Toto Wolff's worrying admission about Mercedes problems – 'We haven't understood fully'

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    Team principal Toto Wolff admits Mercedes are still searching for answers after Valtteri Bottas was forced to take a sixth engine change ahead of the United States Grand Prix, raising concern for Lewis Hamilton, who currently sits second in the standings.

    Questions were raised as to if Hamilton may have to do the same, potentially giving the team a huge disadvantage in the battle for the world championship with the 36-year-old trailing Max Verstappen by six points with just six races remaining.

    Bottas meanwhile has to take a five-place grid penalty into Sunday’s race at the Circuit of the Americas after exceeding his three allowed internal combustion engines [ICE] which are stated in the regulations.

    However, when asked what was happening behind closed doors, Wolff revealed the team was struggling to pinpoint what the issue was.

    “I think you see that we are suffering with reliability this year, we’re going onto the sixth engine… for Valtteri, and it is not something we choose to do, but on the contrary; we are trying to really get on top of the problems, and we haven’t understood fully,” said Wolff.

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    As for the probability of Hamilton taking a new engine in the remaining five races of 2021, Wolff added: “I can’t say whether we will be taking one and what the percentage is, but obviously the risk is still there.

    “What is difficult to evaluate is do you want to pre-empt the situation and take another penalty and take the hit or do you want to really run it and possibly risk a DNF, and that is a discussion that is happening as we speak, and we haven’t come to the right answers yet.”

    Hamilton picked up a ten-second penalty ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix after taking a fourth engine change, with concerns he may have to follow the same path as his team-mate with just six races remaining.

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    Mercedes currently have a 36 lead over Red Bull in the Constructors’ Championship, with just six races remaining.

    And considering the British-based German team have won seven championships on the bounce, Wolff admitted they can’t claim they’re “comfortable” in the battle this season.

    “Well, comfortable is the wrong word,” he said, “but I think a little bit of a bigger gap [would be] solid, but also that could go very much to the end and it’s an important championship for us as Mercedes.”



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