Qualifying problems now ‘beyond bad luck’ – Hamilton

2014 Hungarian Grand Prix

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A frustrated Lewis Hamilton says he feels his misfortune with mechanical failures is now getting to a point where ‘it is beyond bad luck’.

Hamilton had not even completed his first timed lap of qualifying today when his Mercedes engine was engulfed in a fire that forced him to stop at the entry of pit lane.

The suspected fuel leak doomed him to start on the back row of the grid for the second consecutive race as team mate and rival Nico Rosberg took another pole position.

“I think it is getting to the point where it is beyond bad luck,” said Hamilton, who will start no higher than 21st tomorrow.

“I bailed out of that timed lap that I was doing and was going to do another timed lap and then something happened to my brakes. Something in the system failed. I had to engage some systems and then the engine just died.

“I was right next to the pit lane entry so I thought I could roll back but then I looked in the mirror and realised I was on fire. I was still trying to get to the garage. I thought we could still do something, then they said ‘stop, stop, stop’. It’s all pretty bad.”

Hungary marks the latest in a run of problems for Hamilton in qualifying, including two consecutive mechanical failures. Despite coming through the field to third after starting from the back last weekend in Germany, Hamilton is less optimistic about his chances tomorrow.

“I honestly don’t know what I can do tomorrow,” Hamilton admitted.

“This is a track that you cannot overtake on so I think I will struggle to get in the top ten tomorrow or at least the top five. I will probably leave here more than 20 points behind Nico, but there are still races to go. I don’t know what to say, I will try my best.”

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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228 comments on “Qualifying problems now ‘beyond bad luck’ – Hamilton”

  1. Conspiracy Theory.

    Could Mercedes, a German manufacturer, secretly wish Rosberg, a German driver, to win the Driver’s Title?

    1. I really do sincerely hope you’re joking.

    2. He’s not really German :P

      1. Paul (@frankjaeger)
        27th July 2014, 0:20

        Brilliant

    3. I ralize this is meant to be a joke . But it’s getting beyond funny :( .

      1. It is probably not a conspiracy but the team needs to bust ass to quell suspicion. Gearboxes, virus like computer problems, brake problems, fires … If it’s not a conspiracy, they best step it up… If it’s not a conspiracy, it is relative incompetency in the same shop.

    4. the management is austrian though and the team is mostly english

      hamilton is more marketable than rosberg, the germans won’t care either way if rosberg wins WDC since he has little following so not much point sabotaging in his favour for domestic market…

      1. Actually I´m pretty sure there are more Hamilton than Rosberg-fans in Germany. However, if you put up an ad with Rosberg and a car, people are more probable to talk about the car than it would be with Hamilton, who has large groups of both fans and disapprovers.
        On the other hand, Hamilton might create marketing attention in further markets, like e.g. in the US (with the help of that pop-it-girl-girlfriend).

        An engine (that is supposed to run a further nearly 350 km at least) going up in smoke is still far worse than having the “wrong” driver be the first in a 1-2, though.

        1. disapprovers

          :D

      2. OmarR-Pepper (@)
        26th July 2014, 17:46

        the management is austrian

        Let’s blame Red Bull!!!!!!!!!!!

    5. Why? F1 is not only a technology platform, it’s a marketing platform too. Lewis seems to be the more popular driver if they were into favoring one driver they could well go behind Lewis. I think it’s a case of bad luck, that’s all.

    6. May as well add this too:
      The Mercedes team is based in Brackley, which is in the United Kingdom. It is fronted by Toto Wolff (Austrian), Paddy Lowe (British), Bob Bell (British), Jock Clear (British), Nick Fry (British), Aldo Costa (Italian), Niki Lauda (Austrian), James Vowles (British) and Geoff Willis (British).

      Let’s get one thing straight: Mercedes is German in name only.

      1. Mercedes AMG Petronas is 100% owned by Daimler AG, the German automobile manufacturer.

        The team are just employees.

        1. yes. And the biggest markets for Mercedes are probably China and the US (in that order) where its quite likely that Hamilton sells more /gets more interest than Rosberg.

        2. And the ownership is relevant why?

          1. If you dont understand the relationship between the owners of a business and their employees, I am not going explain it to you.

            But consider this. There is not a single person in Germany who thinks Mercedes is British team.

      2. Just to clarify, Nick Fry left before Ross Brawn.

      3. That as maybe but doesn’t stop someone sabotaging a car all they need is the right security clearance. Could be anyone. Someone who doesn’t like the driver, paid by the other.The easiest would be one of the mechanics.

    7. Wachira Maina
      26th July 2014, 20:18

      There is conspiracy theory (which is rubbish) and then there is probability. I wonder at what point someone in the mercedes garage will feel that there is need to explain the probability of one of two exactly the same cars fails five times out of eleven. especially when the same car has not failed in practice… That really is the issue not the conspiracy theory.

      1. Let me guess: you are amulti-millionaire? As in you have used your statistic prowess to amass a huge fortune on the stock market? Right?

        And that is how you know for certain there is no conspiracy?

        Such a thing could never happen in F1 could it?

        I mean, look at the data…

      2. Fully agree, why is it that Lewis consistently out performs the field in practice with no issues, but then has reliability issues in qualification and the race? What anyone says, it would appear that Nico is favoured at Mercedes.

    8. Likely, no prove. Why those mechanical bad luck failure all happened to Lewis.

    9. LEWIS give back Webbers lucky rabbits foot !

    10. Could Mercedes, a German manufacturer, secretly wish Rosberg, a German driver, to win the Driver’s Title?

      Well yes of course they would, but to go to such lengths? No.

    11. I agree total inside job..Mercedes wants a German #1 so sabotage Lewis over and over nico can’t pass so as long as he starts in front he’s good and they know Lewis can barge through the field and at least get some points for constructors..I see Lewis returning to Mclaren in the future and Seb taking his spot at Merc but by the Mclaren will be superior once again with Honda power and the Mercedes advantage will be gone.

    12. Yes why wouldn’t they also this talk about vettel two germans and merc sounds fitting doesn’t it hamilton is better than rosberg and that is a fact hamiltons car plagued with problems its on purpose now its beyond a joke. Too obvious.

    13. At the end come night fall if rosberg wins championship it will be a tainted diluted win. The amount of problems the opposition car had and yes its the two mercs its not a fight.

    14. I agree, maybe just a little more effort is going into Rosbergs car, that’s the only explantion for his constant car failure.

    15. petebaldwin (@)
      27th July 2014, 17:46

      Obviously not anything like a conspiracy. I agree with Lewis though – it’s not just bad luck. There are obviously issues that Mercedes need to sort out!

      Is it bad luck that the Renault engine is rubbish? No. They didn’t do a good enough job and as things stand, Mercedes aren’t doing a good enough job with Lewis’ car.

    16. Totally agree with your thoughts …..disgraceful

    17. I agree ~~
      Statistically what chances of so many failures.
      ‘I will do anything to win’
      Lewis – watch your back!!!!

  2. Feel sorry for Hamilton.

    1. @celeste, indeed, how could you not wish for him to win the WDC .

