Hamilton furious over engine setting issue

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Lewis Hamilton was left deeply frustrated during the Grand Prix of Europe when his car developed a technical problem that left his car underpowered for much of the middle section of the race.

The team were able to inform him that the problem was with an engine setting, but were not allowed to give him instructions as to how to fix it.

"I had no idea [what to do]," he said. "There were like 16 different engine positions and in those engine positions, like 20 positions, so I had no idea what problem I had, just low power.

Asked what he did to solve the problem, Hamilton responded: "I didn't do anything, it just fixed itself."

By the time Hamilton was back to full power he was already too far behind Sergio Perez on track with too little time to realistically challenge for the podium.

"I turned the engine down," he confirmed. "I was 14 seconds behind the guys in front with seven, eight laps to go, so I just saved the engine, remembering I don't have as many engines as the guys in front for the rest of the year. Maybe I can get more out of this engine."

Hamilton admitted that a large part of the frustration was with not being able to get his race engineer to give him any help over the team radio, and he was critical of the new FIA regulations restricting what messages can be broadcast between the pit wall and the driver during the race.

"I don't see the benefit. The FIA have made Formula One so technical. There were probably 100 different switch positions it could have been, at least 100, 200. There was no way for me to know, no matter how much I study that.

"It was a shame I couldn't race, I wanted to race. If I had been able to resolve the power situation, I might have been able to be a part of the show and maybe catch the guys ahead. It wasn't to be and that is the way it is."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.