Category Archives: Grand Prix News

Lewis Hamilton has moved to reassure his fans that he still has faith in the Mercedes team and his mechanics, despite a troubled start to the 2016 season.

Hamilton used Facebook to put his thoughts across, saying that he trusted his guys “1000%.

His full message is as follows: “I want you to know how grateful I am for all of your support. I’d like to ask that you please trust in my team, as I do. This is my family. These guys have been the greatest, hardest working people for me, and that is why I am now 3x World Champion. Please don’t put any more thought into my team doing anything unjust towards me, and understand that it would be in no one’s best interest for that to be the case.

“We’ve had the best 3 years together, and whilst it’s not going to plan right now, all will unfold in its own time. I trust these guys 1000% and my mechanics are incredible, the best in the business. I respect them so please do the same. They are the guys that are going to make winning this championship possible. Thank you once again.”

Nico Rosberg says he’s just being realistic when he talks up the prospect of a Ferrari resurgence in 2016.

The German has said on several occasions recently that we have yet to see the Maranello team’s full potential after it endured a difficult start to the season.

“I’m not really sounding any notes of caution,” said Rosberg. “I’m just realistic, and Ferrari, among others, just haven’t shown what they can do yet. They’ve taken each other out in the last race, for example, in the first corner and from then it was just messy, an an example. A lot of things have been going wrong and for sure they are a lot quicker than they have shown and we think they are very, very close to us.”

Rosberg played down the significance of his run of victories: “For me, it’s not six in a row because the three last year were last year and they don’t count for anything in this year’s championship, so for me it’s winning the first three, which I’m really happy about. Yes, I’ve been driving really well but my opposition had a really messy start. That’s the reality of it.

“I definitely expect them all to bounce back, especially Lewis, and it’s going to be a great battle against them as always. And it will be tough, even if I have some points lead now, but it’s still such a long season. Three races is a seventh or something of the whole thing. There’s like 450 points to take still, and now I have 30-something in front, or whatever. There’s still a massively long way to go, so it’s not really changing the situation much.”

Meanwhile he denied that fighting for the championship was proving tough mentally.

“I generally see it as a very pleasurable experience! Because it’s just an awesome feeling to come to a race track, to know that I have the car to be able to be on pole and win the race. I just look forward to it. So I’m here in Sochi and I can’t wait to get going and see where we are compared to our direct rivals and try to make it happen.”

Williams faced major dramas in FP1 in China today after Felipe Massa suffered two left rear tyre failures in quick succession, the first having pitched him into a spectacular spin.

The team then sat out the remainder of the session while investigations indicated that the wheel rims had failed first, rather than the tyres themselves, as a result of contact with the brake duct. The issue was addressed over the lunch break and both cars ran without a repeat in FP2.

“We had a problem with the wheel rim and we made a modification and found the problem,” said Massa. “At least everything is okay now for the car to run without problems. That is positive. But then the day was not very positive, looking that we lost the first session and we ran in the second session – and it wasn’t easy to understand the feeling with the cars and the tyres, degradation was pretty high for everybody. We have another day and I hope we can be more competitive tomorrow.

“For sure you are always concerned when you see these things happen, you are always concerned. We had a problem on the wheel rims and we made a modification from one session to another session and the problem was solved, so that is important, and for sure it was not a very positive day because I lost one session.

“The second session I managed to do some laps but it would have been better to do a proper day running both sessions Tomorrow maybe the conditions will change, maybe rain, but we should be ready for everything.”

Williams technical chief Pat Symonds confirmed to this writer that the brake ducts were the source of the problem: “The wheel rims failed because of the way we’d set up the whole of the back end – more brake ducts actually. It wasn’t an easy one to see what had happened but we did figure it out and fixed it. Once we realised what it was it was actually quite easy. The ducts were the same as Bahrain essentially, there was a very minor change.”