F1: George Russell’s Australia Power Unit not salvageable

–by Mark Cipolloni–

A piece of metal debris in the cylinder is reportedly what caused the engine to expire that put George Russell out of the Australian Grand Prix.

Mercedes has reported that the power unit unsalvageable, meaning Russell will likely have to take an engine penalty later in the year.

Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff had suspected that it was a cylinder, telling the media after Melbourne: “Bang! It’s a proper failure, but we don’t know what it was yet. I think it was on one of the cylinders.”

According to Auto Motor und Sport a foreign part got mixed up in the combustion process, which ultimately led to a drop in performance and the associated failure.

“A fragment was responsible for this. The engine ingested the debris in a cylinder, forcing the failure.

“The debris comes from a component that is not part of the sealed area of the engine.

“The technicians have declared the combustion engine and the associated elements such as the turbocharger and MGU-H are lost.”

Mercedes can save the electronic components of the power unit.

This means a penalty is likely for Russell down the line, with only three each of the Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), the Turbo Charger (TC), the Motor Generator Unit – Heat (MGU-H) and Motor Generator Unit – Kinetic (MGU-K) available per driver and the Mercedes having now moved onto its second of each after just three races.