Mercedes will not react to title rival Ferrari’s engine allocation strategy.
In Bahrain, the resurgent Ferrari team fitted the second of four allocated ‘power units’ for the season to Sebastian Vettel’s car. Asked if Mercedes will now follow suit and give its contenders a fresh turbo V6 for Spain, team chairman Niki Lauda answered: “No. “We are only at the fourth race,” he told Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport. “What may seem a disadvantage now will become an opportunity when it really counts, in the second part of the season,” said Lauda. Mercedes figures have admitted the level of Ferrari’s resurgence in 2015 was a surprise.
But Germany’s Sport Bild claims the German carmaker may actually have helped Ferrari to catch up, fearing that continued dominance would be a turnoff. The magazine said Mercedes, for instance, recommended that Ferrari sign up its hybrid specialist Wolf Zimmermann, resulting in dozens of added horse power for the fabled Italian team.
Lauda continued: “I am not at all surprised by the improvement of Ferrari, because they started to work on it last season, they rely on the quality of work by (James) Allison, and because of the restructuring of the team.” As for the erosion of Mercedes’ dominance, the F1 legend added: “The anomaly was last season, not this season. I never had the illusion that we would continue to dominate like that.”
