The reigning champion team Mercedes have installed a new MGU-K unit into the car of Lewis Hamilton, fast-tracking a reliability fix it had originally planned for next weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

After recognizing some data anomalies following the Hungarian Grand Prix, Mercedes made the decision to introduce a reliability fix to Lewis Hamilton’s W11 for this weekend’s British Grand Prix. The championship leader has taken a new MGU-K unit in order to prevent any reliability issues at his home grand prix.

Mercedes had originally planned the introduction of the spec-2 MGU-K for next weekend’s 70th Anniversary Grand Prix that will take place on the same venue as the British Grand Prix. All Mercedes-powered cars will receive the new MGU-K next weekend with which the Brixworth-based engine manufacturer wants to fix the technical gremlins it had experienced on track and at the dyno.

McLaren to trial new upgrades

McLaren has brought a set of new parts for Silverstone with the team intending the maintain its strong form it has showed so far this season. The Woking-based outfit installed huge pitot tubes on to its cars to get an idea of how the new parts work on track and whether they correlate with the data registered at the factory. Among the new parts is a totally new rear wing that features a curved mainplane and a smaller upper wing element. The team wants to trim out some of the drag for the Silverstone track where top-speed is of key importance.

Moreover, the team has dropped the T-wing it had used in Hungary, probably in an attempt to reduce drag for the high-speed track of Silverstone.

Ferrari with reliability problems

Making their troublesome season even worse, Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was hindered by a technical glitch in the first free practice session. After completing just a single installation lap, the German had to climb out of his SF1000 as the team detected a severe technical issue related to power unit.

The Scuderia communicated that the problem was related to the intercooler system of the car, and Vettel had to sit out the entire practice session to give the team enough time to get the car ready for the afternoon session.

„We have detected something wrong with the intercooler system on #Seb5’s car so we have to strip the car down and check, to be ready for #FP2,” read a Ferrari statement.