Cowell: 'Engine reliability a main focus after painful 2016 incidents'

Mercedes' power unit department in Brixworth centered much of its focus on the reliability of its engine as it prepared for 2017.

While failures were rare and in-between at Mercedes, they still occurred, much to the despair of Lewis Hamilton, leading engine boss Andy Cowell to work on improving dependability through six specific design changes.

"We had a few painful incidents last year and we did an awful lot of investigation into that," says Cowell.

"There are about six design changes within the engine to improve the bearing system and three or four quality improvements in the way the power unit is assembled and then looked after through its life."

• Uh oh, Mercedes will have even more power in 2017!

But Cowell also underlined improvements in almost every other area of its hybrid V6 turbo power unit, an advance voiced yesterday by Force India's Andy Green who referenced 'unprecedented steps' made by its engine supplier over the winter.

"The base architecture of our ERS system is similar to what we started with in 2014," Cowell explained at the team'sW08  launch Thursday.

"Is it the same for this year? No it is not, there is improvement in the high power switches, they are more efficient.

"There are several improvements in reliability with in the box, which means we can run it harder for longer.

"We are not as vulnerable to having to derate the system for cooling reasons because of heating effects within in the module.

"The MGU-H is completely new as a consequence of the drive cycle change and the MGU-K is new as well.

"It is a big evolution."

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