LEWIS HAMILTON fears he is likely to start two races from the back of the grid — handing F1 title leader Nico Rosberg a major advantage.
Hamilton, 31, is bracing himself for damage limitation after a mechanical nightmare.
For the British world champion’s Mercedes team have fitted his fifth engine in just nine races ahead of Sunday’s Austrian Grand Prix.
And there are more tweaks still to come.
Drivers are only allowed to use five engine units over the course of a season.
So with four European races over the next five weeks, it could be a fraught time for Hamilton.
Mercedes also supplies engines to British teams Williams and Manor, as well as Force India.
But, bizarrely, £30million-a-year Hamilton is the only driver to have had such a huge spanner in the works.
He said: “It’s difficult for the team, especially since we are THE Mercedes team.
“If there are 40 engines a season you would expect us to have the best of the 40.
“That’s the way it goes and I have to do the best I can with the one I have now and the ones that follow.
“It’s not easy to look at the table and see eight Mercedes drivers and everyone else is on a normal plan, everyone is on a second engine and has four left and I have one left.
“It doesn’t feel great, but there is nothing I can do.
Related Stories
“I don’t fully understand why it’s happened, but I hope Mercedes grows from it and learns from the faults they have found in my engines and it doesn’t happen to the rest of the engines.
“In the last couple of years reliability has been quite good. It happens, we are pushing cars to their limit.
“This year it’s been different and I don’t have an answer why it’s happened.”
Planning just where Hamilton will take his penalties will be just as much a game of chess as working out how to get his first-ever win at the Red Bull Ring this weekend.
He said: “I will try to look at a circuit where I feel I can get furthest up and maybe a track where I can catch up and even challenge for a win.
“That’s my thought process. I have to go into it thinking I can still win.
“There could be safety cars and all sorts.
“I try to have an optimistic view on it, but it’s not that easy to overtake in some places so the percentage chances of Nico winning and me finishing further back is higher.
“I just have to deal with it and try to wriggle through it.”
After Rosberg won the last race in Baku to stretch his championship lead to 24 points, the German believes there are already signs his strained relationship with Hamilton is getting worse.
The Brit’s engine problems will only fuel that fire.
Rosberg added: “The basic respect is there, but there will be trouble again I’m sure.”
Leave a comment