Mercedes holds fire on F1 engine tokens

The German car manufacturer managed to get most of its engines all the way through the first six races of the year.

Out of the Mercedes runners, only Force India’s Nico Hulkenberg had had to use his second engine so far.

The single-engine achievement for five of its drivers means it will now be introducing its second engine in Montreal next week – which in theory gives it the perfect opportunity to deliver a horsepower step.

Although the new power unit will feature some upgrades, Motorsport.com has learned that these will simply be for reliability improvements rather than performance.

Waiting on tokens

Lotus CEO Matthew Carter told Sky on Friday that there was a possibility Mercedes could choose to use some of its seven remaining engine tokens.

He said: "Mercedes are bringing an upgrade to the engine as well, so we have that to look forward to.

“It is a new engine and an upgrade as well. I think they may have [used tokens], we definitely have an upgraded engine.”

However, Mercedes has made it clear that no tokens are being used yet, and that it will keep its powder dry and deploy them later in the year.

Rivals holding back

Mercedes is not alone in electing to not use its engine tokens just yet.

Honda and Ferrari said in Monaco last weekend that they had no plans to introduce performance steps.

While Renault is also believed to be focusing on reliability upgrades for when its next engines will be used.