      1. @hohum indeed. I thinks is sad when drivers retired or are in disadvantage because of team or mechanical error.

        Hope that Hamilton

        (and I don´t think Mercedes is doing anything to his car) Just very bad luck, but sooner or later ir will change.

  3. No one can deny he as been very unfortuante this year. I heard someone saying they wish Ham smiled more like, Ros, lets face it life has been sweet for Ros from day 1, Ham has been chasing all season. I mean 2nd race he is like its ok still 18 infront, Bahrain it is ok still 11 infront, China it is ok still infront. Ham gained lead for 1 race. He as been very unlucky.

    1. Yeah, can’t imagine Rosberg smiling this one off, despite that though Lewis sounded less depressed in his interview with SSF1 than earlier failures. Maybe he doesn’t feel any pressure now that all this has gone against him? That’s good for him because I have always felt he’s not great under direct pressure, so he’ll race far better if the title seems ‘beyond reach’ (Of course it’s not however). My money is still on Lewis for the title, thankfully though I have no money to lose…

      1. I agree with you that Lewis isn’t all that good under direct pressure. To be honest, I think Hamilton needs to secure the title before Abu Double…

    2. He’s been unlucky but let’s not forget that his mistakes are probably the reason why he’s behind Rosberg in the championship. With the DNF of Hami at Australia and Rosberg at Silverstone cancelling each other, we’re left with the reliability problems at Hockenheim and Hungary.

      In Canada both drivers had the same problem and while it’s undeniable that being behind Nico made getting round the issue a little bit more difficult, we cannot forget that Lewis should’ve been on pole there. In Austria he traied Nico because of his own problems in qualifying too, and at Silverstone again he was in the backfoot in Saturday making life a little bit more difficult for the race. It was luck on his side that Rosberg retired before he catched him. Who knows what could’ve happened.

      Sometimes you make your own luck. Jackie Stewart used to say that in motorsport there wasn’t any “luck” involved, that to a certain degree, it was probably something you did that created that bad luck.

      Of course an engine failure is still and engine failure, but Lewis made life for himself difficult plenty of times this year while Rosberg, maybe a little bit slower on pace, has not put a foot wrong all season and we shouldn’t forget that.

      1. Amazing how you and others love to blame Hamilton for his DNF in Austria. He wasn’t on pole therefore it’s his fault. Amazing!

        1. He came 2nd in Austria…

        2. @trublu DNF at Austria? I suppose you mean Canada

          I don’t “love” to blame Hamilton, I’m just saying that it’s not like Rosberg had it all done for him, he made no mistakes during the year, while Hamilton, love him or not, did.

          Those mistakes are costly, reliability issues can happen to both of them, and if they are equal in DNF come the end of the year, Rosberg will still be ahead (unless one of those DNF happen at Abu Dhabi but that’s another matter).

          1. @fer-no65 Rosberg did some qualy mistakes too. In Monaco his mistake prevented Hamilton from improving his time at track where track position is gold. He made a mistake in Q3 in China. Rosberg made a mistake in Canada and cut the chicane to keep himself ahead of Lewis….

            The thing is, when he missed the corner in Monaco he did not loose any place because he had provisional pole and nobody else could improve due to yellow flags. Despite his mistake in China, he managed to start P4, not critical for a Mercedes at a track you can overtake. In Canada he was allowed to keep position because race control did not find malpractice when he floored the penal while cutting the chicane.

            Lewis has made mistakes in Canada, Austria and Britain (and actually he locked up on his last attempt in Bahrain) but both in Britain and Austria he managed to put himself in P2 before the last quarter of the race and he did jumped Rosberg in Canada. His most costly “mistakes” seem to be Australia, Germany and apparently Hungary.

        3. He didn’t blame him, he just said that sometimes you can influence your “luck”

          Hamilton hasn’t done many things wrong this season, but neither has Rosberg… Why some people feel that Hamilton DESERVES to be in the lead and have good “luck” over Rosberg is beyond me, they are both clearly top of the class drivers and both are delivering as good as the car can deliver.

          The championship is FAR from over, and it annoys me to hear everyone say it week after week, including Hamilton himself

        4. It also comes down to how Hamilton drives the car. Maybe he is just pushing that little bit extra out of the car atm… hence failures.. that engine went from last on the gid to 2nd in the previous race… who kows; But if it makes people feel better to think that its a conspiracy, then go ahead… ill just laugh …

      2. “has not put a foot wrong all season and we shouldn’t forget that.”

        Really ?

        He’s made several mistakes in qualifying and even had the spin in china. He made quite big contact at the start of the race in China as well. He ran wide in the race at Canada and was lucky not to get a penalty. He was also lucky not to crash out in Canada after a mistake through the chicane which put him extremely close to the wall. And lets not forget his mistake in Monaco qualifying which lead to his pole.

        I agree he’s been great in most races, but to say he hasn’t put a foot wrong is just not correct.

      3. are you serious @fer-no65?

        Australia. Germany. Hungary. No fault of his own making. Even Canada was not his creation, it was the situation of being behind Rosberg. He made up his qualy mistake in Canada by jumping Rosberg after their pits but his brakes gave up. After his bad call in Silverstone he managed to put himself in position to fight for the win on Sunday but the battle never happened because Nico had mechanical problems (not Nico’s fault either!).

        I don’t get you’re reasoning mate.

        1. @jcost All I’m saying is that it’s not just Hamilton being unlucky. There’s a fair share of costly mistakes too. It’s not “luck” from Rosberg to be leading either… Let’s face it, these reliability issues would be easier on Hamilton otherwise.

          Canada for instance. You say he made a mistake in qualifying and that’s true. So that mistake lead him to be behind Rosberg when both their cars hit problems… that’s what I’m saying.

          1. @fer-no65 technically one can talk about Lewis bad luck without implying Rosberg.

            Nico is not causing Lewis mechanical problems but he has been the main benefactor of Lewis bad luck, it was the other way around in Britain when Lewis inherited the win after Nico’s retirement. It’s just a fact. It’s not Nico’s fault, it is what it is.

            His mistakes have not been less than Nico’s. Those mistakes were not very costly either in terms of race position.

            On Canada, all I can do is respect your opinion, but it’s very far for my own opinion on the matter.

            It’s not a crime to win a race or even a championship due to other people’s bad luck, some of us seem to panic when people mention “Lewis bad luck” and “Rosberg championship lead” in the same sentence. Relax guys, nobody is blaming Nico, he’s doing a great season.

          2. @jcost :P I’m not blaming anyone… I’m just saying… it doesn’t feel right to me to say “unbelievable how unlucky he is”.

            I’m a Mark Webber fan and he’s been tipped as an unlucky guy in F1. But most of the time he made his own bad luck.

            All I’m saying is that we just shouldn’t rest the championship situation on bad luck. Or conspiracy or whatever… no one deserves or not deserves the championship because of luck.

      4. @fer-no65
        Unbelievable!

      5. luck is random.noone can make there own luck,good or bad.lewis in both races he got a dnf was on pole or leading.then these 2 problems in q1 have cost him a chance to get pole and wins.nico only has to beat lewis,so this is benefitting him big time.

