Blaž Štremfelj
Before the last races of the season, the Mercedes team is much more optimistic about the chances of Lewis Hamilton, who, however, will probably not need a new powertrain and the associated penalty losses of starting places.
After the last update of the engines, the German manufacturer faced the unreliability of these engines, both in its own and in the racing cars of other teams. If Hamilton used a new internal combustion engine at the Turkish GP, his teammate Valtteri Bottas has used as many as three extra ones in the last few races, in addition to the three allowed. The Finn was the "victim" of frequent changes as part of the engine improvement process, and on Friday the team's boss, Toto Wolff, announced that the problems had apparently been solved and ruled out the possibility that the Mercedes racer would change powertrain components in Mexico.
“We’re much happier when it comes to one of the problems we’ve obviously solved,” Wolff said. “It is never a good time to be punished, as it is difficult to win back places today. Valtteri dominated in Turkey, but got stuck in traffic in Austin. We are deciding on a possible exchange on an ongoing basis, we will definitely not need it in Turkey. We may not have to serve it until the end of the season, ”adds the Austrian.
Hamilton also hopes to be able to finish the season with the current supply of engines. “I believe our engines are strong and as far as I know, we believe we can finish the season without new components. I hope we won't have a problem with that. "
