Lewis Hamilton and George Russell suffered from “overheating” in the Singapore GP and missed their usual post-race media duties after a gruelling race which Mercedes boss Toto Wolff admitted had been “painful” for the team.
The Marina Bay street race is usually the most physically-demanding of the Formula 1 season owing to Singapore’s heat and humidity and Russell, who finished fourth, was heard on team radio in his car during the closing stages saying “it’s like a sauna in here”.
The 62-lap race also ran without a Safety Car interruption for the first time in its 16-year history.
And Wolff said of his drivers after the race: “They are both suffering from the overheating.
“But they are fine now. They put themselves in an ice bath and I think that helped a bit.”
The race itself had proved a disappointing one for both British drivers from the second row with Mercedes’ W15 not a match on race pace for the two McLarens, which finished first and third, and Red Bull’s second-placed Max Verstappen.
Russell, who was fourth, and Hamilton were also split by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, who recovered from ninth on the grid to overtake the latter and finish on the lead Mercedes’ tail.
“It was a really painful evening,” admitted Wolff, whose team have now claimed only one podium finish in the four races since the August summer break having won two of the three before that.
“It’s not about when you look at the positions we are fourth and sixth, that’s not good especially when you are starting [third and fourth].
“We struggle at the moment with tracks that are hot and are tough on traction. It was here and it was Baku. But this is no excuse, it’s just at the moment now what we expect from ourselves because if your quickest car is a minute behind the leader it’s just difficult to accept.”
Why did Mercedes start Hamilton on soft tyres?
Hamilton had started as Mercedes’ lead car in third on the grid but his race unravelled after their decision to start the seven-time champion on soft tyres backfired. The rest of the grid’s top-13 runners, including Russell, started on the theoretically slower but more durable medium compound.
Pitting earlier than the cars around him having failed to make up ground at the start, Hamilton lost track position to the longer-running Russell and was eventually overtaken by the recovering Leclerc on track.
Wolff admitted they had simply got the strategy for Hamilton wrong, although acknowledged their car was simply “too slow” in any case to make much difference to the team’s overall result.
“Our strategy decisions in the race were determined by our experiences in the past here where track position is crucial,” he said.
“We thought that the soft tyre would give Lewis an advantage at the start but that turned out to be the wrong decision. With our challenges managing the rear surfaces, we went backwards.
“Overtaking proved possible, contrary to previous races here where it has been more processional, and in hindsight we should have started him on the medium.”
Hamilton almost had a disastrous moment as he entered the pit lane in his Mercedes
Having headed straight for post-race recovery after getting out of their cars in parc ferme, Hamilton and Russell’s respective verdicts on the race were instead provided in Mercedes’ post-race press release later on Sunday evening.
On his difficult run to sixth, Hamilton – who had expressed frustration with the timing of his early lap-17 pit stop on team radio during the race – said: “It is hard to describe the range of emotions you feel when we have a difficult race like that.
“This year continues to be a testing one for everyone, but we are all pushing as hard as we can. We don’t always get things right and that was the case today with our strategy. We all head into the weekend, and every decision we take, with the right intentions and sometimes it doesn’t work out. It can be frustrating, but we are all in this together.
“We have lost some form to the leaders in the past few races and we’re working hard to figure out why that is. We will do what we do best though and that is to come together as a team, analyse and refocus ahead of Austin.”
Russell added: “Our pace in qualifying however made us believe we could achieve more. Today was no doubt a difficult race for us, both challenging in terms of our pace but also physically.
“The McLarens were very impressive and in another league to us, whilst Max had the legs on us. We were able to hold off the Ferrari of Charles in the closing stages, so it was very much an evening of damage limitation. Given the pace of the car, that was the very best we could have achieved.”
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