    3. I don’t think it’s really worth mentioning that Nico has been the main benefactor of Lewis’ luck; that much is obvious considering they are both driving a car that’s at minimum half a second a lap faster than any other competitors.

      Bad luck happens from time to time but by and large you make your own bad luck. Lewis has had more slip-ups than Nico, simple as that.

  4. Do people think Ham can still come 2nd even in dry. Remember without DRS and just Kers he use to be good going down to turn 3 which is a short DRS straight now, so if he stays close he will do well their surely? Anyone think he can get 2nd still?

    1. Its a fierce piece of machinery and Lewis will drive his bawls off,
      If anyone can do 2nd from there its Ham,
      Its everest though ,make no mistake,

      1. Exactly. On this track..that is a LOT of places to make up. A LOT.

      2. and Lewis will drive his bawls off,

        Exactly, … and people shouldn’t be surprised if this car then blows up in the next race after this one…

    2. Neil (@neilosjames)
      26th July 2014, 16:09

      Expect the other Mercedes-engined teams might spoil it for him. Don’t think he’ll have the straight-line speed to pass them (unless he can get that Turn 2 move he’s done a few times going).

    3. Only advantage he has is a lot of sets of soft tyres, if he can avoid smashing pieces off his car that should give him a big pace advantage.

    4. I think he’ll be able to pick his way up near the points without too much trouble given the massive speed difference between the Mercedes vs. Caterham/Marussia/Lotus/etc. Once he gets towards other Merc-powered cars I think he’ll only really make ground through pit strategy.

  5. There is no hope for Lewis to win the championship as long as Toto remains the boss at Mercedes. Clearly there is a plot against Lewis.

    1. Clearly you have no grasp of reality

    2. What does Wolff (an Austrian by the way) have to do with it?

      1. @matt90
        Wolfs eat pigs right? And what are pigs when made into meat…HAM! Dum dum duuuuum!!

        1. Ken (@myxomatosis)
          27th July 2014, 10:35

          This guy has cracked it!

    3. “clearly” is a very strong word.

    4. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      26th July 2014, 17:50

      @sainaa clearly you can’t prove it.

    5. WilliamB (@william-brierty)
      26th July 2014, 21:19

      @sainaa It does not take an Oxbridge education to realize that the even if a correlation appears deliberate or manufactured, it is always premature to cry “Hark! Scandal!” without evidence. These are highly advanced systems, systems that are premature and fragile as much as they innovative and revolutionary, and the distribution of their glitches is mere chance. To suggest otherwise without an official announcement would be simply blind speculation.

    6. I am gutted and feel that Mercedes making mechanical trouble for Lewis, as I and my husband could not believe those mechanical failure all happened to Lewis, not Nico.

      1. the Silverstone GP says you’re incorrect!

      2. It’s like all of webber’s issues at red bull with Seb rarely having issues

      3. is it me but hasnt anyone noticed that hamiltons pit stops take seconds longer than rosbergs

    7. @sainaa

      What a turd comment. One of the main reasons Mercedess is successful, is due to Wolff..

  6. Vettel has had the same bad luck and he has not blamed anyone

    1. Vet is a 4XWC he is not fighting for a title and Ham is in a car were he can maximum take 7 off Nico and he is having all the bad luck, hardly comparable my friend.

      1. 2010 *cough* *cough*

        1. the year when Hamilton made vital mistakes at the end, crashing out in rounds like Monza – he wasl leading and favourite to win after about 14/15 rounds, but crashed and burnt.

          1. Hamilton (and Webber and Alonso) was leading because Vettel lost a massive amount of points due to reliabilty problems. Which is @Mads point I believe.

          2. Every contender made a similar amount of mistakes that year.

      2. just because he is fighting for championship makes lewises luck worse then Vettels?? NO! if anything Hamilton is LUCKY for having a car able to fight for the championship. he is not the best driver in the field but is fighting an even worse driver and loosing because of 2 things, bad luck, but also his own errors in qualifying.

        1. “he is not the best driver in the field”

          Agree with you , I do not !

        2. Ha ha, of course Hamilton’s lucky…..he’s lucky Merc made him a mobile barbecue, all he needs now are some sausages to go with it, how thoughtful of them :-)

          1. Haha, some tasty German sausages will do…

          2. Ask any other driver if he wants to have Hamilton’s luck. Even starting last, he can easily get to the podium, because he’s a great driver and he have a car from another planet. I wonder if Vettel or Alonso wouldn’t want to have that kind of luck!

        3. OmarR-Pepper (@)
          26th July 2014, 17:56

          he is not the best driver in the field

          Here my personal ranking of who are the best drivers this year:
          1. Bottas
          2. Ricciardo
          3. Alonso
          4. Rosberg
          5. Hamilton
          6. Hulkenberg
          7. Vettel
          8. Kvyat
          9. Massa
          10. Bianchi

          1. Rather harsh having the Mercedes drivers in 4th & 5th.

          2. Why is Rosberg ahead of Hamilton? In clean races, Hamilton has the upper hand 4-2. What bout their performances in Australia, Canada, Britain, and Germany, sway it towards Rosberg for you?

            I’m also surprised to see Bottas so high. He has indeed raced well recently, particularly given his experience, but has he been so strong over the whole season?

          3. OmarR-Pepper (@)
            27th July 2014, 6:22

            @david-a @matt90 maybe I base my logic in years of experience and car level. Yes, maybe you can put HAM and ROS swapping places and having them 2 steps higher, and maybe you can also swap Bottas and Ricciardo. But as I say, it’s just my personal opinion.

          4. I know it is, I was just trying to understand why that is your opinion. So what about Rosberg puts him higher for you?

      1. JEV is competing for “Worst Bad Luck” for a driver award every year, is amazing.

    2. @ean

      Vettel has had worse luck this year. Austrailia, Monaco and Austria. 3 DNF’s due to problems out of his control. Hamilton can at least recover good points tomorrow. And who knows, at Silverstone he won it easily because Rosberg had to retire.

      1. But say Ham does recover Eric that means we will not know how Hockenheim and Hun would play out. Atleast one victory for Ham surely. If Ham had no problem in Qually in Ger and won which is a 50%chance of happening, Ham is 3 ahead instead of 14 behind it is a huge diff. I agree though mate Vet been unlucky this year, perfect time though when not in title battle.

      2. Maybe, but fortunately for VET, there’s nothing to win for him this year. If he finishes 5th or DNF… is more or less the same thing, believe me. For HAM tho… there’s a title to lose.

      3. Yeah, Vetts luck has been disastrous, without a doubt. So has Grosjean and Maldanado.

        1. Maldonaldo has made a lot of his own luck with some boneheaded moves, though. Grosjean I’d tend to agree with more.

    3. Actually, I’m pretty sure he’s blamed Renault plenty of times..!

  7. Do you lot think he can defo start, i no FIA will clear him, im on about the car damage. Also way things are going Ham be getting grid dop for the double pts race, so annoying.

    1. Ham will surely start, it´s just not sure yet wether that will be from P22 on the grid or from the pitlane, if they have to change certain parts under the parc ferme.
      And everyone will have grid drops by the time the last race comes.

