![\"Mercedes-F1-2014-Power-Unit\"](\"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/gallery\/f1-2014-rif-images\/f1-2014-others\/Mercedes-F1-2014-Engine.jpg\")
Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that the only issue with the British driver’s Mercedes engine was a small hole in the rubbery insulation of a spark plug.<\/p>\nThe part that caused Lewis Hamilton’s retirement in Australia was worth less than a single euro.<\/p>\n
Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that the only issue with the British driver’s Mercedes engine was a small hole in the rubbery insulation of a spark plug.<\/p>\n
Hamilton’s engine subsequently dropped from six to five functioning cylinders, and so the Brackley team asked him to retire in order to protect the unit from further damage.<\/p>\n
“I was sent a photo of the part on the plane home on Sunday night,” the team’s engine boss Andy Cowell said.\u00a0 “It was pretty frustrating!”<\/p>\n
Mercedes has subsequently changed the process with which the insulation is manufactured, after discovering that the original method often resulted in almost invisible cracks.<\/p>\n
“Now the parts are made by injection moulding, which produces no seams,” said Cowell.<\/p>\n
He added that when the newly-manufactured parts were retrofitted to all the 2014 engines in the days after Australia, half a dozen seals with tiny cracks were discovered and discarded.<\/p>\n
The engine used by Hamilton in Australia, now featuring a new seal, was fitted to the 2008 world champion’s W05 for Sepang practice.<\/p>\n
“Before we tested it, I was 90 per cent sure it would be ok,” said Cowell.\u00a0 “After the sessions, I added a few more per cent to that.”<\/p>\n
Hamilton will continue to use the engine for the qualifying session – which was delayed for typically-heavy monsoonal rain – and the race on Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u00a9 RIF | GMM<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The part that caused Lewis Hamilton’s retirement in Australia was worth less than a single euro. Germany’s Auto Motor und Sport reports that the only issue with the British driver’s Mercedes engine was a small hole in the rubbery insulation of a spark plug. Hamilton’s engine subsequently dropped from six to five functioning cylinders, and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[3],"tags":[4260,5262,5340,154,4834],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21413"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21413"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21413\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21414,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21413\/revisions\/21414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21413"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21413"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racinginfocus.com\/rif\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21413"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}