Mercedes boss Toto Wolff has revealed that Nico Rosberg's lead and subsequent win were put into jeopardy two-thirds into the race because of a sudden surge in brake caliper temperatures.
The future Australian GP winner was almost called into to retirement as Mercedes did not want to run the risk of an outright brake failure.
In the end, the surge subsided and temperatures were brought down.
"We had a problem on Nico's car with brake caliper tempreatures which kept creeping up, almost to a stage where we thought about retiring the car.
"That was two-thirds into the race. It debris we caught in the caliper. Then it stabilised at maximum value.
"And then it started to creep down again, very slowly, and recovered. But at a certain stage, it was very difficult for the team to handle.
"Nico didn't know. You can't tell him. The alarm would come up [if it was dangerous], but we were really super close to that and there's nothing you can do about it."
AS IT HAPPENED: 2016 Australian Grand Prix
2016 F1 season: Team-by-team preview
