Six Grands Prix still to be played in this endless and spectacular 2021 Formula 1 season and the challenge between Mercedes And Red Bull it is more open than ever. Among the drivers Max Verstappen managed to regain the leadership of the standings, with just six points of margin on Lewis Hamilton. In the constructors’ championship, on the other hand, the Brackley team is increasing its margin over its Austrian rivals race after race. However, both titles are still in the balance, as well as the performance of the two cars. In Turkey – net of Lewis Hamilton’s halfway comeback – the best car seemed to be the W12. The truth, however, is that both teams have several problems to solve at the moment.
The main topic of discussion concerns the engines. As reported by the German site Auto Motor und Sport, in Red Bull there is the belief that Mercedes is working in the gray areas of the regulation and has thus found greater power on the latest power units fitted. The numerous requests for clarification sent by Milton Keynes directed to the offices of the FIA also go in this sense. For the moment, however, none of the work done by Mercedes on the engines has been judged to be irregular. On the other hand, Brackley replies that the engines have been the same since the beginning of the season and that the only thing that would improve over the course of the year is their driveability. In this way Hamilton and Bottas would be able to exploit a greater potential from their vehicle.
However, even silver arrows have their own drawbacks, which are mainly linked to the theme ofreliability. The problems that emerged on Bottas’ engine after the Italian GP, on a newly assembled power unit, set off the alarm bell. As we always read on Auto Motor und Sport, Mercedes was initially convinced that potential failures would only appear on ‘old’ units. It was not so. The problems at ICE, also replaced by Hamilton in Turkey, have not yet been fully understood. In addition, Brixworth’s engineers are now focused on the 2022 unit to adapt it to the new E10 fuels. Part of the difficulty in solving the problem would also be given by the ‘looting’ carried out by Red Bull against the Mercedes engineers. An all-out challenge that will last up to Abu Dhabi.