Mercedes working 'day and night' to solve 'complex' gearbox sensor issues

Valtteri Bottas won the race at the Red Bull Ring for Mercedes but he and his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, the six-times Formula One world champion, were told to avoid the kerbs due to the risk of vibration damage.

Not running aggressively over the kerbs can result in a lap slower by several tenths of a second, however - something drivers cannot afford to do for an entire race.

"The issue itself in the gearbox is electrical by nature and the reality behind it is we now have a few days to get on top of this issue," Vowles said in a video debrief on the team's website.

“We have a number of people back at the factory working day and night. In fact, they were working in parallel to the Grand Prix. Whilst that was taking place they were already doing their utmost to try and understand what the problems were to get us ahead of the issue before we head in to this week.

“We know if we don’t get on top of these issues then it will be a problem again. It was a problem that could have cost us one or both cars the opportunity to finish the race on Sunday.

"Equally, it’s a complex problem. If it was something that was straightforward then we would have done our best to fix it last week and clearly we didn’t. All we know right now is that there are electrical elements in our gearboxes that are suffering and we need to do more in order to get through a Grand Prix.”

Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff said the champions would run new components this weekend to try to improve matters.

The next race, the Styrian Grand Prix, is behind closed doors at the same circuit due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will be the first time Formula One has held two successive races at the same track in one season.