Hamilton’s suggestion to Mercedes he take a double penalty to build up a pool of power units to see him through the season following earlier reliability troubles has come to fruition ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix.
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As it now stands, Hamilton will start the race on the back row alongside, but just in front of, former McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso.
Following the three-time world champion’s poor getaways from pole position in Australia and Bahrain, and his two identical MGU-H failures in as many qualifying sessions in China and Russian Federation, those stuck in cyberspace quickly became convinced Mercedes were deliberately plotting against their star driver.
That takes his total penalty to 55-places, although he can only drop to the back of the grid, a maximum of 21 places.
But Hamilton also goes into the race knowing a further reprimand for a driving offense will mean another penalty, as he has received two already this season – in Bahrain and Russian Federation.
Why else would they decide to swap the mechanics of each driver ahead of the new season, upsetting the balance of the team and suddenly turning some of Hamilton’s most trusted colleagues into enemies within?
“That Nico has never won here doesn’t make any difference to me”, Hamilton said. But s uch a scenario will come as a blow to the thousands of British fans who have travelled in excess of 300 miles to Belgium in anticipation of seeing a straight fight between the world champion and Rosberg for pole position.
John Watson, the Belfast-born former McLaren driver, holds the record of winning from the lowest start slot after lining up in 22nd on the grid of 26 runners before winning the 1983 United States Grand Prix at Long Beach. “As long as I’m going forward that’s all that matters”.
Two years ago, Hamilton finished third in the Hungarian GP after starting from the pitlane and spinning off at the second corner. “It really is tough out there to manage that, so we’re working on it and we need to do a better job than everyone else”.
“A straightforward day for me but a tough one for the guys in the garage”.
“This is the closest I can get to a home race”, said Verstappen, whose father Jos competed in around 100 Global Positioning System, and was also popular with Belgian fans.
“We have these penalties to save on costs and prevent teams from using a fresh engine at every race – which would send costs out of control”, explains Sky F1’s Ted Kravitz.
The penalty has been looming over Hamilton after he encountered a number of engine failures in the opening rounds of the season. Hamilton had some bad luck at the start of the season and now he will have to add a sixth or seventh or even a eighth element to those units.
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Because of rule changes, the difference between his 75-place penalty and the 22-car field will not carry over into subsequent races.
