Hamilton sweating over Mercedes cooling issues

Lewis Hamilton concedes “a much bigger design issue” will hamper Mercedes in its bid to fix its overheating issues which he fears could reappear at the German Grand Prix.

The reigning Formula 1 world champions saw its charge at the Austrian round hamstrung in hot conditions suffering with major engine overheating limiting the engine modes available to run due to fears over reliability.

After the race in Austria, Mercedes was adamant at finding cures to its overheating problem and has incorporated cooling changes as part of the team’s upgrade package for this weekend at Hockenheim.

But Hamilton remains uncertain over its fixes and fears Mercedes will “be in trouble” if the hot conditions remains in Germany. The current forecast sees a hot and sunny Friday practice before cooler conditions and rain is expected to arrive over Saturday and Sunday.

“It is definitely a good thing if it rains. There is not much we can do, it is a much bigger design issue when it gets hot which is not so easy to change,” Hamilton said. “We are working towards it, but it is very small steps and small increments which are not making a massive different.

“But hopefully this weekend it will be okay in that sense, but if it stays this hot we are going to struggle and be in trouble.

“If the next race is this hot we are going to be in trouble and on the edge as we were in Austria but fingers crossed the weather comes in.”

Hamilton leads the current F1 world championship by 39 points over Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas after winning seven of the opening 10 rounds. The five-time F1 world champion could only manage fifth place in the hot Austrian race with the Finn taking third place.