Mercedes face ‘negative impact’ of key factor at the Hungarian GP that they can’t control

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Mercedes has defied expectations by winning two of the last three Formula 1 races, but now the big question is whether they can sustain this before the summer break?

The Hungaroring has historically been a successful circuit for Mercedes with both George Russell and Lewis Hamilton securing poles in the last two years.

Hamilton is also the most successful driver on the grid at the Hungarian Grand Prix, with a tally of eight victories at the circuit ahead of Michael Schumacher who has four wins to his name.

The seven-time World Champion fell short of converting his pole into a win last year, but the mix of high downforce and quick corners are all characteristics that should favour the W15.

Mercedes addressed the main cause of their car’s inconsistency across the high and low-speed corners with its upgrade package in Canada, where Russell came close to sealing another victory from pole after setting the exact same time as Max Verstappen in qualifying.

It has been an impressive run of form for the Silver Arrows, but journalist Nate Saunders expects Hungary might throw up an unwanted issue for Mercedes when speaking on the Unlapped podcast.

Hungary heat could impact performance of Mercedes

Hungary is set to be the hottest race of the season with temperatures expected to reach as high as 33°C on Sunday and track temperatures already hitting 50°C on Thursday.

Discussing who they think will be the top three teams throughout the Hungarian GP weekend, the issue of temperatures and cooling was brought up by Saunder as a potential problem Mercedes could face.

“I’m not going to have Mercedes in the top three because, it’s going to be hot. It certainly was recently, and maybe opening up the cooling on that car has more of a negative impact on their performance,” said Saunders.

Mercedes face ‘unanswered mystery’ in Hungary

Teams will need to adapt their aero packages to suit the climactic conditions which often means opening up the cooling louvres located on the engine cover.

Mercedes found in Bahrain earlier this season that opening up the cooling on their car had an adverse effect, with both Russell and Hamilton having to manage a power unit heating issue that forced them to lift and coast.

The team lost around half a second per lap with the issue, which is also affecting engine customer team Williams. Technical director James Allison said in the aftermath that they were still searching for answers over why this was the case on their strategy debrief video.

READ MORE: Everything you need to know about Mercedes AMG F1 Team from team principal to lineage

“That was actually the biggest unanswered mystery from the weekend. We were substantially hotter in the race than we expected to be,” said Allison.

“It’s always something of a gamble choosing your cooling level for a given race weekend, because you’re having to take a bet on free practice running what the weather is going to be like on a Sunday.

“The fact that we got it wrong by more than one or two degrees is extremely unusual, and quite punishing, because once the cars are above the limit that the engine guys will guarantee the engine to, we just have to back off the car.”

Mercedes plans to bring more steps in performance before the summer break as it bids to catch Red Bull and McLaren, with both Russell and Hamilton on course for overtaking Sergio Perez in the Drivers’ Championship if the Mexican suffers another dismal weekend.