Silbermann says ... Not so sleepy in Singapore
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Mercedes tech boss Paddy Lowe shed some light on the brake issues which appeared to worry the team and its drivers Sunday evening in Singapore.
Both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were urged by the Mercedes pitwall to pay close attention and manage brake wear during the 61-lap event, but Lowe insists the recommendation was simply a question of avoiding reaching a crucial threshold.
"They didn't have any problems with brakes, it's a question of management," Lowe explained to Motorsport.com.
"The quickest race car we can build doesn't allow the driver to brake flat out every lap, so they have to manage their brakes the same way they manage tyres and manage fuel. So you can't do qualifying laps every lap.
"But you can't do that anyway, from a tyre point of view. At some circuits like this one the brake issue becomes more dominant. It's lift and coast, the same thing you do for tyres, fuel and brakes, just lift at the end of the straight a little bit."
In the closing stages of the race, as Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo turned up the heat on Nico Rosberg, the German admitted to be worried about extreme solicitation of the Mercedes braking power.
"When you have to manage the brakes and it costs performance, it becomes difficult," Rosberg said.
"All the way through I had to manage the brakes. This is the track where the car is going to be on the limit, we knew that was coming, and we got it right. It's just pushing everything to the limit, as you do in F1."
2016 Singapore Grand Prix - Driver ratings
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Breakfast with ... Bernd Maylander
Silbermann says ... Not so sleepy in Singapore
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