Lewis Hamilton admits simply making the finish of this weekend’s Canadian GP is now his biggest concern after Mercedes delayed the introduction of a second engine.
A possible quality issue on the upgrade for the new unit was the reason given for the Brackley-based team’s decision but it could have significant consequences for the world champion, his teammate Valtteri Bottas, and both Mercedes customers, Williams and Force India.
“This is a power circuit, so it was our target and it definitely would have been helpful,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“But the guys worked as hard as they could and had to take a sensible decision to not bring it here, which is definitely unfortunate, but we’ll try and make do without.
“But it will mean our performance is probably not the greatest.”
All six Mercedes-powered cars will be using the same engine that has completed the opening six races which means the peak performance will likely be a few per cent down on a brand new engine.
“All I’m hoping for is reliability. If I’m on the seventh race with a difficult circuit on engines, I want to see it through. That’s my main concern,” the Briton said.
“Naturally I’m still here to win but, as I said, if they [Ferrari] have got upgrades on their engines, which are going to be a tenth to two tenths, Ferrari are particularly very strong on the straights, it’ll be interesting to see if we are able to match them or not.
“But we’ll give it everything, that’s for sure.”
A possible saving grace for Hamilton is that a slow pace in Monaco allowed for greater engine management and he too claims to have “saved a lot of mileage” in the opening races.
“Our goal is to finish every single race so I’m hoping for the reliability and I can try and make the difference on the track with my driving,” Lewis added.
