Tremayne saw 50-y/o F1 chief ‘uncharacteristically irked’ with his team at Bahrain GP

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David Tremayne feels Andrew Shovlin was ‘uncharacteristically irked’ with Mercedes at the 2024 season-opening Bahrain GP over his Formula 1 team’s aggressive cooling.

The Silver Arrows started this season openly frustrated with their efforts in Sakhir last week. George Russell secured a somewhat surprising P3 in qualifying as Lewis Hamilton could only claim ninth place. But the Britons would only come home in P5 and P7, 3.536 seconds apart.

Russell briefly threatened to rival Carlos Sainz for the Ferrari driver’s place on the podium in the early stages. But Mercedes’ aggressive cooling set-up amid the cooler conditions proved costly. The 26-year-old lost use of his overtake button as his power unit started to overheat.

Andrew Shovlin was ‘uncharacteristically irked’ with Mercedes

Hamilton also endured problems with his power unit due to Mercedes’ cooling set-up at the Bahrain GP. The 39-year-old briefly lost the 160bhp the MGU-K produces and bemoaned his battery problems. Russell lost around four-tenths of a second per lap due to his overheating.

Russell proved unable to stay ahead of Sainz in their short-lived battle for third place and he also fell behind Charles Leclerc, despite the Monegasque’s brake problems, for fourth. While Hamilton’s power unit problems thwarted his race after showing speed across the early laps.

Seeing Mercedes cost themselves at the Bahrain GP by picking an aggressive engine cover visibly annoyed their trackside engineering director, Andrew Shovlin. F1 journalist Tremayne believes Shovlin’s frustrations were particularly unusual given his generally serene presence.

“There was open frustration chez Mercedes, where normally placid trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin was uncharacteristically irked with the decision Mercedes took on cooling,” Tremayne has told the official Formula 1 website.

What has Andrew Shovlin said about the 2024 F1 Bahrain GP?

Shovlin also displayed his frustrations with Mercedes at the Bahrain GP openly after the race on Saturday. The Silver Arrows chief confirmed following the chequered flag that he wanted the Brackley natives to go back and review their race to find why it was so ‘underwhelming’.

“The race proved an underwhelming and frustrating experience,” the 50-year-old chief told Formula 1’s website. “We were beset with overheating issues early on that we were forced to manage throughout the vast majority of the Grand Prix.

“The extra lift and coast the drivers were forced to do as a result of this also caused them to lose tyre temperature. They did their best to cope, with George trying valiantly to defend from those behind and Lewis chasing those ahead.

“Ultimately, P5 and P7 was likely the best we could do with the issues we were facing. It was disappointing that we underperformed today. We will go away and review what we could have done differently.”

Mercedes will hope they learned from their mistakes at the Bahrain GP to give Hamilton and Russell a better chance of success at the Saudi Arabian GP on Saturday. Last year saw them qualify in P4 with Russell and P8 with Hamilton, and finished the Jeddah race in 4th and 5th.