Hamilton’s woes piling up after qualifying run ends early
HOCKENHEIM, Germany — Crouching down by the side of his Mercedes, Lewis Hamilton lowered his head and stayed perfectly still for several moments.
The British driver looked lost in thought, deep in contemplation, seemingly unable to believe what happened on Saturday. A hydraulic failure had just ended his qualifying run prematurely, dropping Formula One’s all-time recordholder for pole positions to 14th on the grid for Sunday’s race.
Hamilton’s hopes of winning a record-equaling fourth German Grand Prix — and matching Michael Schumacher— have been dented. And his woes are piling up as he duels with Sebastian Vettel — in a seemingly quicker Ferrari — for a fifth Formula One title.
July has been a bad month for Hamilton. He retired from the Austrian GP and got knocked off the track at the British GP. He recovered from last to finish second in Silverstone and faces another uphill struggle at Hockenheim.
Worse still, Vettel is going from pole.
“We didn’t know Ferrari would be so fast on the straights,” Hamilton said, ruefully.
After sliding off the track early in qualifying, Hamilton came back on. But because his power steering was failing he ploughed through rough grass and bounced Those gaps could increase over a kerb, after Sunday, the sending the 11th race of 21 this season. hefty-looking “We’ve got a severe Mercedes warning today,” Wolff said. momentarily However, warning signs have been glaring like a airborne and down with a beacon this season. Mercedes bit of a bump. has made strategy
“It definitely wasn’t and communication errors, Lewis’ driving. A hydraulic and Hamilton and Valtteri leak caused a power Bottas retired from the steering failure,” Mercedes Austrian GP three weeks head of motorsport Toto ago because of mechanical Wolff said, seemingly keen failure s. to clear his star driver of “(Ferrari) haven’t had blame. “We are unpicking the problems we’ve had. how the problem happened. Maybe they will, maybe It was not caused by the they won’t,” Hamilton said. driver.” “These are times when we
Hamilton even desperately just have to work harder. tried to push his car There’s no excuse for these back to the pits so he could scenarios, and we don’t try continue qualifying. to make them.”
“My first thought was to Wolff acknowledges the get the car back to the garage
team is searching for answers, at all costs,” Hamilton an uncomfortable said.
But even with the help of position after years of dominance. track officials he realized it was a futile effort. So he “(There are) clearly lots stopped and knelt by the of shortcomings on our side of his car, grabbing side. We shouldn’t have hold of it with one hand a double DNF in Austria, and lowering his head as if where we were running solid almost in prayer. 1-2,” Wolff said. “Lewis
“I had just pushed a would have won the race; heavy car almost 100 meters. we would have scored 43 I was gathering my points, and would have breath,” he later explained. been in the lead in both “Sometimes it takes a second championships.” to realize what happened Mercedes has much to (and) then you have work on, from the top down. to accept it.” “We need to improve, all
Mercedes used to be the of us. We need to improve ultimate in reliability, the reliability and robustness dominating F1 with four of the car,” Wolff continued. straight drivers’ and constructors’ “We need to minimize championships. strategic mistakes. But the Silver Arrows team We need to increase the trails Ferrari by 20 points output of the chassis and and Hamilton is eight behind the engine in order to stay Vettel. in the title fight.”