Mercedes technical director James Allison says the Silver Arrows are still trying to figure out what caused Lewis Hamilton’s power unit to fail during the Australian Grand Prix.
The 39-year-old ground to a halt on the edge of the track after just 17 laps, capping off a miserable weekend in Melbourne.
“All we know is the symptoms at the time, which was a rapid loss of oil pressure followed by a shutdown of the engine to protect it,” said Allison on Mercedes’ official YouTube channel.
“When you know you’ve got catastrophic loss like that, the best thing you can do for the future is kill it there and then.
“Then you have not just got like a load of molten metal. You have normally got a fairly clear evidence chain of what caused it and then that lets you work better for the future.
“So, we do not know yet. Brixworth and HPP will do in short order and no doubt as soon as we know then they will jump in with their characteristic energy to make sure that any risk that happens on any other engine is mitigated as best we can.”