F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Hamilton keen to be part of problem-solving process at Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton says he wants to be involved in Mercedes’ problem-solving process after experiencing another troubled race weekend in Russia.

The triple world champion was hit by a ERS issue similar to the one he suffered at the previous round in Shanghai, which prevented him from taking part in the final phase of qualifying and forced him to line up 10th on the Sochi grid.

Although he managed to recover to second, Hamilton’s charge was hampered when his W07 picked up a water leak in the second half of the race.

The Briton was quick to dismiss the sabotage claims made by his fans on social media, but he also made a couple of bizarre comments regarding what had happened (or actually not happened) following the Chinese Grand Prix.

“There are things which we’re trying to understand and I’ve asked to be informed of what’s going on, process or whatever.” Hamilton said. “For example, after the last race [in China], I didn’t get an email of the report so I didn’t actually know about that and when I got [in Russia] they said ‘we should have emailed you’.

“Next week I'll get all the information, and if it's not sent to me, I'll make sure I'll get it. Just because I want to be a part of the process, and there's a lot of input I can have, and help. Ultimately we're a team. We win and we lose together, so it's about us pulling together.”

Not sure Hamilton’s puzzling remarks will help appease conspiracy theorists, whom Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff called “lunatics” who are “lying in their bed with their laptop on their chest and sending out those abusive messages out” in the aftermath of the Sochi race.

FEATURE: Hamilton, or when a picture is not worth so many words

DRIVER RATINGS: Russian Grand Prix

Breakfast with ... Martin Brundle

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook a

Julien Billiotte

Recent Posts

Vowles warns 2026 weight limit will catch F1 teams out

When F1’s radically redesigned 2026 cars finally roll out in Barcelona at the end of…

12 hours ago

Why Verstappen isn’t expecting much running at F1’s first test

Max Verstappen has never been one to sugar-coat reality – and as Formula 1 braces…

14 hours ago

Revolut’s CMO slams Ferrari: ‘How can you put blue on a red car?’

Ferrari have survived decades of criticism about strategy calls, driver politics and pit stops that…

15 hours ago

Mercedes 2026 advantage in doubt after concerning claim

While the paddock has been whispering for months that Mercedes might be holding the winning…

16 hours ago

Our salute on this day to Big Dan

Dan Gurney passed away on this day in 2018, and here at F1i we'll never…

17 hours ago

Jules Bianchi’s final kart recovered after theft

What began as a painful reminder of loss has ended with a moment of profound…

19 hours ago