Poor Starts, Not Engine Problems, Will Cost Lewis Hamilton the F1 Championship

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: October 9, 2016

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Lewis Hamilton's poor start—yes, another one—at Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix may end up being one too many for the defending champion to handle.

As the red lights blinked out, Hamilton, starting second, barely moved off the line and was immediately swarmed by the cars behind him. By the exit of Turn 1, he had fallen to eighth place, his championship hopes slipping away as his team-mate and rival, Nico Rosberg, disappeared down the road.

Shortly afterward, the television broadcast picked up his team radio. "Sorry, guys," Hamilton said, the disappointment evident in his voice.

For all the fuss made after the Malaysian Grand Prix about Hamilton's engine problems and the squawking from conspiracy theorists who believe Mercedes are sabotaging their own driver, if Hamilton loses the championship (and that seems certain), it will be because of his poor starts.

Car problems happen to everyone in Formula One. That is the nature of the sport, where machines built as light as possible are pushed to their limits for two hours at a time, often in extreme temperatures. Sure, sometimes one driver or another will have an extra failure or two, but everyone has to deal with them.

But while the drivers cannot control engine and gearbox failures, they can control their starts. And quite often this year, Hamilton has messed them up.



To be fair, Rosberg has had problems with his starts too—just not as frequently. And Mercedes admitted back in April they had problems with their clutch, per Motorsport.com's Jonathan Noble. Still, if you were to pick one factor that has swung the championship from Hamilton to Rosberg, it would be Hamilton's poor starts.

"If you gauge my season, then the championship could be lost by starts," Hamilton said after the Italian Grand Prix in September, when he started on pole and was fifth after the first corner, per the BBC's Andrew Benson. "F...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Formula 1

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