Will Mercedes engine struggle at high altitudes? 'It's not a big problem'
20:47, 30 Oct 2021
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Williams says it does not expect any major problems at the high altitude tracks in Mexico and Brazil. Historically, the Mercedes engine has struggled at high altitude, while the Honda engine in combination with Red Bull Racing's car has proved to be a strong combination. Dave Robson, Head of Vehicle Performance at Williams, says that the team are not too worried at the moment.
Although the Mercedes engines have had some reliability issues recently, in addition to not historically performing particularly strongly at higher altitudes, Williams do not expect any difficulties at the high-altitude Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez.
Williams have been plagued by problems with its Mercedes engine over the last few weekends, resulting in grid penalties in the last four races. Aston Martin, also a Mercedes customer team, were given a grid penalty in the United States Grand Prix due to an engine change.
No worries at Williams about Mercedes engine
The next two races take place at an altitude of respectively 2.285 and 800 meters above sea level. In thin air, components like the turbo or the MGU-H have to work much harder. According to Robson that shouldn't be a problem though.
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"At this point, we're not worried yet," he told Motorsport-Total.com. "I don't think the altitude will be a big problem for reliability. It will be fine, there are no major concerns at the moment."
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