F1 News: Mercedes Unveils Cause of Lewis Hamilton's Monza Cockpit Heat Issues

Mercedes has explained the ongoing cockpit heat issues faced by Lewis Hamilton during the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

The team’s trackside engineering chief, Andrew Shovlin, highlighted that the extreme temperatures, which reached over 30 degrees Celsius, significantly contributed to the discomfort Hamilton experienced. He said all this on the Mercedes' YouTube channel and explained:

“The most significant cause was in Monza it was extremely hot.

“The seat and the car is always running pretty hot and there’s a lot of heat generated by the power unit that you’re trying to dissipate.

“You’ve also got a lot of electronic boxes and those are working quite hard and they generate their own temperature so you’re trying to lose that out of the cockpit.”

The high ambient temperature combined with the heat generated by the car's power unit and electronic components created a challenging environment for the driver.

The friction between the car's plank and the track also added to the heat, making it difficult for Hamilton to cool down during the race.

“You’ve also got the car down the straights in Monza, there is a few places where the planks hitting the road and that will in itself will generate temperature through friction and that will start to sort of begin to conduct up through the floor of the car and into the driver’s seat.

“With the ambient temperature at 34, nothing can be below that, you’ve also got numerous heat sources and it just pushes it up so the cockpit starts to get considerably above a driver’s body temperature, it’s then very hard for them to cool down and the heat just builds and builds.

“Now they’re used to driving in these very difficult environments, it’s just that when you get the very hottest races, it’s a bit extreme and it really does test them.”

Mercedes is actively working on solutions to improve driver comfort in hot conditions. This includes exploring additional cooling equipment for future races and enhancing driver training to better prepare them for extreme temperatures.

Shovlin confirmed:

“Now, we are looking at ways at which we can improve the situation for our drivers, within the sport as well they are looking at means that we can apply additional equipment to the car at these exceptional races that will keep the drivers a bit cooler, but as I said it is a very challenging environment and that is why they do so much training.”

Despite the tough conditions, Mercedes managed to secure fifth and seventh places during the Monza race weekend.