Mercedes’ Singapore Grand Prix triumph owed a lot to Lewis Hamilton’s “Stardust” driving, but one hidden change on his car may have been key to his brilliant weekend.

Analysis of qualifying laps showed Mercedes was better than Ferrari at preventing its types overheating in the final sector and gained crucial time there.

Hamilton was able to keep his tyres alive longer than Sebastian Vettel would have liked in the race’s first stint, and then pulled clear in the second.

The new carbon fibre wheel drums (above) have different cooling ducts and more importantly a unique deep concave shape – which is very different to what it has run previously (below).

Mercedes became the second of four teams to take advantage when it introduced its interpretation in Austria (inset) and ran the wing again at Hungary.

The Singapore variant featured an elongated most rearward slot and displaced strake (highlighted in yellow), replacing the upwash strakes (arrowed, inset) in order that they work the wing even harder.