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Lewis Hamilton believes he and Mercedes should start running “absolutely clean” for the remainder of this Formula 1 season after initially stating that the FIA is looking for the team.
Following a Russian Grand Prix in which he finished third, Hamilton left the Sochi Autodrome in a clearly frustrated figure after receiving two five-second penalties from the stewards for infractions at the start of pre-race practice.
Following the ban on Hamilton at the Italian Grand Prix, which also jeopardized his career there, initially led him to declare that “They [the FIA] They’re trying to stop me, right? ”
When asked to clarify whether he truly believed he was being targeted, Hamilton pointed to the fact that Mercedes certainly seemed to be in the crosshairs of the governing body.
“I don’t necessarily think it’s for me,” Hamilton said. “Whenever a team is at the front, it is obviously under a lot of scrutiny. Everything we have in our car is being checked and checked three times.
“They’re changing the rules, like the engine rules, many, many things that get in the way of keeping the race exciting I guess.
“I don’t know if the rules, in terms of what happened [in Sochi] – It had something to do with it, but naturally that’s how it feels, like we’re fighting uphill.
“But it’s okay, it’s not like I haven’t faced adversity before, so we keep our heads down, we keep fighting, and we keep trying to do a better job and be cleaner and squeaky clean.”
Hamilton also initially received two penalty points on his super license, one for each violation, bringing his total to 10 in the past 12 months and bringing him to two short of a race ban.
However, after a review, the stewards chose to rescind those points and instead fine the team € 25,000.
Hamilton still feels that he and the team will have to be whiter than white, adding: “We will go through the rule book and select areas where they can create rules, areas where penalties have never been given before.
We will try to find out all the ones they have and try to make sure we cover ourselves with the ones we know.
“We’ve gone through seasons without penalties before, so we just have to make sure we don’t give them any reason, not even a sniff, to be able to do something.”
Before you leave…
Sainz hits the Sochi corner that “shouldn’t exist”
Penalty “turned my butt on” for rest of Russian GP – Ricciardo
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