Lewis Hamilton secured a comfortable 11th pole of the season at Monza but concerns continue to grow within his team following an as yet unexplained issue identified with the new Mercedes engine run by Nico Rosberg between final practice and qualifying. An engine change for Hamilton before the race would force the championship leader to start the Italian Grand Prix from the pitlane.
When questioned in the FIA post-qualifying press conference if he had any worries about reliability following Rosberg’s issues, the World Champion responded:
“As far as I’m aware, no, but I don’t really know what was the issue. But the guys in the garage did an amazing job to change the engine in the short space of time that they had and hopefully we can still bag some good points for the team tomorrow”.
Head of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, Toto Wolff, admitted to Motorsport.com that an engine change for Hamilton could be made if the reigning champion’s reliability was at risk.
“In terms of Lewis’s engine [for the race], we haven’t identified the problem”, Wolff said. “There is still a big question mark about what’s actually happened, and the potential risks for tomorrow. If we find out that it’s a major issue or it’s something that could put Lewis’s race at risk, this would be certainly something that we would consider because our car has great pace, and it’s better to play it safe.”
Meanwhile, Hamilton was also asked about his thoughts on starting from pole and his prodigious race pace, to which he replied:
“Well, I mean pole is… it’s always a great feeling getting pole, as Sebastian knows, and it’s the same with Kimi. I think I’ve had a couple of poles here, but not always… I think last year was not such an easy getaway, but it didn’t mean I could not win the race. There’s a long way down to turn one, these guys are good off the line, so we’ll try to do our best tomorrow but, yes, our race pace has tended to be quite strong. I hope we see that tomorrow. I don’t mean to take away Sebastian’s dreams, but I have dreams also!”
