JULY 4, 2018

Mercedes hopes to avoid Silverstone penalties

Mercedes is hoping to avoid penalties this weekend at Silverstone.

Mercedes is hoping to avoid penalties this weekend at Silverstone.

Last weekend, the reigning world champions suffered an ultra-rare double DNF, with Ferrari boss Maurizio Arrivabene wondering if the new upgrades were to blame.

"(They were) entirely separate failures," Mercedes technical boss James Allison said, "and neither of them related to the introduction of the new power unit."

As for whether the failures mean Mercedes will have to replace parts and face penalties over the British grand prix weekend, Allison said he isn't sure.

"We hope not, because we think both of the failures that we had were confined to the items that failed," he explained.

However, Allison also said he can't be sure, because failures often affect other systems of the car.

"But we don't think so. We think we will be in good shape for Silverstone," he said.

(GMM)