Honda “cannot believe” Mercedes’ F1 engine problems

Mercedes, which has been renowned for having almost bullet-proof engines during the V6 hybrid era, has been hit with reliability and degradation issues that have forced it to burn through several power units this season. 

Valtteri Bottas has already used seven internal combustion engines (ICEs) and taken three grid penalties, while teammate Lewis Hamilton will serve his second penalty of the year after moving onto his fifth V6 ahead of this weekend’s race in Brazil.

Speaking on Friday at Interlagos, Tanabe expressed his shock at the extent of the issues Mercedes has faced this campaign. 

“I am very surprised they are changing the ICE frequently,” said Tanabe. 

“Actually, I cannot believe what's going on and why. 

“But from the PU manufacturer point of view, it’s kind of disappointing to get a PU penalty for the driver.”

Honda made the headlines for its well-document engine problems upon its return to the F1 grid in 2015 with McLaren but has gone on to develop one of the most competitive and reliable power units seen today.

And Tanabe is confident that Honda’s customers Red Bull or AlphaTauri can get to the end of the season without needing to take additional power units. 

“No-one knows the future but if there is no unexpected accident or unexpected failure, we have no plan to put another PU unit to our four drivers,” he said. 

Asked if he thinks Red Bull could have avoided exceeding their engine allocation had Verstappen and Perez not had power units written off due to accident-damage, Tanabe replied: “I believe, yes.

“So far, our four cars with Red Bull Racing and then AlphaTauri are performing well toward the end of the season.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted the team’s previous rock-solid reliability has likely been impacted by the German marquee pushing the boundaries in the quest for performance gains. 

“I think we were pushed very hard in 2019 and came with a power unit in 2020 that was right there, but maybe it stretched us too much,” he said. 

“If you are in a constant pursuit of performance sometimes reliability falls behind, and I guess this happened.” 

Wolff stressed the team is pushing hard to rectify its issues ahead of an upcoming homologation period for F1 engines. 

“You need to push hard,” he explained. 

“We are fighting an extremely potent and reliable Honda engine and these guys have put all the resource that you could potentially deploy on this last season - fair enough. 

“That will continue to be the power unit in the next few years, in a frozen manner. 

“Therefore, next year we just need to make sure we start with an engine with a performance that is as good as we have now, but that can actually go through the season without [incurring] engine penalties.”