Lewis Hamilton talks about his engine change possibility with rumours circulating that the Briton will take a new ICE at Interlagos.
On Thursday, several reports flared that Lewis Hamilton would be taking a new Internal Combustion engine, sanctioning him a five-place grid penalty.
Even Red Bull adviser revealed that he had heard that the seven-time-world champions would have a new engine. Making it his sixth engine of the year.
Lewis Hamilton set to take a grid penalty for a new combustion engine at Interlagos. Apparently, Mercedes found a drop in water pressure in Mexico, which forced them to take a new combustion engine for Hamilton. #F1
— Pits To Podium (@pitstopodium) November 11, 2021
This could be fatal for his championship prospects, with Max Verstappen’s Red Bull already having an edge at Interlagos. However, the Briton claims it’s not even spoken about as of yet.
“I can’t really comment at the moment,” Hamilton told media. “I don’t know. Don’t think the engines have even arrived this morning. So as far as I’m aware currently, my engine is fine. But I’ll find out obviously, later on. We’ve not even done engineering meeting yet.”
Hamilton, a few days ago, also assured that he could push his engine till the end of the season. At the same time, Mercedes revealed their engine woes are now over.
How steep is it for Lewis Hamilton?
With his defeat by the hands of Verstappen, Hamilton now sees a 19-point lead to climb. When asked how steep the challenge would be, he replied it would be as challenging as one can imagine.
“I would imagine as steep as it can be,” said Hamilton. “I think their pace was phenomenal in the last race. They’ve had a strong car all year. They’ve had the strongest car all year. You can tell, obviously. I think we’ve done as good as we think we could.
“We will definitely be pushing this weekend to see if we can squeeze any more out of the car. Last time here [in Brazil] they were incredibly strong. We anticipate again they’ll be very hard to beat this weekend.”
Also read: Valtteri Bottas offers advice to George Russell before his move to Mercedes