Mercedes is trying to balance performance and reliability for the remainder of the 2021 F1 season in an attempt to contain an issue with its internal combustion engine.
Valtteri Bottas switched to his sixth ICE of the season at the United States Grand Prix when he received his third start penalty in the last four races, while teammate Lewis Hamilton was forced to use his fourth V6 in the previous round in Turkey.
Cowell, who led the development of the turbo-hybrid engine with which Mercedes had dominated Formula 1 for seven years, left the team at the end of last season and was replaced by Hywel Thomas.
But Wolff insists that Mercedes’s current engine reliability issues have nothing to do with Cowell’s departure.
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“The strength of the organization lies in its depth,” said Wolff in Austin.
“Andy is clearly an extraordinary person who helped make it happen in his day, but so does Hywel and everyone but him. I have 100 percent confidence in the structure we have today.
“Engine developments don’t happen overnight. It has a long lead time if something goes right or wrong.
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“Andy has been a big part of our past success, but so have Hywel and everyone else. So I don’t think any of the executives decided to leave the organization.
“They are still really great strengths within the organization.”
Williams driver George Russell and Aston Martins Sebastian Vettel joined Bottas to take new components to Austin, meaning six of the eight Mercedes-powered drivers have been given starting penalties this season.
It’s the biggest problem Mercedes has faced since the current Formula 1 engine rules were introduced in 2014.
“You can see that we are reliably suffering this year,” admitted Wolff.
“We’re going to sixth engine for Valtteri and we haven’t decided to do it, on the contrary, we’re really trying to get the problems under control and we don’t quite understand it yet.
“We are now one step closer, so it is not always that we are literally easy with the engines” [ready].
“We are firmly committed to supplying all customers, and that is not trivial.”
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