The misery isn’t over yet for Lewis Hamilton. The world champion ruefully surveyed the wreckage of his disjointed season so far and looked ahead to even more trouble that could seriously disrupt his pursuit of Nico Rosberg, his Mercedes team-mate.
Two engine failures in quick succession have put Hamilton on the back foot and 43 points behind Rosberg in the title standings after just four races of the season.
Mercedes believe they can pinpoint the cause of the energy recovery system failures that hampered Hamilton in China and at the Russian Grand Prix yesterday, where he finished second to Rosberg. But the knock-on will be felt deeper into the season unless Hamilton can enjoy flawless reliability from now on.
“Obviously I am running out of engines as the races go by, so that is what I am thinking aboutLewis Hamilton
Drivers are allowed only five engines for each season and each change of equipment stores up the prospect of a ten-place grid penalty. Worse still, Hamilton has been reprimanded for his driving twice – the second time on Saturday when he was judged to have gained an advantage by running wide of the track. One more reprimand and he faces another penalty.
Despite the conspiracy theorists running riot, Hamilton has the right to suffer something of a persecution complex as everything seems to be going wrong for him while his Mercedes team-mate has enjoyed a near-perfect run to the lead in the world championship with four straight victories.
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“I am running out of engines. That’s in my mind,” Hamilton said. “Obviously I am running out of engines as the races go by, so that is what I am thinking about. It is not that it is hurting, it is just not great and I will do whatever I can with whatever I have left from these damaged parts to keep fighting.
“But I am just aware that there is most likely going to be one ten-place grid penalty because I also have one more reprimand to go.”
It did not take long for the memories to kick in late on Sunday night as darkness fell on Sochi and Formula One packed up to return to its western European heartland. Hamilton learnt the hard knocks of motor racing on kart tracks around Britain and the feeling that luck and the authorities are against you is never far away when things start to go wrong.
“It is quite funny, you know,” Hamilton said, warming to the theme. “When I was in karting, there was one steward and he was just there to make everyone’s weekend a bad weekend. I am starting to reminisce about that recently. Families would turn up and spend so much money to be there at the weekend and there was one guy who was a complete a***hole. I have heard he is still there. He was just there to ruin people’s weekend. I have started to see signs of him.”
Just as Mercedes are battling to keep Hamilton’s title intentions on track, there seems little chance that he is being targeted by F1’s authorities. Instead, there has been widespread sympathy for his predicament as each race passes and he appears powerless to take on Rosberg.
“It is not something I expected, to win four races straightaway, but I know it won’t continue like this foreverNico Rosberg
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Even Rosberg appeared to feel the emptiness of the occasion on Sunday night. He was the winner without a realistic challenger and now stands astride Formula One as the most successful driver never to be world champion. At this rate of luck, that particular record will be dealt with this season.
“It is a great start,” Rosberg said. “Lewis is more motivated than ever so I expect him to come back. It is not something I expected, to win four races straightaway, but I know it won’t continue like this forever and it will change at some point, so I need to prepare mentally for that.”
F1 reconvenes in Barcelona for the Spanish Grand Prix in two weeks and Hamilton knows that a Rosberg victory there will start to push this world championship farther out of reach. All he needs is reliability and a clean weekend of racing to stand a chance.