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Why those Mercs packed up in Canada

LONDON, England - The Mercedes Formula 1 team says it already understands the issue that, during 2014 Canadian GP in June, ended its dominant run of 1-2 wins.

Formula 1 Drivers’ championship leader Nico Rosberg fell to second behind F1's newest race-winner Daniel Ricciardo (Red Bull) while the sister W05 of Lewis Hamilton failed to finish. Reports said each car's energy recovery system overheated almost simultaneously.

Team boss Toto Wolff told German newspaper Bild: "We were trying a new cooling system.  It seems the software went crazy."

‘IT WILL NOT HAPPEN AGAIN’

Mercedes engineers now understand what went wrong. Wolff told Austrian news agency APA: "We exceeded certain temperatures, which was a miscalculation. We know exactly what it was and it will not happen again."

Wolff said the new cooling system would be used again when racing resumes at the 2014 Austrian GP on June 22.

Wolff said: "The cooling was not the problem. We only did not have the temperatures on the radar, not assessing them as critical. Now we know the limits."

MERC ‘STAR WARS’ TO CONTINUE

Gerhard Berger, a former F1 driver and team manager, thinks that despite Red Bull's win in Canada, Mercedes will continue to dominate in 2014.

Berger said: "I don't think anybody can seriously challenge Mercedes, except when they have technical problems."

As for the title duel between Hamilton and Rosberg, dubbed by the German-language media as 'Star Wars', Berger said it would continue to be tight.

Berger said: "Lewis is probably the fastest driver in F1 at the moment but I also count on Nico for his better consistency, his intelligence and his more detailed work."

Stay with Wheels24 for the 2014 F1 season – fresh reports every day.
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