2013 Spanish Grand Prix: Mercedes' tyre meltdown

On a sweltering afternoon, Pirelli’s tyres faded quicker than ever for the majority of the field and it was the two drivers in silver that suffered the most.

The characteristics of the W04 meant it was particularly brutal on tyres, unable to keep them within the ideal operating window before temperatures skyrocketed. The hotter the weather, the more adverse the effects. Sounds a little bit familiar.

Nico Rosberg and team-mate Lewis Hamilton were the only two drivers to dip into the 1min 20sec range on Saturday.

That grid advantage lasted just a few hundred meters though as Alonso pulled off a stunning overtake to go from fifth to third in one corner.

Rosberg retained his lead into Turn One but a lock-up for Hamilton behind opened the door for Vettel who seized the inside line for Turn Two and barged his way by.

As Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen lost momentum attacking Turn Three, a superb bit of driving saw Fernando Alonso power to the outside line and sweep his Ferrari by both champions, sending the home crowd into delirium.

As early as lap three, Mercedes realised it was going to be forced into survival mode. Rosberg was told to protect his left rear with varying degrees of stress in race engineer Tony Ross’ voice.

Hamilton’s afternoon only worsened from there, as he was passed by the Lotus on lap seven after dropping several seconds to the leading trio of Rosberg, Vettel and Alonso.

The Spaniard’s attack on the race leader did not relent as he shadowed the Mercedes in front up until his first pit stop and an early switch to hards.

The leaders responded a lap later, all opting for the hard tyres bar Räikkönen, who fitted mediums to set up a three-stop race, but for Red Bull it’s reaction was too late.

As Rosberg emerged in the lead, Alonso’s stop the lap before netted him second with an undercut on the Vettel and he immediately began to set Rosberg up for an attack.

In front of his home crowd, the Ferrari driver could only oblige and easily swept by the leading Merc into Turn One just two laps later and off into the distance.

Several laps on and at Turn Five, it was Vettel’s turn to get by. Setting up an easy switchback under acceleration towards the uphill Turn Seven, he breezed by Rosberg who was dealing with critical tyre temperatures. Felipe Massa was by him just a handful of corners later as the Mercedes had to protect its tyres as much as possible.

His team-mate was faring no better and had fallen to the lower reaches of the top 10 by lap 20.

A bewildered Hamilton questioned what was happening. His radio throughout the race demonstrated the bewilderment of driver and team: “What is going on with this car?”

Approaching lap 30, 2012 Spanish GP winner Pastor Maldonado was by for 14th before Hamilton was in for his second stop of the afternoon. “Great, now I’m being overtaken by a Williams,” a sarcastic response in a dire race.

By lap 40 he had been dispatched by both McLarens, an ignominy not yet diminished by multiple titles and race wins with Mercedes in the face of his perceived mistake to leave the team.

His temperament may have been at its lowest point after being told to cool his brakes with half of the race still remaining.

“I can’t drive any slower…” came the despondent and clearly frustrated reply.

His descent from second on the grid to an eventual 12th position was the stuff of nightmares for Mercedes, as the team couldn’t understand how its balance had caused such a drop off in performance from the day prior.

Rosberg was able to manage his tyres to a lowly sixth-place finish while Hamilton was forced to make a fourth stop on his way to no points.

A disappointed Toto Wolff remarked after the race: “It is very clear that we have not yet found the right compromise between our performance on Saturday and Sunday and that we will need a lot of hard work to get it right.”

Has Mercedes identified where it went wrong in the heat of Silverstone and found that compromise with the W11 to save tyre life? Or might it find itself in trouble once again at the Circuit de Catalunya?