Mercedes, which has been renowned for having almost bullet-proof engines during 🌞the V6 hybrid era, has been hit with reliability and degradation issues that have forced it to burn through several power units this season. 

Valtteri Bottas has already used seven internal combustion engines (ICEs) and taken three grid penalties, while teammate Lewis Hamilton will serve his second penalty of the year after moving onto his fifth V6 ahead of this weekend’s race in Brꦯazil.

Speaking on♏ Friday at Interlagos, Tanabe expr꧒essed his shock at the extent of the issues Mercedes has faced this campaign. 

“I am very surprised they are changing the ICE frequently,” said Tanabe.&nᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚbsp;

“Actually, I cannot believ🐷e what's going on and why. 

“But from the PU manufacturer point of view, i🌠t’s kind of disappointing to get a PU penalty for th🃏e driver.”

Honda made the headlines for its well-document engine problems upon its return to the F1 grid in 2015 with McLaren but has gone on to develop one of the most competi🦩tive and reliable power units seen today.

And Tanabe is confident that Honda’s customers Red Bull or AlphaTauri can get to the end of the season without needing to take additional power un🧸its. 

“No-one knows the future but if there is no unexpected ꧙accident or unexpected failure༺, we have no plan to put another PU unit to our four drivers,” he said. 

Asked if he thinks Red Bull could have avoided exceeding their engine allocation had Verstappen and Perez not had power un🐓its writtꦚen off due to accident-damage, Tanabe replied: “I believe, yes.

“So far, our four cars with Red Bull Racing and then AlphaTauri are performing well🅠 toward the end of the season.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted the team’s previous rock-solid🧸 reliability has likely been impacted by the Germ♒an marquee pushing the boundaries in the quest for performance gains. 

“I think we were pushed very hard in 2019 a🧔nd came with a power unit in 2020 that was right there, but mayb♉e it stretched us too much,” he said. 

“If you are in a constant pursui𒉰t of performance sometimes reliability falls behind, and I guess this happened.” 

Wolff stressed the team is pushing hard to rectify its issues ahead of an upcoming homologation peri𓆏od for F1 engines. 

“You need to push hard,” he explained. 

“We are 🦹fighting an extremely potent and reliable Honda engine and these guys have put all the resource that you could potentially deploy on this last season - fair enough. 

“That will continue to be the power unit in the next few years, in a 𝔉frozen manner♑. 

“Therefore, next year we jus♉t need to make sure we start with an engine with a performance that is as good as we have now, but that can actually go through the season without [incurring] engine penalties.”