Mercedes has revealed the extent of the damage sustained to the power unit of George Russell’s W14 that led to his retirement in the recent Australian Grand Prix.

Russell conjured a superb start to the race at Melbourne’s Albert Park on April 2, passing polesitter Max Verstappen in his Red Bull on the run down to Turn 1.

The British driver then held the lead until the end of lap eight when Mercedes opted to bring him in after a safety car was deployed following a crash involving Williams’ Alex Albon.

The call appeared the right one at the time, only for race control to throw a delayed red flag, dropping Russell to seventh.

The 25-year-old was then running in fourth position and closing in on Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso for third when his car caught fire at the end of lap 18, leading him to parking up on the exit of the pit lane.

Following a lengthy investigation at Mercedes’ High Performance Powertrains facility at Brixworth, Speedcafe can confirm the power unit ‘ingested debris’, causing the failure.

The upshot for Mercedes and Russell is that all the mechanical elements of the PU have been lost from the pool. Only the electronic elements have been salvaged.

With each car allowed to use only three components per season for each of the primary elements within a power unit – engine, turbocharger, MGU-H and MGU-K – it means Russell can expect grid penalties at some stage later in the season.

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