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Bottas, Hamilton, Mercedes, Mexico

How Mercedes has overcome its altitude sickness

Bottas, Hamilton, Mercedes, Mexico — Photo: © LAT Images

How Mercedes has overcome its altitude sickness

Mercedes unexpectedly locked out the front row in Mexico

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has revealed 'better understanding' and not wholesale changes are behind the team's improved high altitude pace at the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Valtteri Bottas and Lewis Hamilton "surprised" even Wolff by locking out the front row of the grid in Mexico ahead of the much-fancied Red Bull.

Despite Hamilton winning on Formula 1's last visit to the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, the circuit is regarded to be one of Mercedes' weakest with the team often struggling to cool its power unit.

“We have optimised it for these conditions," explained Wolff. "At the end you are trying to extract power unit performance throughout the calendar and the outliers are somehow difficult to take account for.

“But it is more a tuning question, it is not that we have put the engine upside down. It is just we better understand why it didn’t perform in high altitude.”

The step forward comes as a relief to Mercedes after points losses to Red Bull were predicted in both Mexico and next weekend in Brazil.

Reflecting on the importance of the improved power unit performance ahead of the title run-in, Wolff added: "There is not a lot of points loss that we can afford anymore.

"Obviously, bouncing back like this is a big advantage and I hope we can carry this into São Paulo as well.”

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