"We don't know where bad luck comes from but that's all we can depend on - the fact that it's just bad luck," says Hamilton
Monday 10 October 2016 10:48, UK
Mercedes have hit back at the conspiracy theories over Lewis Hamilton's 2016 breakdowns, insisting claims of sabotage would be dismissed by "anyone with an ounce of intelligence".
The remarks constitute the team's strongest rebuttal yet to the outpouring of innuendo and accusation on social media in the wake of Hamilton's engine blow-out when leading the Malaysia GP.
"If we were good enough to arrange such sabotage, we wouldn't have any failures," responded technical chief Paddy Lowe. "F1 is a tough business. The engineering operates right at the boundaries of performance so things do go wrong.
"Anyone with an ounce of intelligence analysing the situation would realise that the prospect of us designing a piece of equipment to fail at that precise moment… if we were that good we would be able to control everything."
Lowe also gave short shrift to suggestions the team, owned by a German company, favoured Nico Rosberg for this year's world championship.
"If we invent something that makes us quicker then of course we want it in both cars because we want to win the race," he said. "We never hold back and never contemplate it. Anyone who is intelligent can work it out."
Hamilton said immediately after his Sepang setback that he suspected "someone" was working against him, but later clarified he meant "the man above or any higher power is intervening a little bit".
Upon his arrival in Suzuka for this weekend's Japanese GP, the world champion added: "We don't know where bad luck comes from but that's all we can depend on - the fact that it's just bad luck."
A concurring Rosberg told Sky Sports F1: "Some of the things he said…l wouldn't take too seriously because when you are in such a moment you can go a bit extreme!"
But while Mercedes have been at pains to insist that the dice has not been loaded against Hamilton, the team admit they have no explanation for why the dice keeps landing against him.
"We are all rational people, certainly in the engineering area, and we all know that you can throw three double sixes in a row. That is possible. Yet when you see it done, you think 'how was that done?' and we have something like that with Lewis," said Lowe.
"We have eight power units out there running around and with the exception of one failure they [engine malfunctions] have fallen on Lewis. That is something none of us can understand. But it's just the way dice has been thrown.
"We are gutted about it and just wish the luck hadn't fallen that way. Personally, I was only just getting over the consecutive failures he had in qualifying at the start of the year where statistically you felt he had been treated very, very unfairly."
Meanwhile, there was less than a tenth of a second between Hamilton and Rosberg in Friday practice for the Japanese GP. "They are both in great shape," concluded Lowe.