  8. Lewis, what about all the errors you have made???? they are equal to the bad luck

    1. The only error Hamilton made was in Austria during qualifying. Rosberg went off during two qualifications (China and Monaco) and had a couple of bad starts which cost him race wins.

      1. The only error? You must be joking. What about him messing up his qualifying in Silverstone and him crashing into Räikkönen and Button in Hockenheim.

        1. At Silverstone was a gamble that more than half the top 10 took. But I guess that’s an error yes. Still 2 errors is hardly a lot and it’s still a lot less than the number of errors that Rosberg made.

          BTW Don’t be ridiculous about some minor contact when passing 17 cars.

          1. @patrickl

            That “minor contact” cost him a likely second place.

            Add that to the mistake on his first flying lap in Q3 in Austria which cost him a very likely pole or at least a second place on the grid (and therefore an automatic win) he would be 3 points ahead of Rosberg in WDC standings.

          2. Button already admitted that him leaving the door wide open gave the “wrong” impression.

            Austria was already mentioned. So only 2 errors. Lot less than he had car troubles and even less than the amount of errors that Rosberg made. Although Rosberg made his errors when he was under pressure and he hasn’t been under pressure so much with Hamilton’s car failing so often.

    2. No, they’re not

    3. A likely 25 points in Australia (18 to be conservative), we’ll gloss over the Monaco qualifying incident, 15-25 points in Canada (18-25 assuming Rosberg didn’t have an issue either, or perhaps 15-25 assuming that both had the problem but without a brake failure), 7-10 points in Germany, and almost certainly a fair amount tomorrow.

      So from bad luck he’s lost 40 points to be conservative, more likely 50, possibly as high as 60. I suppose you could include Rosberg’s misfortune, so Hamilton being ‘gifted’ the British win (if you don’t think he looked good to catch and pass Rosberg even before his problem started costing him time), makes it a conservative 33 he’s lost to Rosberg, likely 43-50, possible 60. That’s before tomorrow.

      That goes against a possible but not definite 7 from Austria due to his own error. Erm, am I missing something?

      1. A couple of errors actually. in the first paragraph it should be 3-10 points in Germany. And in that 2nd paragraph where I didn’t factor in the points Rosberg would have earnt if he finished 1st or 2nd. It doesn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, as what you’re comparing is Hamilton’s bad luck compared to his own errors, which should be in isolation of Rosberg’s influence anyway. But for the purpose of being thorough and balancing his bad luck with his ‘good luck’ (benefiting from Rosberg’s retirement)…

        A likely 25 points in Australia (18 to be conservative), we’ll gloss over the Monaco qualifying incident, 15-25 points in Canada (18-25 assuming Rosberg didn’t have an issue either, or perhaps 15-25 assuming that both had the problem but without a brake failure), 3-10 points in Germany, and almost certainly a fair amount tomorrow.

        So from bad luck he’s lost 36 points to be very conservative, more likely 46-53, possibly as high as 60.

        I suppose you could include Rosberg’s misfortune. So including all occasions that one driver finishing ahead of the other would reduces the other’s score, Hamilton being ‘gifted’ the British win (if you don’t think he looked good to catch and pass Rosberg even before his problem started costing him time), makes it a ridiculously conservative 0 he’s lost relative to Rosberg (assuming he could only manage 2nd in Australia, Canada, Britain and Germany with Rosberg 1st in all), likely 14-28 (Hamilton winning just 1 or 2 of those races), possible 49. That’s before tomorrow.

  9. you do start to think like him, “Hamilton”
    but look at a couple of other drivers in the field who are having their fair share of problems/mishaps
    some might be self in inflicted and others their team making the wrong call,
    if it was to carry on into any more races i would definitely start to think conspiracy,
    but bad luck sometimes just follows you around, it will change i hope.

  10. I think there could be some incompetence on one side of garage. This goes back to Schumacher days in Mercedes…

    1. I simply won’t believe someone in Merc is doing this on purpose but I do think the slow pit stops and unreliability could be to do with one side of the garage not being as good as the other.

      1. Except there is only one pit crew that do the tire changes, when both cars come into the pits together, you don’t see the pit crew swapping out when the first car exits the box, no there’s only one crew and they like Rosebud better than LH for some reason.

        1. I’ve got a vague recollection (so do correct me if I’ve got it wrong!!) of the Sky team commenting on more than one occasion that Hamilton missed his marks when coming into the pits – which would account for the slower pit stops.

          1. That was one stop supposedly in Austria, and Mark Webber asked the question “maybe you missed your mark” when mentioning Hamilton’s slower pit stops. It was never confirmed he missed his marks.

            From all the races through Britain, Nico has had faster pit stops in all but two of the races.
            Race LH Total NR Total2 Difference for Lewis
            1-Australia DNF NA NA NA NA
            2-Malaysia
            1 24.484 74.384 24.654 74.664 0.28
            2 24.604 24.723
            3 25.296 25.287
            3-Bahrain
            1 24.687 49.833 24.851 49.758 -0.075
            2 25.146 24.907
            4-China
            1 22.968 46.967 23.089 46.366 -0.601
            2 23.999 23.277
            5-Spain
            1 22.951 46.541 22.254 44.563 -1.978
            2 23.59 22.309
            6-Monaco
            1 27.509 24.672 -2.837
            7-Canada
            1 23.554 47.971 23.882 48.984 1.013
            2 24.417 25.102
            8-Austria
            1 22.226 44.781 21.474 43.138 -1.643
            2 22.555 21.664
            9-Britain
            1 29.291 28.329 -0.962

    2. @overwatch

      Except last year Rosberg suffered the majority of reliability issues.

      1. Yet did not affect the points. For example he had a girfted win in Silverstone, and he retired in 7th in Hungary with few laps left. His retirements would not mean he was ahead, work it out. This year on the other hand……

        1. “It is better to be silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt.”
          You apprently have not heard of that quote, otherwise you wouldn’t speak such rubbish.

      2. @baron-2, indeed, it’s easy to forget that last year Rosberg had three race-ending mechanical failures, while Lewis had none. I don’t recall anyone making a big deal about it then. Of course, as Dan points out, Rosberg’s retirements were not from very high-scoring positions. If I recall correctly, sixth behind Lewis in Australia, somewhere 7-9 in China, and ninth in Hungary. Also, they weren’t fighting for the championship in 2013.

        So, a difference of three mechanical failures between the Mercedes drivers is nothing new or remarkable, but of course this season they are much more significant. And the engine penalties have not even started.

        1. None, apart from the tire blowout in Silverstone and puncture in Japan you mean? Of which the one in Silverstone was pretty much a sure win.

  11. I’m just waiting to hear Toto wollf explain which factor could be more unfair on the championship decision: the double points race at Abu Dhabbi or the constancy of problema in almost one side of his garage…

  12. These failures happening to Hamilton, in Q1, so he’s always at the back? Is this beyond a joke? Certainly.
    German manufacturer wants world constructors trophy, with a German Driver as World Champion in the same season that Germany wins the World Cup.
    These failures are to ensure that Hamilton DOESN’T get a chance to compete with Rosberg. Last time brake failure nearly wasn’t quite enough, this time brake and then engine fire – just to be sure.
    Will Hamilton’s place be under threat from Vettel – you bet.
    A desire for Mercedes to have an all conquering, all German team – definitely.
    All sounds too familiar…..

