Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff continues to stand firmly behind his engine division, despite a series of recent reliability issues that have affected both the factory team and customer teams Williams and Aston Martin. Following the Canadian Grand Prix, where Alex Albon dropped out in the 46th lap due to an engine problem, Wolff defended his power units without hesitation. “Good as gold,” he declared after the race weekend in Montreal.
Albon’s retirement, caused by a defect in the power unit, was the latest in a series of engine-related incidents. Earlier this season, Mercedes rookie Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Aston Martin star Fernando Alonso also retired with technical issues. Antonelli had to abandon his home race in Imola due to a throttle problem, while a loss of oil pressure ruined his weekend in Spain. Alonso suffered from power loss in Monaco. George Russell, who crossed the finish line first in Canada, had previously also encountered electrical problems.
Focus on 2026
However, Toto Wolff sees no reason for panic. “Our engines have been as good as gold since the introduction of the hybrid era – and so strong,” he assured the media in Montreal. He emphasized that while the incidents are indeed annoying, they are statistically rare: “The mistakes we’ve made in recent years have been very minimal.” Mercedes has largely dominated the so-called hybrid era – the years following the introduction of the hybrid V6 engines in 2014. Now, the focus is on the powertrain for 2026, when a new engine regulation comes into effect.
“Because this is the last year of these regulations, all attention is focused on next year,” Wolff explained. “Hywel Thomas (General Manager of the engine program) and his team are fully aware of the reliability issues we are experiencing. We just need to figure out what’s going wrong. I’m not exactly sure what happened with Alex Albon, but I’m sure we’ll find out along the way.”
