Spielberg (Austria): Five days after a one-two triumph so comprehensive it sparked heated debate about Formula One's future, Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes team revisit this weekend the scene of last season's darkest hour. Team chief Toto Wolff, a native Austrian who knows the Spielberg circuit well, described the double DNF (Did Not Finish) in last year's Austrian Grand Prix as the team's lowest point in an otherwise hugely-successful season.

"That race was a cruel reminder of how quickly things can go wrong in our sport and that reliability and performance go hand in hand in F1," he said. "This year, our race finishing record has been good, but it would be complacent to ignore the fact that for two weekends in a row now, our mechanics had to perform the equivalent of 'open-heart surgery' on our cars. "We've faced a number of different issues on different components, each of which could have easily caused us to retire, so we need to get on top of those challenges as quickly as possible."