Breaking news
Formula 1 Canadian GP
Hamilton fears "difficult weekend" amid engine delay
Lewis Hamilton admits Mercedes delaying its new Formula 1 engine specification could make for a "difficult" Canadian Grand Prix - and believes Ferrari is likely to have the advantage in Montreal.
Adam Cooper
Edited: Jun 7, 2018, 9:45 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Mercedes decided this week to postpone the introduction of its upgrade across all six cars because reliability had not been proven in dyno testing.
The current engines have only run six races thus far, and with 21 on the schedule, each example has to complete seven weekends.
The plan for the works cars was to switch to the new spec for Canada and then use the original units again for a seventh time in Hungary, the track where ultimate power counts less than elsewhere.
Hamilton says the loss of the upgrade, plus the inevitable drop in performance that comes with high mileage, will make life difficult.
"This is a power circuit, so it was our target, and definitely would have been helpful," said Hamilton.
"The guys worked as hard as they could, and we had to take the sensible decision to not bring it, which is definitely unfortunate. We have to try and make do without.
"But it will mean our performance is not probably the greatest. It's the seventh race on the engine, and the goal is to make the engines stay the same the whole way through, so naturally it's degraded, you lose horsepower over races.
"If we're at 7000kms or whatever it is, it definitely would have lost performance. So at a power circuit it will probably be magnified."
Asked if he expected main rival Ferrari to have an advantage in Canada, Hamilton said: "Yeah, also particularly if they do bring their upgraded engine. So it might be a difficult weekend.
"All I'm hoping for is reliability. If I'm on the seventh race at a difficult circuit on the engine, I want to see it through. That's my only concern.
"Naturally I'm still here to win, but as I said, if they've got upgrades in their engines, which can be from a tenth to two tenths, Ferrari are particularly very strong on the straights.
"It will be interesting to see whether we're able to match that or not. But we're going to give it everything we've got, that's for sure."
Teammate Valtteri Bottas, for his part, played down the impact of the engine upgrade delay, insisting it will only be "a small penalty".
"We were initially expecting to bring the new power unit to this race, which would have been a small gain compared to the old one," said the Finn.
"We found some issues, so just to be safe we still need to make it perfect and hopefully run it in two weeks.
"For sure the new one would have been a little bit better but it is not like our old engine is a bad one. It is a good one and it is still all healthy and it is reliable so there are no concerns on that.
"We also planning to use it again later this year in Budapest, but now instead of that we will use the new one in Budapest.
"I think it is going to be a small penalty. Obviously it would have been nice [to have it] but that is how it is."
And contrary to Hamilton's worries, Ferrari driver Sebastian Vettel was dismissive of the effect mileage has on performance.
"We have done a pretty good job, the mileage effect is not so big," he said. "It’s not like after 2500km you lose a lot of power just because of the mileage. That’s not a big problem for us."
He added that he didn't expect it to be an issue for Mercedes this weekend: "With this family, or generation of engines, I don’t think that’s a big problem."
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Canadian GP: Thursday's press conference
Next article Jacques Villeneuve to lead drivers' parade in Gilles' 1978 Ferrari
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Adam Cooper
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Formula 1
Formula 1
Japanese GP
RB: Tsunoda “mentally on a different level” in 2024
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti planning F2 and F3 entries to promote US talent to F1 team
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
Formula 1
Formula 1
Andretti F1 team formally opens new Silverstone facility
More from
Valtteri Bottas
Valtteri Bottas "pretty confident" of staying for F1 2027 amid Colton Herta rumours
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mexican GP
13 h
Valtteri Bottas "pretty confident" of staying for F1 2027 amid Colton Herta rumours
Unwell Kimi Antonelli skips F1 Mexico GP media day
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mexican GP
Unwell Kimi Antonelli skips F1 Mexico GP media day
You Ask The Questions: Valtteri Bottas
Formula 1
Canadian GP
You Ask The Questions: Valtteri Bottas
More from
Ferrari
Fred Vasseur reacts to Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc clash: “It’s a matter of respect”
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mexican GP
4 h
Fred Vasseur reacts to Lewis Hamilton, Charles Leclerc clash: “It’s a matter of respect”
Why Charles Leclerc didn’t yield Mexico GP lead after cutting Turn 5
Formula 1
Formula 1
Mexican GP
5 h
Why Charles Leclerc didn’t yield Mexico GP lead after cutting Turn 5
Latest news
William Byron and Rudy Fugle really needed this one
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Martinsville II
2 h
William Byron and Rudy Fugle really needed this one
It's all over but the dog and pony show as Kyle Larson nears third Cup
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Martinsville II
3 h
It's all over but the dog and pony show as Kyle Larson nears third Cup
Penalty drops Oscar Piastri out of F1 Mexico GP points
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
3 h
Penalty drops Oscar Piastri out of F1 Mexico GP points
Alpine drivers penalised post-race, Ryo Hirakawa scores on F1 debut at Mexico GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Mexican GP
3 h
Alpine drivers penalised post-race, Ryo Hirakawa scores on F1 debut at Mexico GP
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe