Malaysia: Hamilton will reuse the Australian engine during the first practice sessions
Lewis Hamilton indicated that he would use again the engine that almost failed in Australia during the first day of free practice in Malaysia. He also talked about Mercedes' advantage and his ambition to finally win at the Sepang circuit.
Quickly put out of the race due to a mechanical failure during the Australian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton, for our British colleagues at Autosport, stated that he would conduct the first day of testing in Sepang using the engine that had only been able to complete two laps in the race in Melbourne before experiencing a cylinder problem.
« I was told that we would start with the engine we had during the last race to do a few laps with it. » This full-scale test will allow the Mercedes team to quickly assess the repair done after the issue encountered in Australia. « But whether I’ll use this engine for the whole weekend or not, I don’t know, » he then specified. As a reminder, the teams only have five engine blocks for the entire season this year.
The hot climate conditions and the aerodynamic demands of the Sepang circuit in Kuala Lumpur promise hell for the hybrid power units: « Reliability will be a real test this weekend for everyone. Because of the heat, the engine will be at its absolute limit. »
When asked about the advantage of the Mercedes team, the 2008 world champion expects a closer competition from other contenders: “I really don’t know what the advantage will be, and I’m sure that people will make progress this weekend, so maybe it will be tighter. I read that McLaren plans to be half a second faster than it was, so everyone is pushing.” Lewis Hamilton thus referred to the statements made by Ron Dennis, the president of McLaren Group, a few days ago.
However, he does not lose sight of the fact that his team has not been idle during the ten days between the two Grand Prix: « But I am confident in what the team has done so far, over the last two weeks, in what we learned during the last race, and in what we have planned to move forward. »
Finally, he reflected on the fact that he has never won the race in Malaysia and believes that he might be in the best position to do so this season: « I have achieved good results here, but obviously I have never won. The challenge, every time I come here, is to win, but this might be the year when I have the best car to do it, so I hope we’ll have a chance to capitalize on that. »
