Hamilton curious about car's problems, one reprimand away from penalty
Lewis Hamilton said he felt “helpless” after he was again struck by mechanical misfortune in qualifying in Russia, leaving him 10th on the grid.
Hamilton had the same MGU-H issue that afflicted him in qualifying in China, with the failure once again occurring on an out lap. He stressed that Mercedes has to work even harder to understand the problems.
“I'm very, very curious as to what is going on so I've asked them to give me as much detail as possible,” said Hamilton. “We did 800kms a day in testing. The car was faultless, and all of a sudden two times in a row, the same thing. That doesn't happen for us. We learned, or they say that we understood what happened in the [last] race, and I thought we would have learned from that, but obviously not, and more work needs to go in.
“Now we've got another engine going in, and who's to know it's not going to happen on that one? What's really key is that we understand what it is, more so than we did before, and try and be careful on how we take out all the engines that we have for the rest of the year, because obviously I now have only three for the rest of the year really, so I'm going to have another penalty later on in the year at some point. But I'll do the best job I can.”
Hamilton admitted that his ongoing problems in 2016 have been tough to deal with.
“For sure it's not easy, but there's nothing you can do about it. I'm doing everything I can to do my job the way I'm supposed to do it, and I'm doing it to the best of my abilities, and these things are just unfortunate.
“I don't know if I believe in good luck and bad luck. There is a logical reason that some things do happen, and as today you'll find something has gone wrong with the car, and there will be a logical reason why it happened.”
Asked if he felt angry or sad, he said: “I don't know what the word is, I can't really describe how I feel. You're almost helpless at some points. We worked so hard, my engineers and my mechanics, we've worked so hard to get the car in a great position this weekend, we had the great pace once again, and then this happens for us unexpectedly.
“I feel helpless for my guys, because there's not much I can do to uplift them, and there's not really much they can do to uplift me, because it's happened. The goal is moving further and further away in the distance. I'm doing everything I can do, there's nothing else I can do.”
Despite his reference to the championship, Hamilton insisted that he's far from given up on it.
“I'm not really thinking of that at the moment. There's still a long way to go. Once again, always trying to turn the negatives into positives. As I said in the last race this is another big challenge, and the challenge is becoming greater. Every challenge is an opportunity to rise, as I said. I quite like that approach, and I like that idea.
“I just posted something, even when it seems like it's the darkest of days there's always some light there, and as long as you focus on that, there will be a brighter day up ahead. So that's kind of how I think and how I feel, and that's what's going to power me forward.”
He also admitted that he's faced much tougher times during his racing career.
“Oh yeah, I've had way darker days than this. This is a pretty bright day. I've been racing for 23 years. I don't know how many races I've done but it's a lot, and seasons good and bad. Through those experiences I'm able to have that point of view and approach that I just mentioned, which has helped me become a three-time World Champion.
“So there are good lessons that I've learned, and I have every plan to use those experiences and those tools that I learned to get through those experiences to get the fourth. That's what I'm still going for.”
Regarding Sunday's race he said: “I'm just hoping to have a clean first lap and have a car in one piece to be able to fight with people. I haven't had one race this year with a full car after Turn One. That's what I'm hoping for.”
On Saturday, Hamilton received a reprimand for not going to the left of a marker arrow when he ran wide onto the run-off area in Q1, as the FIA had demanded. He already has one reprimand from the Bahrain GP, and a third one at any point in 2016 will trigger a 10-place grid penalty.
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