Toto Wolff, the executive director of Mercedes-Benz Motorsport, has apologised on behalf of the team to Lewis Hamilton after he suffered a second retirement of the season.
Hamilton has again found himself having to play catch up in the race for the Formula One World Championship after failing to score in the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday, while his team-mate Nico Rosberg finished second.
Although both cars suffered a loss of one of the energy recovery systems - the MGU-K - Hamilton was forced to retire after 47 laps as a result of a failure of his rear brakes. Rosberg, however, managed to work through the difficulties posed by the loss of power and brakes to cross the line behind Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo.
With Rosberg now fully 22 points ahead of his team-mate in the standings, Hamilton is adamant that he can again claw back the deficit, just as he did when trailing the German by 25 points following the season-opening race in Australia.
Wolff was still quick to apologise to his driver, though. "We have talked and we are just sorry to have let Lewis down," he said. "It is a shame but he is in good spirits and he is a fighter and I have no doubt he will come back. As for Nico, he deserved to take those points because he had a car that was heavily handicapped against all the others."
It could be that the much-maligned double-points system for the final race proves crucial for Hamilton. "It could, but we have to be careful about talking of an easy home run now," added Wolff.
Wary of the threat coming from Red Bull following Ricciardo's win - and with reigning champion Sebastian Vettel finishing in third - Wolff dismissed the suggestion that his team could look forward to an easy ride to both Formula One titles. Red Bull remain 119 points adrift in the constructors' championship, with Ricciardo 61 points behind Rosberg.
Wolff's primary concern, however, will turn to the investigation into the cause of the MGU-K in his cars, with the anomaly occurring on both cars at almost exactly the same time in the race on Sunday. "They were racing at exactly the same pace and had exactly the same temperatures," said Wolff.
"In that particular part of the MGU-K we saw temperatures which were higher than expected. It is just another part which we have to analyse and understand. The consequence was detrimental to the car."
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