The Malaysian Grand Prix will prove a far harder test of cooling and reliability than the Australian GP which was run under relatively cool conditions.
Just five cars retired with reliability problems at the opening race. Far fewer than many predicted based on pre-season testing in Bahrain.
However the teams experienced temperatures of around 38ºC in testing which contributed to their problems. It’s expected Malaysia will pose a similar problem according to Mercedes.
“Malaysia will be more difficult [than Australia],” Niki Lauda told RTL.
“In Sepang actually we are starting from scratch because of the high humidity and temperature. I doubt it will be below 35ºC.”