Mercedes boss Toto Wolff claimed last Sunday that they’d ‘leave no stone unturned’ yet according to Paddy Lowe, Mercedes are still none the wiser as to the reason for the Power Unit failure at the weekend.
Comfortably leading the Malaysian GP, Lewis was set to be ahead of team mate Nico Rosberg in the drivers championship until the failure ended his race prematurely with only 15 laps to go.
Yet Lowe has admitted to Autosport during the Japanese GP build up today, that “we’re continuing to investigate the issue with his engine.
We are doing everything we can to ensure that it is first understood and then contained for the remainder of the season.
As it stands, despite the failure of this engine, Lewis now has the same stock of power units as Nico for the remaining five races – including used power units which he can fit for free practice sessions.
So, hopefully there will be no further impact to his programme.”
Wolff added: “There is no rational explanation or pattern in these failures. If there were, we would resolve it.
It’s a very unfortunate coincidence things have happened like this. For me, it’s like six times red in roulette at the casino.
But I remember 2014 when Nico had a failure at the start of the last race [in Abu Dhabi when he had a shot at beating Hamilton to the title].
It’s frustrating it comes at a crucial moment in the championship, and we are letting him [Hamilton] down this year. It’s him this year.”
Lewis has on occasion had poor luck previously. During his tenure at McLaren there was string failures and errors by the team during the 2012 season, most likely those problems helped cement the decision to leave the Woking squad.
The question is now, has he got the motivation to continue with Mercedes despite contractual commitments? Signed for the team until at least 2018 on a 3 year deal worth a reputed $100 million in total, yet with 3 titles under his belt (the same as his hero Ayrton Senna), there must be a question marks over his desire to continue in F1 when “a higher power does not want me to be champion”.
Lewis says there’s no use dwelling on things (just don’t mention Spa 2012), and “I’ll continue to fight more [this season]…
But at the end of the year, if the higher power does not want me to win and be champion, with everything I have given towards it, then I’ll have to accept it.
As long as I end the year knowing I’ve given it everything, and I’ve done everything I possibly could do, and we have done everything we can do, that’s all you could ask for.”
Lets see if Mercedes (or God) can hand out a 7th red at the Japanese casino this weekend.
It could have been caused by a faulty part from a supplier or as simple as a mechanic not tightening a screw / bolt to the correct spec.
I suspect the real reason is that with Red Bull now catching M-B, M-B are now having to run a much longer amount of the race in what is in effect quali mode, and the engine simply can’t take it.
Except that, unless they were lying, the engine was not being run in quali mode, or anything like it.
Hamilton drove a much longer part of the race in STRAT3 than normal – which is where boost is increased – and probably why his engine went bang.
And Rosberg did not?
You didn’t hear the radio transmission where he asks if he can switch to that mode?
I did not … interesting indeed
DO you have a link for that ?
Are you sure ?
http://www.eurosport.com/formula-1/toto-wolff-laughs-off-anti-hamilton-conspiracy-speculation_sto5891427/story.shtml
“He just built the gaps, and then we gave him the guidance to go flat out to make the gap, but he didn’t change any engine modes…”
http://www.eurosport.com/formula-1/toto-wolff-laughs-off-anti-hamilton-conspiracy-speculation_sto5891427/story.shtml
“He just built the gaps, and then we gave him the guidance to go flat out to make the gap, but he didn’t change any engine modes…”
Did you invent that, or is Lowe lying as well as Wolff ?
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2016/10/07/hamilton-wasnt-pushing-when-engine-failed-lowe/
“We were operating it within completely normal bounds, no parameters out of their normal range. And no, he wasn’t pushing particularly hard, he was running in a normal race state at that part of the race. So totally unexpected for that reason.”
Calling on a higher power invokes Revelations 13:18 “This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 6…” (just 6, in this circumstance)
https://s16.postimg.org/b1ar3ytxh/image.jpg
Isn’t it blasphemy to question the Lords way? If he decides to blow up your engine than that’s all part of his plan.
The good Lord answers all prayers from all peoples for all time.
Unfortunately, the answer given is mostly “No”.
Amen
Did I really say that?
His fans keep pleading with us to look past his lifestyle- which none of us care about- but his personality remains as sour as ever.
Interestingly ambiguous choice of words from Hamilton… The way he uses the term “higher power”, he could of course be referring to someone within Mercedes. Could he be starting to lose faith in the honesty of the team?
Hamilton’s choice of words has been a problem for years and years now. The guy is blistering fast on the track, has the right racing attitude. But off track there keep popping up signs that he just isn’t the brightest kid of the class, the amount of damagecontrol needed from Mercedes is staggering.
Gues,he used all his luck in 2008. XD
It is now being reported that lewis had a “big end bearing failure”. I don’t think i buy that on a motor with about 200 miles on it unless someone did not torque up the bolts properly. Unless the conrod or the bearing cap actually broke tbey should have had a warning not tbat it would have helped much. If they did not built it properly not lewis had better start praying to tbe higher power that he defers to (or paddy lowe) that the other two motors are not similarly afflicted.
The failed bearing is the result of an sudden oil pressure drop. At least, that’s what i’ve read today (mileage was 384)