Mercedes make hire from NASA as Toto Wolff rues ‘huge strain’ Formula 1 has created

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Formula 1 often attracts the top minds from many vocations but Mercedes have now made a hire from NASA to cope with what team boss Toto Wolff finds a ‘huge strain’.

Be it through F1 boasting some of the best drivers in the world to enticing elite marketing or engineering personnel, the pinnacle of motorsport pits the best against the best. Yet F1 also has a high staff turnover due to factors like the growing calendar and time away from home.

This season is seeing Formula 1 stage its longest-ever calendar to date with 24 races and six Sprint events. Despite being 17 rounds through the season and there being three weeks off after the Singapore Grand Prix, F1 returns with two triple-headers spread over eight weeks.

Mercedes hired a NASA doctor to cope with the ‘huge strain’ of the Singapore GP’s time

The Singapore GP is also not without its issues for Formula 1’s 10 teams, as far as Mercedes team principal Wolff is concerned, however. F1 has visited Marina Bay since 2008 and made it the series’ first-ever night race, which sees F1 teams opt against going onto the local time.

Wolff finds it a ‘huge strain’ for everyone involved in Formula 1 to stay on a European-based time schedule when at the Singapore GP. Free practice 1 and FP3 are run at 17:30 local time, FP2 and qualifying start at 21:00 and the five red lights go out to start the race at 20:00, too.

READ MORE: Five unforgettable Singapore GP from Crashgate to Ferrari vs Max Verstappen

Yet F1’s teams stay on a European sleep schedule with the sessions starting at 10:30 BST for FP1 plus FP3, 14:00 for FP2 plus qualifying and 13:00 for the race. The Singapore GP often even lasts the two-hour time limit, so Mercedes hired a NASA doctor to give them a chance.

“You have to stay physically and mentally fit, otherwise you have no chance,” Mercedes boss Wolff explained to OE24. “We have also hired a NASA doctor who makes our sleep plans and helps us to maintain our European sleep-wake rhythm.

“We race at night, that means you go to bed at four in the morning and sleep until the afternoon. That means we don’t see much of the sun. It’s a huge strain for everyone.”

Mercedes will want every bit of help after a bleak run of results since the summer break

Mercedes will want every bit of help hiring a NASA doctor gives the Silver Arrows to deliver a positive result in the Singapore GP. While George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were both in the fight to win at Marina Bay last year, their pace has fallen away since the summer break.

Hamilton made the podium last time when Russell crashed on the final lap of the Singapore GP hounding Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and McLaren’s Lando Norris with fresher tyres. Hamilton also won two of the three races before this year’s summer break and Russell won in Austria.

READ MORE: The most successful F1 teams and engine providers at the Singapore GP ever

Yet Hamilton has finished P8 in the Dutch Grand Prix, P5 in the Italian Grand Prix and P9 in the Azerbaijan GP since winning the Belgian Grand Prix. Russell also finished those races in P7, P7 and P3 – taking a podium in Baku after Sainz and Sergio Perez crashed on Lap 50/51.

Sainz and Perez colliding gifted Russell and Mercedes a rostrum they were never in the mix to achieve in Baku. Nearly 12 seconds split the squabbling Ferrari and Red Bull drivers from Russell before coming together exiting Turn 2. Hamilton was even P12 at the time, as well.