Mercedes engineers have discovered why Lewis Hamilton was so good at Canadian GP

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Mercedes believe Lewis Hamilton’s control over tyre temperatures was key to success at the Canadian Grand Prix last weekend.

Hamilton achieved his best finish as a Ferrari driver on Sunday as he came home second behind Kimi Antonelli, albeit with the aid of a retirement for George Russell and a failed tyre gamble from McLaren.

One of the reasons McLaren started on intermediates on a track that was mostly dry was that the tarmac was so cold. They knew it would be easier to fire up the green-marked tyres, but they needed more moisture for it to be viable for more than a few laps.

How Lewis Hamilton thrived in a chilly Canadian Grand Prix

Speaking on the Drive to Wynn podcast, Haas driver Oliver Bearman said Sunday’s race was actually one of the coldest on record (around 11 degrees ambient).

According to Auto Motor und Sport, Mercedes have deliberately designed their wheel rims to warm the tyres with ‘waste heat’ from the brakes. The Silver Arrows remained in a class of their own, with Kimi Antonelli eventually beating Hamilton by just under 11 seconds.

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“For us, it was enough to get the tyres into their operating window, even if we were operating at the lower end of that window,” Mercedes engineers told the publication.

When studying Hamilton, they realised that their former driver had actually done an even better job at generating temperature.

“Lewis Hamilton’s temperatures were a touch higher,” they said. “This was clearly evident in the fact that he was more competitive with the medium tyres than with the softs.”

Hamilton was overtaken by Max Verstappen on lap nine, but reeled the Red Bull driver back in on the mediums, which were more difficult to warm up, and regained the place on lap 62.

One possible concern for the 41-year-old is that this race was such a meteorological outlier. Upcoming races in Monaco, Barcelona and Australia should be around three times warmer.

Hamilton finished over 30 seconds ahead of Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, who suffered a half-spin at one stage, but needs to prove that this upturn in performance wasn’t a quirk of the conditions.