Lewis Hamilton is hoping reliability gremlins that wrecked his bid for a season-opening win in Australia have been eradicated as he goes in search of a maiden triumph in Malaysia this weekend.
Hamilton’s joy at clinching the 32nd pole position of his Formula One career was shortlived due to a cylinder failure in the engine that restricted his race to just three laps.
To rub salt into the wounds, Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg romped to victory, although Hamilton at least drew on the positive aspect in that one of the team’s cars remained trouble-free all weekend.
The downside is Hamilton is already playing catch-up, but, in a year when it is anticipated every driver will run into problems at some stage due to the latest regulation changes, the 29-year-old is far from concerned at this early juncture.
He said: “Looking back on what happened in Australia, it is what it is. I’m quite a few points down already after the first race, but there is a long, long way to go and I’m just going to have to work hard to claw it back.
“I felt really happy with the job I did in terms of how I prepared myself, how I studied and how ready I was. As for the team, the engineers did everything they possibly could, everyone did everything right, and so we just have to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
“The cool thing is we had one car that had no faults with it, so they are obviously doing something right. Obviously, there will be races where I will finish and won’t finish, and hopefully the ones I do finish we will get good points.”
After finishing third in the last two races at the Sepang International Circuit, and second in his debut season in 2007, there is one obvious aim.
Hamilton added: “I haven’t won in Malaysia yet, but I’m going there with the aim to do so, and I know we’ve the car that can do it.”
Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff knows that getting both cars across the finish line is the be all and end all of the work going on behind the scenes.
He said: “The first race in Australia left us with mixed emotions.Neither of our drivers put a foot wrong all weekend, but unfortunately only one came away with the result he deserved.
“We know reliability will be crucial to this long season and we have been working hard to improve the situation for the race in Malaysia. We made a solid start to the year in Melbourne, but we are very aware not one per cent of effort can be dropped if we are to remain competitive.”
Rosberg is also aware that as easily as Hamilton was let down by the latest technology in Australia, so he too could suffer, particularly as the heat and humidity will place incredible strain on the new power units.
He said: “Australia was the perfect start to my season, but it also highlighted we’re not 100 per cent there yet in terms of reliability.”
