Hamilton wants to avoid engine change: 'Treat my engines with the absolute care'

In 2022, engine development will be frozen. It is therefore important for teams to focus not only on this season but also on next season. "That's why we're having a few balls in the air because you need to have the right balance between making sure that you really sort out all the gremlins that you have in the power unit, not only for this year but also for next year's power unit," Toto Wolff says on Motorsport.com.

Mercedes and Red Bull Racing are battling it out for the constructors' championship. Also in the drivers' championship, the gap between Hamilton and Max Verstappen is small. The teams cannot afford to drop out in a race. "It's always reliability versus performance, it's always a fine line that you need to get right," Wolff says. "DNFing, obviously, is a no-go for the championship and nobody, neither us nor our competitors can afford a zero points race weekend."

Hamilton acts cautiously

Whether Hamilton actually needs another new engine will become clear in the coming races. In any case, the seven-time world champion says that he is being extra careful with his current engines to avoid unnecessary damage.

"Of course I lost one engine. Valtteri's had several. And there's been others that Mercedes have seen up and down the paddock. So right now, I'm trying to treat my engines, the ones that we put in, with the absolute care when I'm driving, in terms of how much I'm gassing it, how much just revving the things, revving the nuts off it, really trying to minimise the laps that I do."