Mercedes can be "competitive" at hot races

Mercedes is confident that it can be more competitive at hot races after taking victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix. Lewis Hamilton dominated proceedings, finishing over 17 seconds ahead of championship rival Sebastian Vettel in second place.

Earlier in the season, Mercedes struggled compared to its rivals at races where the temperature was high. The German squad particularly struggled with conservation of its rear tyres. However, after taking the win with track temperatures soaring to 57C at the Hungaroring two weeks ago, Toto Wolff is confident that his team has made significant progress.

"Free air plays a big role but it’s a little bit of a mystery that sometimes you perform on a tyre and not on the other one. I think it was the other way around with Ferrari,” Wolff stated. 

"More data to collect, more to understand, but the prevailing, overarching feeling for us is that we won the race in Budapest with 60-degree track temperature.  That was something we would have not thought could be achievable for us. That gives me a good feeling that we have understood more and we can be more competitive in the hot races in the future.”

However, Hamilton has played down such developments, believing the early season issues could re-emerge: “If you look at some of the comments from the last race, it was ‘oh Mercedes all of a sudden knows, this race they’ve made the tyres last’, which is not the case."

Fergal Walsh