F1 | Wolff confirms no PU reliability issues and talks Hamilton's contact
Mercedes Team Principal discusses 2021 engine development and plans to start talks for Lewis Hamilton's renewal "much earlier" this season.
According to Toto Wolff the M12 (the new Mercedes power unit, which will be also used by McLaren, Aston Martin and Williams in the upcoming season) has no reliability problems.
"We didn't have particular problems on reliability on the power units," he said to selected media.
"Obviously if you do long runs at peak power, there will be a lot of learning [about] what gives up first, but it's all under control."
The team had encountered some occasional issues with the cooling system in past seasons, but Wolff is confident they have it fixed now.
"Cooling very much plays a part of that. We have had years where we struggled for cooling, where our pre-season simulations didn't reflect precisely what was happening on the track later and I think we made a big step."
According to the team principal, the limitations in place for 2021 do not affect the way teams are balancing development.
"How you balance the current car and the development time you want to give it versus next year's car. And for 2022, it becomes even more of a critical topic because of the scope of changes."
"There will be teams that focus on 2022 from early on, and other teams that will see great opportunity for the 2021 world championship. For us it will be crucial to take the right view, to take the right balance on how we want to balance development for next year."
Wolff also shared his thoughts on Lewis Hamilton's racing future.
"I think if Lewis continues to race he will want to do this together," he stated.
He is confident the seven times World Champion would stay with Mercedes and explained that they will be discussing arrangements in due time.
"We have agreed that we want to pick up the discussions much earlier this year to avoid a situation like we had in 2020 where we ran out of time, and be in the uncomfortable position where we have no time left before the beginning of the season."
"And that's also why we did a one year contract in order to allow us to discuss the future in racing and outside of racing longer and with the right amount of time."
