Seven-year partnership still going strong
Mercedes AMG and Petronas celebrate 10 years of success as partners in Formula One, world champion Lewis Hamilton looks back at his early days with the team.
Hamilton was already a world champion when he joined Mercedes AMG PETRONAS in 2013.
The team then had shown flashes of their potential but were not quite the finished product.
Subsequently, there was no guarantee of success for the Briton.
But four world titles later, neither Petronas nor Mercedes have let him down.
“This is my seventh year with the team and when I joined, they were roughly the fourth or fifth-best team in the field, so my expectations were reasonable,” said Hamilton.
“I knew I was joining a team that was hungry to succeed and had also gone through a difficult time as they had not had a lot of success.
“But we were on the cusp of doing something extraordinary. I wanted to be a part of that, so I joined and was pleasantly surprised to see the very driven culture within Petronas which gave me a lot of confidence on that side.
“The 2013 car was a car they had been working on for years. But the first time we truly made an impact together was in 2014 and since then we have won five world titles together (including the 2016 crown won by Nico Rosberg).”
Hamilton was in KL yesterday for the launch of Petronas’ new range of Petronas Syntium lubricants featuring its CoolTech technology.
Petronas’ consumer products often feature technological advancements derived from their many years of racing experience, in both two and fourwheel categories.
Hamilton stressed that Petronas’ continuous improvement of its fuels, lubricants and fluids has played a key role in his victories over the years.
“Reliability has become more and more important as we can only use three engines a year (due to regulations),” added Hamilton.
“Two or three years ago. it was hard to prevent engines from deteriorating over time in terms of power and delivery but I notice this is different now.
“We do seven races with the same engine now and our engines don’t drop (in performance).
“My engine at Budapest (Hungary GP) had a lot of mileage on it and had gone through a lot, but the power (output) was just like a new engine.
“It was quite impressive and proves the improvements that Petronas have made in its lubricants.
“And when we get a new fuel come through, you can feel the difference in power especially when you shift (gears).
“It may just be a small increase in brake horsepower but it is still important as even one-tenth of a second can make the difference between being first or fifth.”
Hamilton also highlighted the importance of trackside engineers who constantly monitor the quality of the fuels, lubricants and fluids during a race weekend and make adjustments when necessary.