Valtteri Bottas, Mercedes, Red Bull Ring, 2020

Mercedes still “not 100% clear” what caused gearbox problems

2020 Styrian Grand Prix

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Mercedes is still working to understand the exact cause of the gearbox problem which struck both cars during the season-opening Austrian Grand Prix.

Following changes to the car, the fault did not resurface during the season race of the season, which was run at considerably cooler temperatures. Team principal Toto Wolff said they are still working to get to the bottom of the exact cause of the problem.

“When you have such a problem you’re never 100% sure that you’ve solved it because we were not 100% clear what caused it,” he said.

“We believe that the sausage kerbs were part of it. But obviously we need to improve the design in these areas because they seem to be a little bit vulnerable and I have no doubt that we would get on top of this and understand it very soon.”

However the team’s trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin said it had been much easier for the team to stay on top of the problem in last weekend’s race.

“The issues with the kerbs, we did a lot of work back at the factory, we had a new installation of that gearbox loom and that was the component that was really causing us the grief the week before,” he said in a video published by Mercedes. “And it seemed that we managed to make that go away.

“So, we are going to keep an eye on it, just check that we have got the reliability that we need as we accumulate miles on those parts but there was a lot of good work and the race was much, much easier to manage as a result.”

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2020 F1 season

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6 comments on “Mercedes still “not 100% clear” what caused gearbox problems”

  1. I guess that is a good thing for the championship – at least there is some chip in Mercedes armor.

  2. Adam (@rocketpanda)
    15th July 2020, 16:57

    “Mystery gearbox problems” has to be worse than “overheating because of a black car” excuses we’re trying to find for Mercedes to not be 100% as dominant as they are. Like “we’re not sure what it is” but we’re still going to win absolutely everything so its not an issue.

    1. Indeed, so annoyed with this mercedes attitude, always issues, but never race ending, while the rest on the other hand.. even the ones with mercedes PU…

  3. Good.

    I was afraid this season would become a borefest with Mercedes winning all races unchallenged, but no.
    Gearbox trouble of unknown origin to the rescue!
    I’ll be on the edge of the seat.

  4. The problem, what problem. They just didn’t want their two cars racing in the first race of the season. They wanted to ensure points, then Lewis was handed penalties the told both drivers to back off and keep off the kerbs.

  5. But we are still 100% sure that Mercedes will win the next race.

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