Mercedes AMG Petronas
Mercedes has confirmed that a steering wheel wiring loom failure was the cause of Nico Rosberg's retirement from the Singapore Grand Prix.
Rosberg was set to start from the front row of the grid but the problem manifested itself as Rosberg left the Mercedes garage prior to the start of the race.
Mercedes mechanics tried to repair the problem, but the German had to start from the pit lane after he was unable to control the clutch or the gears.
The problems remained and Rosberg retired at his first pit stop.
"The problems with my steering wheel began in the garage even before the race and it was a difficult moment when I couldn't pull away from the grid - the car didn't get out of neutral," he said.
"When I left the pit-lane, I was only able to change gear - there was no radio, no DRS and reduced Hybrid power. We were hoping that the systems might come back to life, like the radio did, and that we could change the situation.
"But after we changed the wheel another time, we had to retire the car. It was a tough day for me and unfortunately another reliability problem for the team. It was at least something good for the team that Lewis [Hamilton] was able to take the win. Now we need to analyse what happened and to optimise everything further because reliability is our issue this year."
