CHAMPIONSHIP LEADER BELIEVES FERRARI ARE THE FAVOURITES
Lewis Hamilton hopes his Mercedes team have overcome the problems they had in Monaco with the ‘hyper-soft’ tyre ahead of this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.
The world championship leader and defending four-time champion said yesterday that he believed the issues experienced in Monte Carlo were a ‘one-off’ and were now understood.
“I think Monaco was a oneoff,” said Hamilton. “We’ve understood where and why our tyres didn’t last and there’s some fundamental things we’ve changed on the car which affected it.
“So I think we have a much better understanding coming into this weekend.”
The team’s problems with the tyres meant they were out-qualified and Hamilton lined up only third on the grid behind Australian Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull and title rival four-time champion German Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari.
Hamilton had problems in the race and abandoned using the ‘hyper-softs’ earlier than expected, switching to the ‘super-softs’ to reach the finish.
He added: “This is usually a track where warm-up is difficult and the target is always moving, all the time. We got it wrong the last weekend and in hindsight we know that and could have done something different. Now we will.”
Ricciardo confident
Ricciardo said he felt confident of running well using the ‘hypersofts’ again in Montreal on the power-hungry Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
He said: “We were good on the hypersofts in Monaco and it gives us a chance to do well again this weekend. This circuit could suit us better than a few of the others coming up.”
Hamilton fears the momentum may be with Ferrari this weekend after his Mercedes team ■ confirmed they will not be upgrading their engines.
The championship leader and defending four-time champion said that the power-hungry nature of the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve made engines a decisive factor, adding that he believed Ferrari were favourites.
He leads Ferrari’s four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel by 14 points in the title race.
“This is a power circuit so it was our target (to have the new engine) and it definitely would have been helpful,” said Hamilton, who is aiming for a recordequalling seventh victory in Canada this weekend.
“But the guys worked as hard
Lewis Hamilton | Formula One champion
as they could and had to take a sensible decision to not bring it here, which is definitely unfortunate.
“We’ll have to try and make do without it, but it will mean our performance is probably not the greatest.”
Finnish teammate Valtteri Bottas also lamented the delayed arrival of the new engine, but said he was confident the original one would do a good job.
“It is not really such an old engine and it is not a bad one either,” he said.
Anticipating that both Ferrari and Red Bull use upgraded engines, Briton Hamilton added: “If the others are bringing upgrades and have fresh engines, particularly given how close we are, we won’t be in a position to fight for the victory.
“This is a power circuit and there is power lost over an engine’s life. All I’m hoping for is reliability. If I’m on the seventh race with a difficult circuit on engines, I want to see it through. That’s my main concern.”
Hamilton added: “Ferrari are particularly very strong on the straights so it’ll be interesting to see if we are able to match them or not, but we’ll give it everything, that’s for sure.”
A team spokesman said the new units would be used at the French Grand Prix later in June.
“We had hoped to introduce the PU2 this weekend,” said the spokesman. “But a quality issue means that his has now been delayed by one race.
“So all Mercedes-powered cars will be running PU1 again this weekend, too, before the new units are available in France.”