Mercedes trick explained: 'They cool the engine for more power'

All season long the battle between Mercedes and Red Bull Racing has not only continued on the track but also off the track. Complaints are being made to the FIA and it seems to be a case of the same thing now.

Earlier this week the rumour arrived that Mercedes has a new trick and Olav Mol confirmed this last night during the Ziggo Sport broadcast of Formula 1-café. "There is a new riot coming up between Red Bull and Mercedes. Toto Wolff hasn't released much about it, all he said was 'if Red Bull wants to get involved in that, have fun with it.' Red Bull has seen, because you see all the GPS data from the cars, at Mercedes that there are spikes in speed on the long straights."

"So little pushes of more top speed. People now think Mercedes are doing that so they can drive with the engine on a more aggressive setting from free practice three and qualifying. Then the engine would become too hot, so they have developed a system that can cool the engine with pulses every now and then, giving it that extra power again," says Mol.

It is unknown when the FIA will look into this and how long the judgement will take. "That's basically clever, but it's not allowed, because you're not allowed to play around with that. The FIA has now been asked to clarify that. These things happen a lot because vice versa Mercedes had to shout from the rooftops 'You have to check that rear wing of Red Bull and you have to check that front wing.' But that's the new tussle between Red Bull and Mercedes and perhaps more about that during the weekend," according to Mol.