Hamilton: Plan to ban power boost won’t stop me

Lewis Hamilton has told Formula One’s sporting federation that its plan to slow him down will fail.

It emerged ahead of Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix that FIA secretary general Peter Bayer wrote to the teams telling them that a qualifying engine power boost may be outlawed after this weekend.

Hamilton’s Mercedes team have mastered the one-lap setting in recent times, holding as much as an eye-watering one-second advantage over their rivals in qualifying.

Hamilton, who has referred to the high-performance engine setting as “party mode”, and his team-mate Valtteri Bottas have taken pole position at all five rounds this year.

Butthefiafearsthecomplex engine modes are becoming too difficult to police. However, Hamilton believes it is a ploy to bring the field closer together. Hamilton holds a 30-point championship lead over Red Bull’s Max Verstappen ahead of the sixth round of the campaign in Barcelona.

“It is not a surprise because they are always going to slow us down, but it doesn’t really change anything,” said the six-time world champion.

Asked if Mercedes had more to lose than their rivals if the rule is changed before the next round in Belgium, Hamilton replied: “No. The guys at our team have done such a great job with the engine. It is obviously to slow us down, but I don’t think they will get the result they want.”

Four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel arrived in Spain facing questions over his immediate future at Ferrari after he finished 12th at Silverstone last Sunday. The German is 13th in the championship, 35 points and nine places behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Vettel, 33, will leave Ferrari at the end of the season and was asked if he feared he could be turfed out by the team before the campaign concludes. He said: “I don’t think so. It hasn’t been considered or spoken about it. I guess it is not just a question for myself.”