Lewis Hamilton has said that he is running out of time to close down the gap to team-mate Nico Rosberg in the race for this years world championship. The Brit is currently 22 points behind his German team-mate.
Hamilton has retired from three races this season, compared to just the one for Rosberg, but has two more victories in his pocket.
It has not just been in the races that Hamilton has suffered problems, but also in qualifying. Several mechanical failures have cost him a higher starting position. A brake failure at the German Grand Prix and then a fire next time out at Hungary have caused Hamilton to storm through the field to try and nullify the damage that could have been done to his title bid.
Hamilton has now said that there is no more room for errors, on both his side and the Mercedes team, throughout the rest of the season.
“Since race one I have been 25 points down, so I’ve never been able to afford a crash,” said the 2008 World Champion.
“I’ve lost ground and then clawed it back at every race this year, so nothing changes for me. I can’t afford to lose anything.
“I am running out of races, but I’m not here to take any more risks as I’m already taking as many risks as I can.
“All I can do is say to my guys (his mechanics) ‘stay positive because there are a lot of things that can happen and a lot of points to race for’.
“A lot of the stuff that has happened has had nothing to do with the engineers and mechanics.
“What is important is we don’t dwell on the past but look forwards. Let’s take this positive energy.
“It’s amazing how strong and positive my engineers and mechanics have remained.
“It must have been hard for them when they saw my car go up in flames (as occurred during qualifying in Hungary).
“They would have been thinking ‘was that Lewis?’, so how we have recovered from it as a team has been quite special.”
