Allison sends out warning shot on Mercedes reliability

Mercedes technical director James Allison has described his team’s 1,040 laps of reliable running as “chastening” to not even reach the edge of the German manufacturer’s complete life cycle of its power unit components.

2018 marks the start of new F1 power unit restrictions with each driver only permitted three each of the internal combustion engines (ICE), heat motor generator units (MGU-H) and turbochargers (TC) plus two each of the kinetic motor generator units (MGU-K), energy stores (ES) and control electronics (CE).

Mercedes reported untroubled running in terms of reliability during the entirety of pre-season testing having completed the highest number of laps of any team with a 1,040 laps combined between Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas which equates to 4,841km.

Allison has sent out a warning to its F1 power unit rivals by declaring none of its components were “close to completing the full life cycle” and is confident of meeting the reliability requirements for the 2018 season without risking the need for extra engine elements and pick up grid penalties.

“Even with all the mileage we've done it's chastening to note that we have not yet come close to completing the full life cycle of core components such as the engine and the control electronics,” Allison said.

“Eight days of winter testing is a punishing schedule. All of us out here at the track and those who have supported it back at the factories are feeling the cumulative loss of sleep. But I think we can look back on these two winter tests with some satisfaction, having designed, planned and then executed a very complex series of tests with some competence.”

Allison says without knowing the level of development F1 teams can pull off between testing at the 2018 season opener in Australia he can’t predict the pecking order but has faith in Mercedes having seen all winter testing objectives completed.

“Although we make our best efforts to try and figure out our competitive position, we don't know what the other teams are going to do between now and Melbourne and we don't really know with full accuracy what they've been doing here,” he said.

“So there's all sorts of reasons to be cautious - but this has been a good winter test. For now we can be content that we've managed to deliver that, and we look forward to Melbourne.”