How the cold Nurburgring weather added heat to the third-place battle

"The Nurburgring in October?", you presumably exclaimed with surprise when graced with one of the piecemeal calendar additions that Formula 1 stapled onto the most left-field schedule seen in generations. "That'll be really cold, won't it?".

It was never going to be the Algarve at this time of year (funnily enough that's next up), but although some degree of inclemency was always going to be a factor when hosting an F1 round in western Germany during the autumnal months, the Friday wash-out and subsequent biting cold had a big effect on the curiously titled Eifel Grand Prix. Teamwear suppliers had to delve into the kit boxes to supply personnel with thick coats, bobble hats and thermal socks (which Daniel Ricciardo admitted he'd worn two pairs of to keep his feet toasty), while the umbrellas got more of a work-out than the cars did when practice was called off.

In several of Autosport's Instagram posts, our grand prix editor Alex Kalinauckas frequently cut a Cousin It-like figure as he attempted to stave off the cold during his trackside visits - thankfully, masks being de rigueur in 2020-spec F1 served a secondary purpose to keep peoples' faces away from the elements.

Most are used to not-so-hot weather in winter testing, but very rarely does the de facto testing venue at Barcelona drop to the extremes seen at the Nurburgring - plus, armed with reams of data for the Spanish circuit, everyone is well prepared for testing.

However, as the Nurburgring hasn't had the pleasure of holding an F1 race since 2013, any data that the teams have is at least seven years old, and pertains to a completely different construction, compound and size of tyre. Before practice could offer a chance at filling in the gaps, everyone was going in blind. After Friday's lashings of rain and fog stopped the medical helicopter from hypothetically making any trips to the nearest hospital in Koblenz, nobody had got any extra insight before the erroneously-titled FP3.

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In the cold weather with little practice, the teams' greatest concern focused on tyre performance. Pirelli was worried that the eight degrees Celsius reading on the thermometer would spell the appearance of "cold cracks" in the tyres, where the sharper drop from blanket temperature to ambient temperature causes a more sudden change to the shape of polymers in the tyre, creating breaks in the molecular chains as the compound is unable to stretch as much as it usually would.

Thankfully, it didn't seem to get to that point. But the temperature terror did begin to rear its head towards the dying stages of the race, when the safety car called for Lando Norris' smoking McLaren rather outstayed its welcome in the eyes of Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. The two were worried about the tyre temperature dropping to a point where they'd get swallowed up on the restart, especially as the cars behind them were so far back that they were able to catch up at a greater rate of knots.

In that, the likes of Daniel Ricciardo, Sergio Perez, Carlos Sainz Jr et al were able to keep a little more temperature in the tyres - which almost led to Ricciardo pouncing on Verstappen upon the resumption of green-flag running.

The cold also prompted a rethink at Racing Point during that safety car period. Perez had originally stayed out while Ricciardo pitted under the first safety car lap, temporarily giving him third place - but his worries that he would be unable to get the tyre back into a working range meant that the team pulled him in a lap later.

"With the car I had today I couldn't fight for the podium, but maybe with the one I had two races ago, maybe I could" Carlos Sainz Jr

"We stayed out on the first lap," Perez recalled after the race on Sky Sports F1, "but then I asked the team if we were sure about it because with these conditions I don't think we would have managed to restart the tyre. Luckily we stopped again."

Perez had been on the medium tyre, and with a harder compound it's always more difficult to bring it up to temperature given the rubber deforms less under load. With Ricciardo put onto the soft tyre, Perez was at risk of being a sitting duck once Ricciardo had got his red-walled Pirellis up to temperature - and although it was a podium perhaps lost, keeping fourth place seemed like a more sensible bet.

Besides, Perez's points and a stunning drive from last-minute stand-in Nico Hulkenberg - covering for an enfeebled Lance Stroll, whose only runs over the weekend happened perched upon a porcelain throne - helped Racing Point leapfrog McLaren in the constructors' standings to now sit third.

Aside from Norris' engine problems, as he faced deployment issues before the power unit ground to a halt and singed a small patch of the right-hand sidepod, McLaren had a troublesome day with its other car too.

With minimal testing of its new components, including a new bargeboard package to complement the new nose-front wing combo, Sainz felt that the lack of practice sessions needed to hone the new aero hindered his efforts throughout the weekend. Having qualified 10th, Sainz accepted McLaren's need to run the new parts to continue the MCL35's development, but nonetheless felt that in its untested state, it was a hindrance to his performance.

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His opinion had not wavered through the race either, and felt that he had "suffered" during the Nurburgring's first F1 race since 2013.

"Well, I'm not very happy, actually," Sainz told Movistar post-race. "It is a fifth place that tastes little when you see Ricciardo and Perez ahead [fighting for] on the podium, and we have missed an opportunity to fight for that podium. With the car I had today I couldn't fight for the podium, but maybe with the one I had two races ago, maybe I could.

"It has been a super complicated race. We have much more graining than the rest, the car goes a lot from the nose and that costs you more degradation. But I hope this will serve to get 60 laps of analysis, data and go back to the factory to investigate what is in this new package that just does not give me good feeling and does not give us the sensations and performance we expected.

"It has been a day of suffering, I was not constant, nor comfortable with the car. It's a fifth place that tastes good because it's 10 points, but when you're suffering in the race for 60 laps, you end up a little out of place."

Regardless, McLaren has another bite at the cherry to dial in the new upgrades for the Portuguese Grand Prix in two weeks' time. Norris had a much better run, although his car was without some of the new parts, and was well in the hunt for a podium before having to endure a flurry of radio traffic between himself and the pitwall to keep the Renault powerplant alive.

Team principal Andreas Seidl's assertions that McLaren needed to run the new package are correct, especially as the midfield battle has come alive in the past few rounds as McLaren, Racing Point and Renault all have very real chances of claiming a lucrative third in the constructors' championship.

Plus, there's the added caveat that this year's cars will carry forward into next year, meaning that any development work done this year can roll into next year and help the team hit the ground running in 2021.

Sure, cold weather was the overarching factor in the Eifel Grand Prix, but the heat of the upper-midfield battle is truly up to full-blast - Racing Point, McLaren and Renault are all now within six points of each other. The latter team's bigger upgrade package earlier in the year has helped the Enstone outfit find an impressive rate of upward mobility, while Racing Point and McLaren's big-ticket items are still being ironed out. There's everything to play for, and just six races left to play it in.