Mercedes team struggles in the heat

Manama : The Mercedes Team have struggled to adjust to the ‘hot and abrasive surface’ of the Bahrain tracks, according to Mercedes Team Principal Toto Wolff.

The Mercedes Team have found their tyres on cars with the super soft tyre compounds get overheated due to the  higher temperatures in Bahrain, he said.

“I always said straight from the beginning it would be a season where it will be much tougher, particularly against Ferrari and Red Bull. I was genuine about it. I meant it. On a track like Bahrain, with a very abrasive surface, and lots of heat, we struggled,”  said Wolff. 

“On the softs, the car were much better, but putting the softer compound on, the supersoft, it looks like we’re overheating and therefore not extracting the optimum grip,” he said.

Mercedes racer Lewis Hamilton echoed similar concerns, he said that the Ferrari team have better adjusted to the hotter circuit “We come to a hotter circuit and often the gap closes a little bit because the Ferrari’s maybe have an upgrade, their engine mode is easily as good as ours.”

“As you could see this weekend on the straights they are just as quick if not quicker. When you get to a hot circuit it’s really difficult to keep the temperatures low in the tyres and that’s something they’ve always been good at,” he said.

Hamilton started yesterday’s race at ninth following a five-place grid penalty handed to him because of breach of rules over gearbox change.