F1 » 'Safe' McLaren faces Interlagos dilemma

I think if I was Ron I would be putting a new motor in there on Friday night anyway and let Lewis race back up to 5th from 11th or 12th. He could do that fairly comfortably I think, and it would satisfy his natural desire to race and overtake the guy in front of him. The two things that will lose Lewis the championship are a cloud of smoke from the exhaust, and a bunch of corrupt stewards. If he cant catch the Ferraris and a BMW and a Renault and finishes 5th - he wins!! Go Lewis.

I thought Hamiltron still had his 1 free engine change available?

You cannot use your joker engine for the last race. This was already known at the first race so no FIA conspiracy.

About taking a penalty for an engine change... You really do not want to be midpack in the first 5 corners after the start of Interlagos.

Yeah he wants to be as close to the front as possible to avoid any stupid mistakes by other drivers. I'd especially stay clear of Alonso who thinks Hamilton is an undeserving Champion.
McLaren has had great reliability this year, just pray it continues for 1 more race.
Kovalainen needs to step up and do his BEST to be the team player and help Hamilton as much as possible and make up for the lack of assistance at Shanghai.
Go Hamilton Go! We know you can do it. McLaren give them the tools they need to end this year on a high note!

What if McLaren, show some balls (very unlikely), change Engine on Hamilton's car, and let him charge through the field (like Kimi 2005), while lightly fueled Heikki qualifies first ( that will be first time he will be lightly fueled in qualifiers this season) like JPM did in 2005. Hold the field for Hamilton. That would be something to watch.
But McLaren are not Renault to "Think on feet". McLaren motto is - If it ain't in computer, it can't be done. Remember how they kept Lewis out in China'07 when it was quite clear that his tyres had reduced to canvas walls.
A smart driver can call shots (like Senna/Prost) , but Lewis nahhhhhhh

Dont see why they should move away from what has been working...it would be typical that they change things and it all goes belly-up...not that I would mind if it did ....All he has to do is stay out of trouble and finish where he needs to..no going for glory or anything fancy..get the points required - I doubt any Mclaren fan would mind if Massa and Kimi motor off into the distance if it meant Hamilton trundles in and claims the title

What's to say that if they DID change the engine there might be some unknown gremlin hidden away which could make that one go? they know this engine is relatively sound, and they've had superb reliability, id say leave the engine be

Andy3E - While McLaren has corrected the engine related reliability issues since end of 2006, we should remember that they had first retirement due to engine failure in Fuji when Heikki had engine failure. Hamilton is indeed walking on thin ice with probability of engine failure on back of his mind.
So 71 laps to go, 305.909km/190.067 miles more to go for the engine to hold together.

Mun Grow - Hence Opting for Fresh Engine from fresh batch will reduce the probability significantally, and McLaren has the pace to drive through the field. Barring Monza-08 Lewis has not established that he can indeed drive through the field to get on podium (In Monza-08 as well he didn't)

Simple. Kovi does his bit for the team for once and get maximum points in the constructors. Lewis backs him up with what he needs to claim drivers crown and see where they are overall in constructors after the race finich. Voila....

Lewis shud keep wiv the engine he had, no reason nt to really.
Personally, i dont believe ferrari will have fixed their slowness from China, hoping it too!
Also i think McLaren shud concentrate on the driver's championship, Lewis deserves it, Heikki doesnt really deserve to share the constructors, probs wont help Lewis anyway!
LEWIS HAMILTON FOR 2008 WORLD CHAMPION!!!!!!!!!!!!
(he already is really, wat wiv the Spa nd Fuji things! )