Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has said that Sir Lewis Hamilton’s car might need a new power unit for this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix.
His team-mate Valtteri Bottas and Championship rival Max Verstappen have already used more than the allocated three power units for the season, leading to them suffering grid penalties.
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Speaking ahead of the Turkish GP, Wolff admitted that Hamilton may well need to run an additional power unit this year and could therefore also suffer a grid penalty.
“It’s a possibility. When, and how, is not yet decided,” Wolff told Sky Sports when asked if Hamilton could run a new power unit in Istanbul.
Continuing, he said “most important is that you don’t DNF because of a reliability issue.
“You can cope with swings, whether you finish second, third, I think that is OK, the championship is going to go long. But if you don’t finish…
“So we are looking at the parameters of the engines, making sure we don’t suffer from any reliability problems,” the Austrian concluded.
Verstappen started towards the back of the grid last time out in Sochi after Red Bull opted to run a fourth power unit this year.
However, the Dutch ace benefitted from the rain in the dying stages of the race to recover and finish P2, just behind Hamilton.
Going into this weekend, the Brit has a two-point advantage over Verstappen at the top of the Drivers’ Standings.
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