Mercedes management have insisted that Lewis Hamilton does not think the team sabotaged his chances of winning the Malaysia Grand Prix, despite his controversial outburst on television after the race.
Hamilton's fans have famously called the team out for sabotaging his chances whenever Rosberg has had the upper hand throughout their three-year reign at the top of Formula One, and for the first time, on Sunday, the three-time world champion appeared to agree with them.
"Something just doesn't feel right. Someone doesn't want me to win this year," he said.
He later backtracked, claiming to have been referring to God rather than an individual within the team.
"When you get out of the car - that feeling you have after leading the race and then your car fails - it's pretty hard to say positive things at the time," he said. "But I have 100 per cent confidence in these guys."
"It feels a little bit like the man above, or a higher power, is intervening a little bit," he said. "If at the end of the year the higher powers don't want me to be champion after everything I've given towards it, I will have to accept that."
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff backed his driver, saying that he spoke in the heat of the moment.
"After this bitter outcome, when you're leading the race, about to get back in the championship lead and your engine blows up, then a statement in front of a TV camera is allowed," he told the German newspaper Bild. "He was incredibly disappointed, and everyone expresses disappointment differently."
"Once Lewis calms down, he will appreciate that it (sabotage) is not true," he said. "It's just a crazy coincidence why the majority of the engine problems this year have been had by him."
the team's non-executive chairman Niki Lauda added that he would speak to Hamilton on their way to Japan for this weekend's Japanese Grand Prix.
"Hamilton cannot say there is sabotage," the F1 legend is quoted by El Mundo Deportivo. "I cannot accept that, because we do everything possible to give him the best car and the best engine."
"We will spend six hours together on my plane to Japan and by the time we get there, there will be no worries," he insisted.
mclarenfan1968
Posts: 1,027
I've been told greys were behind the the explosions, Wolff confessed to having hired the greys to help with this on Mount Sinai. The deal is worth a lot to the greys they get free reign on the helium3 they get to mine off of Germany's share of space on the moon.