FEATURE
Lewis Hamilton retired from the Malaysian Grand Prix on lap 41 while enjoying a comfortable lead , shortly after he returned to the pits he asked some provocative questions of his team , igniting conspiracy theories which he went to great lengths to quash a few hours after his initial rant .
“ Mercedes have so many engines made for drivers ,” said Hamilton as he watched teammate and championship rival Nico Rosberg extend his title lead to 23 points . “ But mine are the only ones failing this year . Someone need to give me some answers because this is not acceptable .”
But a few hours later , Hamilton tempered his reaction in his post race report , “ As I said in the TV interviews , Mercedes have built 43 engines or however many it might be with the extra three I ’ ve had , and I have happen to have most of , if not all of , the failures . So , that is definitely tough to take . But I have 100 % confidence in these guys .”
“ Max ( Verstappen ) was in my pit window so I was just trying to push him out of it . I think I ’ d done that , almost . But then , on the straight , I just lost power all of a sudden . You could hear something blew and I obviously had to stop .”
“ Honestly , you ’ ve got to understand it from my point of view . On one side , we ’ ve had the most incredible success these past two years , for which I ’ m so grateful . These guys work so hard and we ’ re all feeling the pain right now . When you get out of the car – that feeling you have after leading the race and then your car fails – it ’ s pretty hard to say positive things at the time .”
“ It ’ s my fourth year with them now and the guys in the garage and back at the factories – I have 100 % faith in them . I love it here and without them I would not have won these two Championships . While the struggle is real right now and has been all year , I honestly feel that it ’ s a test of my will , my spirit and who I am as a person to get back in and keep fighting it head on . It ’ s not how you fall , it ’ s how you get back up .”