    1. Why on earth would you spend £20 million each year in Hamilton, if you only want Rosberg to get the championship? HAM fans with his paranoid ideas are getting me tired already. Use your common sense!

    2. Ignoring all the absurdity of that idea, ‘too familiar’ how?

    3. Of course it’s absurd… They hired Lewis so Nico had some way of learning how to go faster, of course!

  13. Abhishek Peri
    26th July 2014, 15:34

    Sorry for you Lewis..beyond bad luck is happening to you in qualifying in the form of Mercedes unreliability..i see that happening to Massa in Races where maximum are not his fault but someone else..All the best for tomorrows race.

  14. Maybe it’s karma.

    After all those years whining about how Vettel had it so easy with best car of the field and how he or Alonso would cake walk the championship with such a dominant car.
    Now he’s got a car that’s MUCH faster than Vettel’s car has ever been relative to the rest.
    Where’s the cake walk lewis? Where is it?

    1. Well, Lewis has never been a particularly lucky racer, but then he doesn’t create any good luck for himself either, no question he’s far quicker than Rosberg, but he seems more demanding on the car therefore increasing the chance of reliability issues.

      1. Hamilton use less fuel and tyres than Rosberg in almost every race; bearing that in mind, please, explaim to me how Lewis can be more demanding of his car than Rosberg!

    2. What he is doing his job but car letting himdown. Just count yourself lucky you’re driver was paired with an old man for a few years. Vet could retire now no one can take his titles away.

      1. Ironically, @baron-2 appears to support Hamilton as well as Vettel, and doesn’t support Rosberg.

        That “old man” that people love to bash, beat Rosberg only a couple of years before Vettel beat him, and Vettel and Rosberg were similarly inexperienced when first paired with this driver.

        1. Rosberg beat Webber that year actually, 20 points to 10.

          1. @matt90 Okay, 3 years rather than “a couple”, when they were in the same car (they weren’t in the same car in 2007).

          2. @david-a Oh yes, my mistake, I saw the names next to each other in the drivers list on wikipedia and got mixed up. But 2006 was not a case of ‘similarly inexperienced’ at all. Vettel had 1 and a half years of prior experience, vs none at all for Rosberg.

    3. Besides the reliability, I put a lot more value in Rosberg than in Webber or Massa (or Fisichella when Alonso was actually winning his titles).

      1. @matt90

        Me too. But that’s completely besides the point.
        Hamilton and Alonso believe they are the best of the best of the best. Alonso has already said he believes himself to be equal to Prost and Senna and that Hamilton is the only driver besides him that can win a race in a car that is not capable of winning.
        By that logic Hamilton should make short work of Rosberg who sometimes struggled to outpace Schumacher well passed his prime. But Hamilton isn’t making short work of Rosberg. In fact they are pretty close.

        1. Personally, I don’t think Schumacher was as past it as people believed. And Rosberg being better than Webber is relevant- if Hamilton had the same circumstances as Vettel, I fully expect he would walk it, just as he said he would. He doesn’t have that. Having a car which is so superior and doesn’t require a specific style only he can make work- as with the Red Bull which Webber struggled to make work- actually makes it harder against a decent team mate because when either driver is a bit worse or even a lot worse there is still virtually no chance of another car getting between them and taking points off them. This car apparently doesn’t need a specific style to get the maximum performance any more than most of the grid, meaning that he doesn’t have the benefit of a team mate who can’t even regularly finish 2nd to him, so even when he dominates everybody else it becomes more difficult against the (previously under-rated) team mate.

          1. You sir, need to see Schumacher throw the F310 around San Marino in the 1996 GP. Then once you’ve done that perhaps you’d like to retract this statement:

            Personally, I don’t think Schumacher was as past it as people believed

            I’ll be waiting.

          2. @matt90

            I’m a big Schumacher fan. Schumacher was, as sad as it is, well and truly past his prime. His best years where the mid 90’s to the beginning of the zero’s.

            As for the rest. I could accept that if Hamilton were truly outpacing Rosberg at most times. Rosberg has beaten Hamilton on merit plenty of times this season. Take Canada for example. Hamilton’s track or so they say. That didn’t stop Rosberg from stealing pole away.
            If Hamilton truly is the best of the best next to Alonso and no other driver can touch them then Hamilton shouldn’t be having any difficulty with Rosberg even in a car that’s easy to drive.

          3. If Hamilton truly is the best of the best next to Alonso and no other driver can touch them then Hamilton shouldn’t be having any difficulty with Rosberg even in a car that’s easy to drive.

            Why? He can be the ‘best of the best’, and still lose occasionally to Rosberg. Why does being the best mean you aren’t allowed to be beaten by a very strong team mate, so long as you perform better over a season? You’re talking about how he isn’t able to replicate Vettel’s success. But Vettel and Webber were very close in 2010 due to it being per-EBD and affected by reliability (a little like this year, although admittedly on a larger scale). Vettel was definitely having trouble with Webber that year.

  15. So what happens to all the crap conspiracy theories when Ham catches up again and wins in Abudbl ?

    1. They’ll say he won the championship despite Mercedes’ best efforts to stop him, because he’s just that good.

    2. Mercedes and Lauda wouldn’t allow that! I can already see Lewis retiring on the last lap in Abu Dhabi because of some “mystery engine failure” allowing Rosberg to Coast to victory… Seriously though, you cannot deny that it’s getting a little fishy. Of course no one would make it so obvious, but all the consistent small differences in pit stops etc add up.

      1. In Germany, all three of Hamilton’s stops were quicker than both of Rosberg’s.

        1. @raceprouk he was never in troble that is why

        2. nicos lead was never in threat.only important pits are slower,but around a second usually,which all adds up.

      2. William, it is just a sport, do not take it so seriously… in my early 20s , I used to make up things like this in my mind too in the 1990s with sports. looking backing I realised I was being an uneducated idiot. thankfully I did not have the world wide web to voice my make-believe opinion like people like William Stuart do in modern internet times.

      3. @williamstuart

        I deny that it’s getting a little fishy.

        There. I just denied it.

        Why would Mercedes spend millions of pounds getting HAM to drive for him, and then decide to sabotage him. Surely if they wanted to guarantee a WDC for ROS, they would’ve got a driver that ROS could easily defeat.

        Besides, the Mercedes F1 team is the Brackley team sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, not the Mercedes factory team. In reality they’re British. Also, Rosberg is not German, he’s German-Finnish-Monegasque.

  16. Work this out KPCart says Vet proved he is best for years now(best car), yet Ham is suddenly lucky to have best car, lol KP atleast Ham as not been outperformed EVER over a period of time like Vet was this year. How embarassing for a 4XWC, Ham the 1 WC never been made luck silly even in 2011.

