F1 News, Reports and Race Results

Hamilton: It feels like 'a higher power is intervening'

Lewis Hamilton says it feels like "a higher power is intervening" in his championship challenge after retiring from the lead of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

The triple world champion was comfortably clear of the two Red Bulls and set to re-take the championship lead when his power unit failed with 16 laps remaining at Sepang, taking him out of the race. It is one of a number of power unit problems Hamilton has suffered this year, and team-mate Nico Rosberg extended his advantage to 23 points after finishing third.

After the race, Hamilton suggested he was suspicious of the fact the failures appear to happen more often on his car than any other Mercedes-powered car, but asked what he meant by the comment "someone doesn't want me to win", Hamilton replied: "A higher power.

"It feels right now that the man above, or a higher power is intervening a little bit but I feel like I’ve been blessed with so many big opportunities, firstly being here with all these people around here, the opportunity in this great team winning the last two championships.

"[I've had] lots and lots of big trophies and records that I’m breaking time and time again, so I have to be grateful for those. While this does not feel great I feel grateful.”

And Hamilton insists he has "100% faith" in his team after seeing the reaction from Mercedes when he returned to the garage following his retirement.

“Honestly, you’ve got to understand from my point, on one side we’ve had the most incredible success over these last two years of which I am so grateful. These guys work so hard, we are all feeling the pain right now.

"When you get out of the car after the feeling you have after leading the race and the car fails, it’s pretty hard to say positive things but honestly I feel, as I said in the interviews, Mercedes have built 43 engines with the extra three that I have had and I happen to have had most of, if not all the failures, so that is definitely a tough thing.

"But I have 100% confidence in these guys, I’ve been with them now into my fourth year with the guys in the garage, the guys back at the factory. I have 100% faith in them.

“I love it here and without them I would have not won these extra two championships and while the struggle is real now, and has been this year, honestly I feel it’s a test of will, a test of my spirit and who I am as a person to get back in and keep fighting it head on.

"It’s not how you fall it’s how you get back up. That’s really, I think, as much advice to me but to my guys as well because I saw tears in the eyes of my mechanics. So I know that we all bear the pain, but as I said it’s how we regroup, we’ve got to bear in mind what we’ve already built.

"While in the short term this does not look good and obviously for the year and in the long term it could be not very good but there’s lots of positives, there’s still five races and I believe that, I don’t know if my two engines are going to make it but I can only hope. If I can perform the way I have performed this weekend then I’ve got everything still to play for.”

FULL REPORT: Ricciardo wins in Malaysia as Hamilton retires from lead 

Breakfast with... Gianni Morbidelli

Silbermann says ... Bugged by Liberty

Romain Grosjean exclusive column: Haas can build momentum for 2017

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

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.

Recent Posts

Las Vegas GP: Thursday's action in pictures

The opening day of running at the Las Vegas GP was a smooth but chilly…

8 mins ago

Williams' headaches persist into Vegas practice

Williams is continuing to fight uphill battles this weekend in Las Vegas as a knock-on…

1 hour ago

Ferrari's Sainz 'not satisfied with where we are' in Vegas

It was a solid start to the Las Vegas weekend for Ferrari with Carlos Sainz…

2 hours ago

Norris labels McLaren long-run pace ‘shocking’ in chilly Vegas

Lando Norris didn’t hold back in his assessment of McLaren’s performance on the opening day…

4 hours ago

Hamilton delighted with ‘consistently strong day’ in Vegas

Lewis Hamilton was particularly happy with his opening day of running at the Las Vegas…

5 hours ago

Verstappen stuck with 'draggy' rear wing for Vegas

Red Bull fears that its prospects for this weekend's Las Vegas Grand Prix - which…

6 hours ago