2.Mercedes struggle in the heat
Despite a podium finish for Valtteri Bottas – and fifth for Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes was compromised at the Red Bull Ring by hot temperatures and the high altitude. With the ambient air reaching 35 degrees, both Merc drivers were forced to spend the race lifting and coasting to bring engine temperatures under control. As Spielberg is 600 metres above sea level, the thinner atmosphere also compromised the drivers’ ability to cool the car.
Team boss Toto Wolff joked that the only way to have improved cooling would have been to “remove all the bodywork” which he added “wouldn’t have pleased the sponsors.”
After dominating the season up until this point, both Mercedes drivers hit trouble over the weekend. On Friday, Bottas suffered a large accident at Turn 6 which severely damaged his car, while in qualifying Hamilton was hit with a three-place grid penalty for accidentally impeding Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa at the Turn 3 hairpin.
In the race Hamilton was soon up to third place, but after he ran wide over one of the kerbs, he damaged the left flap on his front wing which compromised his downforce. That forced the team to change his wing at his next pitstop and he slipped behind the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel. After a late change for tyres, Vettel fell behind, but was able to reovertake Hamilton to demote him to fifth – two laps from the end of the race.
Wolff described Mercedes’s cooling issues as the team’s “Achilles Heel” and admitted that a solution needed to be found for the next batch of races, especially if the current heatwave in European continued. Both upcoming Hockenheim and the Hungaroring can be notoriously hot. The highspeed nature of Silverstone, next on the calendar, might also be difficult for Mercedes, as Wolff admitted Ferrari’s engine is “clearly the most powerful on the grid.”