Lewis Hamilton is "really feeling the pain" as Mercedes review their shortened Austrian Grand Prix. Hamilton and Mercedes both lost their respective championship leads at the weekend to rivals Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari.
The British driver will head to his home race next weekend at Silverstone looking to bounce straight back from the disappointment. He retired on lap 62 of 71. It was his first retirement since Malaysia 2016.
"Everyone in the team is really feeling the pain. But, I think you just have to look at it, we've had such great reliability for so many years," Lewis said in the Mercedes debrief.
"As painful as it is, and we are perfectionists, we really have to take the rough with the smooth. This is definitely the worst weekend for us I can remember for a long, long time."
The four-time world champions race analyse doesn't stop at the issue which caused him to break down. But also the fact he failed to pit during the VSC.
He went on to confirm he still has every confidence in the German team from those based at Brackley and at trackside.
"I have every confidence in my team that we'll be able to bounce back."
It didn't get any better for Mercedes on the other side of the garage. After starting the Grand Prix in pole position, Valtteri Bottas must have presumed his run of bad luck was coming to a close. But on lap 13 it turned unlucky, and he was forced to retire.
"The luck I'm having this year feels like a bit of a bad joke. There was nothing I could have done," added Bottas.
He too remained confident that his team will recover in time for the Silverstone Grand Prix, the third instalment of the tripleheader.
"We need to do our best for it to not happen again, but it was very unlucky. It was not meant to be, it has not meant to be many times this year, but one day it will. We will recover."
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