2015 Russian Grand Prix winner and champion-elect Lewis Hamilton says he still concerned by Mercedes’ reliability after teammate Nico Rosberg was forced to retire from the race in Sochi and the fact he suffered technical problems throughout the race also.
It was not all plain sailing for Hamilton as he suffered an unidentified rear wing problem during the race. Teammate Rosberg was forced to retire due to a throttle pedal damper problem.
“I don’t know what was wrong with my car, I don’t think it was DRS, but it was something happening to the rear end, that’s why my pace decreased,” he told AUTOSPORT.
“The reliability is something we have focused on a huge amount over the last year and a half and for whatever reason, we are struggling and having a few problems with it.
“Nico has been incredibly unfortunate to suffer the worst.
“We will be working as hard as we can to rectify it – and hope in the next races we don’t have a problem – but of course it is a concern for us.”
Hamilton added it was disappointing that he did not get the chance to fight with Rosberg on track.
“Nico was holding his ground and it looked like we were going to have a race,” he said.
“I was thinking ‘this is great’, but then he went a bit wide and I overtook him – maybe before or after that he started to have problems.
“It’s unfortunate for the team – it was a good opportunity to get the constructors’ championship this weekend.”
Mercedes were crowned constructors’ champions shortly after as Kimi Raikkonen was awarded a 30 second time penalty from the stewards for colliding with Valtteri Bottas on lap 53, demoting the Ferrari driver from fifth to eighth.
