Mercedes has identified the origin of the leak on the Hamilton W10

A few hours before the departure of Canadian Grand Prix, a moment of worry crossed the clan Mercedes in Montreal last Sunday. A hydraulic leak had been detected on the W10 of Lewis Hamilton, forcing the team to investigate as quickly as possible to resolve the potential problem.

A situation that Toto wolff, boss of the world champion team admitted urgently, indicating that the mechanics had to carry out a “reconstruction of almost the entire car” with uncertainty over the possibility of taking the start and seeing the finish, ultimately victorious after the penalty received by Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari), after the 48th lap incident.

This Wednesday, Mercedes-AMG F1, in his traditional debriefing of the race on Youtube, confirmed the origin of this leak. “This came to light after qualifying, specifies Andrew Shovlin, director of track engineering.

We took the floor off the car, and found that there was oil on the floor. So there was a leak somewhere. We also saw on the data that we were losing hydraulic pressure.

The problem is that the cars were under Parc Fermé regime, and we were not allowed during the night to touch the car. We waited until Sunday morning to have access to the car. We “dropped” the Power Unit and traced the leak to the throttle actuator.

We asked the FIA ​​to change this element and the associated hydraulics. This work was substantial and the timing to take the car to the grid. When you have a leak, it can take time to find it and identify it. »

Discover the full report and analysis of the Canadian Grand Prix, produced by our special correspondents in Montreal, in issue 2220 of AUTOhebdo, available now in digital version and on newsstands.