Mercedes mulling over F1 engine change and penalty at Monza

The German manufacturer believes it will have to change components on Lewis Hamilton’s engine before the end of the season following his stoppage during second practice at Zandvoort.

With Hamilton having already moved onto his third power unit of 2021 in Belgium, any additional element changes would automatically trigger a grid drop.

Asked whether Mercedes is considering introducing a fourth power unit at the Italian GP, Wolff told Sky Sports: “I think we are all struggling on power units.

“Maybe not only reliability but also how these power units work hard and how they’re degrading.

“There are thoughts, definitely, for this weekend but we haven’t come to a conclusion yet.”

Red Bull faces a similar dilemma with Max Verstappen, who will also require a fourth power unit after he lost an engine in his 51G impact with the Silverstone barriers following a controversial first-lap collision with main championship rival Hamilton at the British Grand Prix.

On Thursday, Verstappen said it is “definitely not the plan” for Honda to introduce a fresh engine on his Red Bull at Monza.

Mercedes has enjoyed a competitive start to the weekend at Monza, with Hamilton dominating opening practice as he finished half a second clear of Verstappen.

The seven-time world champion is three points behind Verstappen, who reclaimed the championship lead with a famous home win at the Dutch Grand Prix.

With the title race delicately balanced, Wolff is wary that a single DNF could make the difference between winning and losing the world championship.

“We believe that between P1 and P2 with the fastest lap, that if you have one DNF it takes the other guy four races to catch up and that’s brutal,” he said.

“So you can afford to finish four times in second and therefore you just need to play it safe whilst not giving up performance.”