    1. To add to that he must be most greedy fan ever he as watched his fav mop titles up when he is avg and is now saying Ham don’t deserve it. Should we move Vet to Merc just for you?. Obviously Vet not avg but what 4WC do we know ever struggled like he did vs a new teammate, also Vet is one of most disrespected WC ever i would say, says it all that Ham is held in higher regard by most drivers.

      1. Alonso is not most drivers.

        Webber, yes Webber, holds Vettel in higher regard than Hamilton. He said that Vettel and Alonso are the best on the grid. And a lot of journo’s and drivers agree with him. Maybe they consider Hamilton to be a better person off track. Vettel was ranked higher than Hamilton (and Alonso) by Murray Walker as well

        As for the pitiful dig at Vettel being beaten by his teammate,… Really? Is that what you’re going with after 2011?! You must have some serious memory problems. Button trounced Hamilton in almost every aspect that year. The same Button most people don’t consider to be that great.
        Besides that Ricciardo is doing a tremendous job but he’s not beating Vettel as extensively as Button was beating Hamilton in 2011.

        1. @baron-2, eh what 3 wins vs 3 wins, Button is a WC. Yet surely if Vet has 4 he is the best by a long way right? Guess not. How embarrassing for a 4XWC to get embarrased as that ever happen’d before, were a multiple champion not past his peak gets beat?

          All Hamilton’s mistakes were him crashing into Massa, check qualifying stats, Hamilton beat Button he was his own downfall came back in 2012 with best car got 7 poles, were his teammate got his first pole and only pole yet car let himdown big time.

          Vet did not even want a good driver he admitted that himself

          1. Vet did not even want a good driver he admitted that himself

            So the best you can do is post false claims and have a random tirade at a driver @kpcart doesn’t support, and a driver who has nothing to do with the championship battle at the moment?

          2. Vet did not even want a good driver he admitted that himself

            Source please.

        2. Well Ham creamed But in qualifying, unlike Seb(supposed qually king) and kept crashing into Massa, and it was Ham’s fault he was having so many issues passing. Yet he came back in 12 and dominated But, don’t let 2 point gap fool you. Hamilton even lapped him in Canada with no problem for Button.

          Please tell me who as shown more vs Teammates? Hamilton has had far stronger rivals, 2 WC. He is even doing well this year with all the bad luck. I just would never expect a 4xwc to struggle like he did says alot to me and im sure Alonso agrees he said it best himself last year.

          Great lap by Vet but again the 4xWC done what looked an unreal lap is 0.179 ahead so not huge really when Vet as looked great in Hungary i thought he would beat him by more being the multiple champion he is.

          1. “Well Ham creamed But in qualifying, unlike Seb(supposed qually king) and kept crashing into Massa”

            Didn’t Vettel get 15 poles in 2011? How is that not creaming Webber?

          2. Dude, you really need to put that hash pipe down. It’s clearly affecting your brain.

      2. Dan, what and what??? vettel is not even my favourite driver!! I prefer Kubica and Alonso. do you realise Jenson Button, a driver a lot of people do not consider top 3 in the sport score more points then Hamilton when they were teammates. do you realise Hamiton blew 2 championships (2007 and 2010), and nearly 2008. his team blew 2012. Vettel NEVER blew a championship.

        1. Yes, shame on Hamilton for losing his debut year, and for making as many or fewer mistakes as Button, Webber, Alonso and even Vettel in 2010.

        2. lol well don’t ever comment my friend how bad Ham is, the rookie made Alo grass on his team. Ham was on Alo pace from first race and you know it. And no Ham did not choke away 08 he drove out of his skin in an inferiour car to Massa. 07 he had a 17 point lead with 2 races to go his team played smart, Hamilton was making people look silly in China before retiring in pit, then in Bra his car fails him so know he did he choke?.

          2012 as you said let him down, he should be a multiple WC. And you are a Vet fan i have seen you’re constant hyping even when he was getting beat by Ric it was embarrasing.

  17. Don’t point fingers, don’t whine, chin up, do your best, and you gonna keep winning me as a fan. Good luck tomorrow! (This is from a Kimi fan.)

    1. Dean Reynolds
      26th July 2014, 17:15

      Yes…. cause THATS what keeps Lewis awake at night. Wanting to win u over! Show me a good looser and I’ll show you alooser. Winning is all that matters to him which is why he has so many fans AND detractors.

      1. He has so many fans because he is British, that’s about it.

      2. I look at a driver as a complete person, not just a ruthless competitor there to win no matter what. I always despised the saying that being second is being the first looser. That is just ridiculous. I don’t expect people with that attitude to retain many long term friends, have many happy memories, and to be happy in general. As long as one remember his roots, give his best (and Hamilton’s best is quite good), looses with dignity, and wins with grace I will always use him as a reference to kids on how to live a life.

        I don’t know what drives Hamilton, what matters to him, and why people love him or do not love him, so I cannot comment on that.

        1. Just throwing in a random Nietzsche-quote:

          Man does not strive for happiness; only the English do that.

  18. From 2009, Lewis Hamilton has retired from (or been DQ) out of 3 races per year… except 2012 where he retired five times and 2013 where he retired once.

    McLaren averages were high.
    Mercedes average is rather low.

    Nico Rosberg, from 2010 at Mercedes, has retired either two times a season or three times per season. His average at Williams was quite poor.

    Schumacher’s Mercedes record of retirements is quite massive, however.

    Of course I am too lazy to pick through whether the retirements were mechanical or otherwise and this also does not account for failures during qualifying. However, it still shows that, on race day, Hamilton’s luck is no better or worse than his own luck in previous years and it is far superior to the “luck” of Shumacher in the same team.

    1. @neiana

      Nice statistics, but I’m afraid the fanatic Hamilton supporters will ignore this completely.
      Just like the facts about the Red Bull reliability over the past couple of years between Vettel and Webber.
      They just need an excuse to use at the end of the season if Hamilton looses the championship.

    2. Schumacher was never challenging for wins let alone a championship, so there wasn’t the same attention from the German media/British media or pressure on Michael or Rosberg.

      1. However, remember that the Mercedes team is pretty much entirely English, only some of the funding comes from Mercedes. Anyway, all we need is far more reliability issues from Rosberg to shut us all up.

        1. @williamstuart

          For the moment and considering only retiring from the races, Hamilton’s record is far better than Nico. He’s averaged fewer retires per season at Merc than Nico. Even just counting the last two years.

  19. Well, actually I think he got something there. This is hardly a new issue. I mean, the Schumacher issues were mentioned before and we must remember that this used to the Brawn team, i.e. the one which incompetence costed Barrichello a world championship (seriously, look at all their technical problems and errors that year on Barrichello’s side, that adds up to around 20-something points (under the old system) lost).

    I am afraid that, whilst there is most certainly no conspiracy – Hanlon’s razor lives – there is a certain lack of competence at the Mercedes team. Obviously that doesn’t really apply if it is the former crew of Barrichello that is taking care of Rosberg now.

    Even with all of that, though, Hamilton can’t go around saying stuff like that. It just destroys motivation and will help Rosberg all the more. This is now a mental game and I’m afraid Hamilton is losing badly.

