Hamilton has already exceeded his permitted engine allocation for 2021, h🎃aving used a total of five V6 internal combustion engines that led to grid penalties in Turkey and Brazil.

There 🍃were suggestions that Mercedes may consider fitting a new ICE on Hamilton’s car to give him a performance advantage at the Abu Dhabi finale in his title battle against Max Verstappen. 

But speaking to Sky Sports after opening practice, Mercedes trackside en🐎gineering director Andrew Shovlin ruled out an engine cha🗹nge. 

“Not on the plan,” Shovlin replied when asked if there was a possibilitꦐy Mercedes could introduce a new engine in Abu Dhabi. 

"If weꦰ do that, something has gone wrong. It wouldn’t feel like a good idea. That would only be if we suffer a big problem, and even that wouldn’t be Plan A if we did lose an engine.” 

Much has been ♌made of the power unit Mercedes introduced in Brazil, with Mercedes boss Toto Wolff referr🐽ing to the engine as “spicy”, while Red Bull boss Christian Horner claimed it was “unraceable” in Brazil and Jeddah. 

“It’s not as big a🍷 dea𒈔l as it’s perhaps being made out to be,” Shovlin said. 

“I think Red Bull we🦋re inferring it was a huge differenc꧅e and I think Toto did the same at one point. It’s a useful step in the right direction. 

“Whether we had it in, or not, at the last race, it’s not going to cover the kind of gap that we were seeing to Max over a s🔥ingle lap. But it’s a step in the right direction.”🦄 

Verstappen and🏅 Hamilton enter the final rou🍸nd of the season level of points knowing that whoever finishes ahead in Abu Dhabi will seal the world title. 

The Red Bull driver set the pace in opening practice around the revised Yas Marina Circuit layout, while Hamilton was third behind Mercedes teammate Valtteri♏ Bottas and three-tenths adrift of Verstappen after having his best 🅰lap time deleted for track limits. 

“It’s fairly repre🔜sentative,” Shovlin explained. “The track iꦺs probably seven or eight degrees hotter than it’s going to be come qualifying, so we’re not going to see a very different picture. 

“It looks pretty tight. There’s a cou♔ple of corners we are struggling with, but there’s not a l꧂ot between the teams. 

“Whether [the changes] suit us, I’m not sure. Turn 5 was one of the ones where we haven’t got the balance right there yet, so we𓄧’ll go and have a chat with Lewis and Valtteri and see what we can improve in the break.”