car stopped after the MGU-K, in the race Fernando Alonso’s engine blew.
“That means that if it is a serious reliability issue, you have to turn off the tap a little bit in terms of lowering the car and the aggressiveness of the engine maps from now until the end of the season.”
Jaime Alguersuari: “We have to wait and see if they make any changes internally, which we won’t know, but it’s a big problem, especially when everything is so close.”
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Mercedes branded ’embarrassing’ by Jacques Villeneuve after Monaco Grand Prix
Mercedes were stuck behind the two Williams drivers throughout the Monaco GP due to their qualifying mishaps, which led to both cars failing to score points for the first time since the 2024 Australian GP.
Jacques Villeneuve felt Mercedes were ’embarrassing’ after Russell passed Alex Albon off the track, and attempted to mitigate it by taking a penalty and building a gap on track.
Instead the stewards took a dim view of Russell’s antics and issued him with a drive through penalty, causing him to drop out of the points again.
It is certainly going to be a weekend that the Silver Arrows will want to forget, but with this underlying power unit issue, it could become an issue later in the season at similar tracks.
