Mercedes eager to figure out why W16 falters in hot races after tough Imola race

Despite a promising showing in qualifying at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, Mercedes' pace faded in the hot conditions of the 63-lap Imola race. The Brackley-based outfit's trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin wants to find answers for the W16's issues in hot conditions.

Mercedes driver George Russell displayed eye-catching pace in qualifying, and a smart move to complete his last push lap in Q3 on Pirelli's mediums enabled him to fight for pole position.

Beating McLaren's Lando Norris, the Briton ended up third on the grid. However, he lost a lot of tyre life fighting Norris at the start, and pitted very early as a result.

He endured then some misfortune with the virtual safety car, but he recovered some places by not stopping under the late Safety Car. However, being on older tyres, his former team-mate Lewis Hamilton picked him off, and he ultimately finished the Imola round in P7.

His team-mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli struggled for pace in qualifying, ending up only 13th on the grid on home turf. While he displayed better race pace, he stopped on track with a throttle problem which triggered a long safety car interruption.

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin stated that the Brackley-based team will quickly find a solution for the technical issue that brought Antonelli's race to a premature end.

"Today was a difficult day for the team and drivers. We were not quick enough to challenge at the front and, to make matters worse, suffered a reliability failure

"We're working to understand the issues on Kimi's car, but the throttle pedal was gradually deteriorating and eventually the system switched off for safety. That problem is unlikely to be too challenging to solve in time for Monaco thankfully."

Reflecting on Mercedes' tyre management, Shovlin conceded that the German-British outfit will need to find out why the W16 has lacked race pace in hot conditions.

"Our bigger concern is around the pace. It's been another hot race, and we were giving the rear tyres too much of a hard time. We therefore suffered from poor grip and degradation throughout.

"We've got to get on top of that quickly as there are a lot of hot races coming up and we can't continue to perform at this level. We've got a few days to regroup before Monaco, but we'll be working hard to try and improve from here."