    1. @klon
      If you mean that Ross Brawn is incompetent, just read my post below. As for Barichello, he has never been a championship winning material because ,apart from 2009 (the year in which Jenson who is not the fastest driver in F1) become world champion, he drove also the same cars in which Shumacher (best wishes) won 5 WDC in Ferrari.

    2. On the other hand, it’s the kind of outspoken comment Niki Lauda might approve of…but I agree it’s not very constructive.

      There has been an alarming number of Mercedes car failures recently – and Valtteri Bottas must be hoping tomorrow is his big day, with one Merc looking out of contention for the win, and every chance something will happen to the other one.

    3. https://www.racefans.net/groups/f1/forum/topic/alternate-history-f1-2009-championship-without-misfortunes/

      @klon
      There’s an analysis of 2009 which has Button and Barrichello equal on points. However, it forgets that Button was not at all at fault for his retirement in Spa (so would have almost certainly picked up a handful of points) and that it was his own (and his engineer’s) decision to try out a 2-stop in Spain, meaning that he really did win that race on merit. Button was better, and would have likely won the championship ahead of his team mate and the Red Bulls had all luck been equal.

      1. @matt90, that is true. Spain and Spa have been discounted for Button. Then again, he also forgot about the fuel rig issue Rubens had in Germany (admittedly that would’ve only meant one or two points on Button given how bad Barrichello’s pace was in the later part of the race) as well as the gearbox change Barrichello had in Singapore. In the end stuff like the fact that Barrichello outqualified Button and just generally drove better in the second half of the year, makes me (as someone who admits he is a Barrichello fanboy through and through) very sceptical about that claim of yours.

  20. Apart from the conspiracy theory which i’m a big fan BTW, i think reliability in F1 isn’t down to luck in my opinion. For example the chance of both Ferrari’s finishing the race in the 90’s was 25%, after only six months to the recruitment of Ross Brawn who changed all the quality control procedures in the team, the percentage increased to 90%. Ferrari since then and for obvious reasons (it is not good to see a Ferrari engine blow) have always made reliability a priority, other teams like RBR and now Mercedes they actually don’t care too much about reliability, they take the aggressive path when designing a F1 car in order to extract the maximum performance out of it and then they try to resolve the reliability problems given the fact that the regulations allow changes to engine/PU for reliability purposes.
    The W05 proved to be unreliable and the 2 drivers suffered from reliability issues whether it was practice, qualifying or race. As for Hamilton suffering more failures than Nico, i don’t think that it has something to do with his driving style because if it was the case, it would have been obvious throughout the telemetry and as a consequence he would have to adapt .
    The 2014 cars are very complex, just like airplanes, due to the new hybrid system and a simple error that was negligible in the past is sufficient to trigger a chain reaction that will cause a car failure. I think and i hope that Mercedes will investigate more on both cars to determine what is causing these continuous failures which are different (gearbox,engine,brakes) because i want to see real fight for the WDC between Lewis and Nico in the second part of the season which includes thrilling battles (à la Bahrain).

    1. Ferrari’s reliability had improved before Ross Brawn joined the team.

      Many of there problems in that era were due to the V12 engines which were prone to overheating & also put additional strain on the gearbox.
      For 1996 they switched to a V10 & after some reliability problems early on with the new engines, They had it figured out over the 2nd half of the year & had much better reliability.

    2. Reliability from one team to another is in a large part down to how well each team does its job. But reliability within a team- between team mates- really is just luck unless one driver is doing something which particularly stresses the car.

  21. Hamilton is ridiculous! No further comments.

    1. He’s implied only that there must be an explanation beyond just bad luck. How is that ridiculous?

      1. He’s just implied that? So I dreamt his previous complains, telemetry issues and all that? He should be out of the team next year.

        1. Ah I see, you hate Hamilton. It all makes sense now.

    2. Because he referenced that he’s had a lot of unfortunate incidents? Should he pretend the other times didn’t happen? Would that somehow make him less ‘ridiculous’?

      1. Because he complains about his team every single race? Somebody should sit down with him and ask him if he wants to leave next year being clear about he is FREE to go if he wants to.

        1. Please point to where he complained about his team.

  22. It could be worse Lewis, you could be Pastor Maldonado.

  23. Could someone please tell Hamilton he doesn’t belong in adult motorsport if, after realising he was on fire, he still thought about getting the car back to the garage? Endangering the whole pitlane just because he could maybe gain something?

    1. He tried to stop the car by a marshals’ post, but for some reason wasn’t able to.

    2. I guess you don’t either. As the other adults read what happened and the brakes wouldn’t work so the car couldn’t stop.

  24. As I said in the other topic, Why would Mercedes bother to work hard to convince Lewis to move to there team, Paying him a significant amount of money in the process, Go through 2013 working hard to make the car better suited to Lewis only to then mess with the car to ensure Nico gets an advantage?

    And on the ‘German team wants a German champion’ comments. The team are based in the UK, The cars & engines are designed & built in the UK & Most of the mechanics & engineer’s are British. Its a British team in all but name.

    In response to someone suggesting incompetence from his mechanics…..
    If it was the same issue every time then perhaps that would be the case, However its been totally different things that have failed caused by totally different things each time.

    Melbourne was simply bad luck, A rubber seal around the spark plug split.
    Montreal was more down to Lewis not managing the ERS problem as well as Nico so you could actually argue that Lewis contributed to his retirement.
    The German brake failure was in part due to Lewis going with Brembo, Nico had suffered a similar Brembo brake failure in the Silverstone test which was a part of why he went for the carbon industry brakes.

    Today who knows what the root cause of the failure was.

    1. The idea that his driving style or management of the problem contributed to the brake failure is purely a spectator generated one. No one who actually has information on the subject has ever suggested that cause. Such speculation doesn’t really have a place in a proper discussion.

      In addition, how was Hamilton supposed to predict that Rosberg’s brake failure incident was going to repeat itself? Tose kinds of things are usually one off, unpredictable events.

  25. It is beyond bad luck. Not in the sense that there is some massive conspiracy against Hamilton, anyone who suggests anything like that needs to come back to reality.

    No, it is beyond bad luck in that Mercedes have built the quickest car on the grid, but they have not built the most reliable one. This has affected both drivers at different stages of the season, and as we saw in Canada, it is possible for both cars to develop serious faults at the same time when they are being pushed to the limit. If Hamilton’s run of failures has shown us anything, it’s that there is no guarantee that either Mercedes car will get to the finish line tomorrow. Hamilton may be suffering now but I am sure Rosberg will be hit by more costly reliability problems in the future.

    The Championship is far from over, and a silver lining for Hamilton must be that his unreliability in the last two weekends have come on a Saturday. He can and will score points tomorrow, whereas should the car have failed on a Sunday he would leave with nothing.

    1. This is actually the most sane comment that’s been made regarding reliability for the silver arrows.

      Unfortunately they seem to hit Lewis hardest.

      If like to think that Lewis is stating that someone is basically making a mistake. Regardless of intention.

      Lewis probably has to look at the situation as having a silver lining the way you stated it. Unfortunately for him, even if he were to fight for and get to 2nd. He’s putting his PU through a lot more stress then Nico is and now two weeks in a row that is the case. Regardless of the fact that he’s going to have now his 4th PU have to be put in, he’s more then likely going to have grid drops for new PU’s very shortly.

