Hamilton aims to bounce back
Four-time world champion believes Austrian Grand Prix setbacks have made Mercedes stronger
>> SILVERSTONE: Recent strategy errors and mechanical failures have only made Mercedes stronger as a team, Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton said on Thursday.
The Briton, winner of his home grand prix for the last four years, is heavily fancied to take back the overall lead this weekend after losing it to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in Austria last Sunday.
Both four times world champions, Vettel and Hamilton are separated by one point with 12 races remaining.
Hamilton suffered his first race retirement since 2016 at Spielberg, ending a record run of 33 successive races in the points.
Before being sidelined by a fuel pressure problem, he had already dropped from first to fourth when Mercedes failed to bring him in for an immediate pitstop after the virtual safety car had been deployed.
“The spirit within the team is stronger than it’s ever been,” Hamilton told reporters.
“These experiences we’ve been having, and how we’ve been handling them, have really united us more than any other year. There’s a great energy within the team. So, while it was a painful experience, it actually brought us closer. I think it made us stronger.”
Hamilton said the team had come up with some “fixes” immediately after the race, when teammate Valtteri Bottas retired early with a hydraulics problem.
Neither driver is expected to incur any starting grid penalties in tomorrow’s race at Silverstone as a result of the mechanical problems in Austria.
“The team were super on it and I’m confident we’ve done everything we can to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Hamilton.
Chief strategist James Vowles made a public apology to Hamilton over the radio during last Sunday’s race.
“I really do feel like I have the best strategist team behind me,” Hamilton said on Thursday. “Look at how many wins I’ve had within this team. We’ve had far, far more success than we’ve had failures and nobody is perfect. It’s just the way the sport is.”
“We really do win and lose as a team,” added the Briton, who is out of contract at the end of the year but expected to agree a highly lucrative new deal.
Mercedes said there would be no contract announcement this weekend.
Meanwhile, Hamilton is backing England to go all the way to the Fifa World Cup final in Russia and plans to be there if they do.
With England having booked their place in today’s quarter-final against Sweden by beating Colombia on penalties, Hamilton joked that he might have to take a penalty of his own to watch that game before chasing a fifth successive home British Grand Prix victory at Silverstone tomorrow.
“What is the penalty for missing the [post-qualifying] press conference on Saturday?” the Mercedes driver asked at a news conference on Thursday.
“We can talk about it. Is it negotiable? I want to be watching the game,” he smiled. “I had to watch it on my phone the other day, but at least I got to see it.”
Today’s qualifying ends just as England’s match in Samara kicks off, but the fastest three drivers have to attend the subsequent news conference. Hamilton can expect to be one of them.
There are penalties f or nonattendance and Hamilton could be summoned to face the race stewards if he failed to turn up, which could also prevent him from watching the England game.
England have only ever reached one World Cup final previously, when they won at home in 1966, but are in what is considered the easier half of the draw for this year’s tournament.
“I’ve booked my day off, next Sunday, I’ve booked that day off, I’m like ‘keep it free because I want to be in Russia for that day, supporting them’,” said Hamilton.