GPI 2016 United States Grand Prix | Page 108

FEATURE Nico Rosberg leads Lewis Hamilton by 26 points with three races left in the 21-race schedule. Despite the utter dominance of the team, technical gremlins have plagued the them with Hamilton appearing to be victim of the brunt of the bad luck this season. After winning the United States Garnd Prix, hassle free and comfortably, the reigning world champion admitted that he was stressing in the cockpit. “Every single lap I was thinking something might happen. When I get on that back straight I was petrified. [The engine] has a beautiful ring to it, but it had a beautiful ring in Malaysia.” “I was haunted by that, dreading that would happen so I am so grateful that it didn’t. It wasn’t until I got over the line that I was like thank you, I am so happy, rubbing the cockpit – thank you for getting me there,” added Hamilton. As a precautionary measure the team opted not to take any upgrades to Austin, Wolff reasoned, “We have decided not to bring the latest spec engine and upgrades to every single Mercedes customer, not just us. We are running that specification to what it can run, so that hasn’t changed.” “It is never plain sailing. It was as good as it can be with the engine. I understand that Malaysia came out of nowhere and Malaysia swings with all of us. That little trauma is going to remain for a while,” ventured Wolff.