Hamilton brushes aside Monaco fiasco

Lewis Hamilton on Thursday brushed aside a series of questions about last month's Monaco Grand Prix fiasco and insisted he has complete faith in Mercedes ahead of Sunday's Canadian Grand Prix.

Appearing at his first news conference since his team's Monaco bungle, he said he was interested only in the future starting with Montreal this weekend.

Eleven days after being deprived of victory and a 27-points lead in the drivers’ championship by a strategy blunder by Mercedes, the defending world champion faced the media at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve and played a 'very straight bat'.

"Firstly, I don't look back," he said. "I'm always looking forward. So, honestly, I've not really thought about the last race for a long time.

"I've just been thinking about the next race, putting my mind to other things, training, trying to come back strong this weekend. It's really irrelevant what happened in the past.

"There's nothing you can do about it so there's no point dwelling on it. I've moved on and I don't even have to think about it. I couldn't care less about it.

"I can't do anything about the past, so there's no point thinking about it. Now, it's about trying to shape the future.
"There are lots and lots of races to come, lots of improvements that can be made. We've got a great team, a great car and there's a championship to be won, so that's all I'm focused on."

The two-time champion refused to be drawn into conjecture or any analysis of his feelings.

"It doesn't matter what I feel, or had felt, or feel now, because actually I don't feel anything," he said.

"I'm literally thinking about this race. I'm excited, I feel good, I feel fit, I feel strong, so full of positives..."

Asked about his relationship with the Mercedes team and his trust in their abilities, he was unequivocal in his declaration of support and understanding.

"I have full trust and confidence in the team," he said. "We've had pretty incredible success together and one race doesn't dent the solid foundation that we've built.

"Things are good…  I'm excited to move on to this weekend. I'll keep doing what I'm doing as it's been good for me up until now..."

In Monaco, the Mercedes team called Hamilton in for a late pit-stop during a Safety Car intervention and he lost the race lead and finished third.

Team-mate German Nico Rosberg won the race for the third year in succession and is now only 10 points behind in the title race.
Source: AFP