Hamilton: Drivers could be cheated by reliability

Editor

Lewis Hamilton says he is worried that reliability could decide this year’s title race, ‘cheating’ one of the drivers out of a shot at the title.

While Red Bull’s Daniel Ricciardo, fourth in the standings, is already knocking on the door of penalties having taken all his allotted engine components, Hamilton is still pretty as he’s still on his the same parts he used in Australia.

He is, however, expected to move onto his second power unit in France as Mercedes finally introduce their upgrade.

But with just three ICEs permitted this season, the Brit fears engine reliability could ultimately decide the title race, and it could get worse next season.

“I hope they don’t go to two engines next year because it’s just going to get ridiculous,” he said.

“It was definitely a bit more fun when you had more engines I would say.

“The fact that a season can sway through reliability, I don’t think anyone wants to see that.

“I don’t think anyone wants to be cheated of that. You want actual true performance.

“They needed to fricking change these bleeding engines to save costs and then they spend more to produce it.”

Hamilton is currently second in this year’s Drivers’ Championship, one point behind Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.