      I hope it’s at least a close fight to the end. Unfortunately I predict Hamilton will crash out of tomorrow’s race trying to get to the front.

    2. Do you really believe they both suffered the same problem at the exact same time? I don’t for one minute, something very fishy is going on in that team!

  26. Tough luck is a part of racing. Vettel’s results have been affected by bad luck also … at least Lewis has the best car on the grid. He simply has to put his head down and get the most out of the situation that he can (as he did in Britain). This conspiracy nonsense is utterly ridiculous.

  27. It sounds as if Lewis will need both a new gearbox & transmission.
    are the penalties for this cumulative (5 +10)?
    do they carry over to the next race?

    1. Good point. Yes I think they will carry over. Harsh.

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        26th July 2014, 23:34

        What? Do they really carry over?

      2. @john-h I thought that only happened if the failure was during the race? I thought anything that happened before the race resulted in a grid penalty, meaning Hamilton theoretically starts 22nd +15, which of course is just 22nd.

        1. I thought I’d read somewhere that it was now going to carry over to the next race; the idea being that it’s not quite fair if you qualify 20 and need a new engine dropping to 22 isn’t really a big penalty…

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            27th July 2014, 5:32

            I guess we’ll know tomorrow from the commentators – I sure hope they don’t carry over from qualifying, that’d be a disaster for Lewis.

  28. Ron this is the perfect opportunity.. Just like Niki approached Lewis when he got out of the car after the SGP GP 2012 car failure, Ron should approach Lewis now. He is fragile now. He has not signed the new contract with Mercedes !!!! Go for it Ron….. Go Go Go…. bring your boy back home !!!!!!!

    Same with Fernando. It is the 33rd time he has qualified 5th…..

    Lets see some fun… Get Fernando back… we want to see the mature Fernado & Lewis race in a Mclaren Honda under Ron Dennis bringing back the memories of the 1988 McLaren Honda !!!!!!

    1. I would not mind Alonso or Hamilton at the wheel of Mclaren Honda. honestly, would really like to see Button do well with Mclaren Honda.

    2. You’re kidding, right ? Maybe HAM wouldn’t mind going back to McLaren alongside ALO, but I don’t think ALO would do that at all. We’ve had that Senna-Prost “taste” already in 2007, ALO did not like the outcome, plus he’s too eager to have at least another WDC in his bag, so a less competitive driver is obviously better news for ALO. Last thing, McLaren has been worse than Ferrari starting with 2013 (even now in 2014 when they have the best engine by far), so going back to McLaren looks like a big gamble.

  29. Some F1 fans though, talk about kicking a man when he’s down.

    Fortunately the season is still very long.

  30. This HAM is cooked and ready to eat
    (by rosberg) ;)

  31. Can’t blame Hamilton or his fans for thinking that way. A fuel leak should be detectable.

    Hamilton is undoubtedly feeling like Prost right now, with Rosberg being treated like Senna. Same car? No way. The engineers have their favorites too. To think otherwise is naive.

    1. This is about as far as I’d go on the subject of conspiracy. Whether anyone is “taking action” is another matter entirely.

  32. Oh, so HAM now officially points the finger at the team for not giving him the best equipment… no ?!?

    1. No. Where did you think you read that?

  33. I may be one of a few, but when I see the quote “beyond bad luck”, I take it as just hyperbole. It’s a common phrase, like the amount of negativity Hamilton is receiving is beyond or beyond belief.

    I honestly don’t think it’s some subliminal message or having a dig at the team. He wants them to do better. There’d be something wrong if he didn’t want that.

  34. will wood why did you miss out what lewis said straight after he said”its beyond bad luck”which was “we just need to do better”just goes to show how certain ppl like to try a twist and stir things.

  35. Rosberg is on course to be the luckiest WDC in history. Sure he’s quick but it’s a hollow victory when your team mate is starting from the polar opposite end of the grid.

    1. agree,but ppl are already trying to blame lewis for this.it happens alot,they try to twist things and put blame on lewis.they keep talking about others badluck,but they are not fighting for a wdc so its completely different.plus nicos only threat is lewis if his car doesnt let him down.lewis reliabilty in 2012 was poor because the team were more focussed on jenson.

  36. LEWIS HAMILTON…..LEWIS HAMILTON……LEWIS HAMILTON!!!!

    Sorry folks, thought I was Crofty for a moment. My bad :p

    1. I do want to say one thing though. I fully agree with Martin Brundle’s comment during (I think) Q1. I seriously doubt Mercedes are trying to sabotage Hamilton. I mean, what team wants to see one of their million dollar race cars go up in flames or hitting a tyre barrier at speed?

      1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
        26th July 2014, 23:38

        I doubt Mercedes as a whole are doing it. These things are unheard of in F1:
        – Would anyone steal schematics from another team and photocopy them?
        – Would anyone stage a crash to benefit another driver?
        – Would anyone place weights on the car at the end of a race?
        – Would anyone fake a problem in their car to switch another driver to the other side of the grid?

        These things are just OUTRAGEOUS – no way they could EVER happen in a clean sport like F1?

        1. Those are all things to benefit the ‘team’, mostly gaining an advantage over the competition, and any hindrance to one car was acknowledged (Massa’s ‘penalty’) and/or known to the hindered driver. Trying to secretly sabotage one of your own cars, belonging to a very expensive and high profile driver, is madder than anything you listed.

          1. Michael (@freelittlebirds)
            27th July 2014, 5:43

            @matt90 You cannot make any assumption about a party’s intention in Formula1. I do agree with you that it sounds ludicrous that Mercedes would ever do this deliberately because they have too much to lose and Mercedes would prosecute the parties till kingdom come if it’s publicized.

            But McLaren were 100% behind Lewis after Ron Dennis left and looked how that turned out with Lewis wondering what on earth was going on at House McLaren. One massive failure after another. I honestly don’t know if sabotage would have been better as it would have been limited hopefully to a single race or a season.

          2. You cannot make any assumption about a party’s intention in Formula1

            Sorry, but when the assumption is that a team wouldn’t risk sabotaging one driver in a hugely public arena, you really can.

        2. Didn’t Ferrari switch Prosts car with Mansells years back?

          1. Or was tha allegations, never proven?

  37. It takes à single mechanic a quarter turn of a wrench to loosen a fuel line or a touch of WD40 on a disc to doom it. Not the whole MB.

  38. I know this is a terrible thing to say, I think Lewis is one of the best drivers on the grid, but if I hear he has to start from pit lane I get really excited, because I know a terrific race is to follow.
    Just watching Lewis get through the field is worth the price of admission…

  39. Donald Mills
    27th July 2014, 18:45

    and then during the race when it was looking like Hamilton was going to finish too high, to have a directive come through from a German director in Germany to let Rosberg go past when he was still 2 seconds behind, and on worn tyres, and then to say there is not a decision/conspiracy to make sure Rosberg wins the title? Common on..!
    .

  40. Hahaha, what’s beyond bad luck? The Twilight Zone? :D

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