Lewis Hamilton has admitted this weekend's Belgian Grand Prix will be 'damage limitation' as he is likely to start from the very back of the grid on Sunday, as he is due to take an engine penalty.
The Briton is already on his fifth and final turbo and MGU-H following a spate of reliability failures earlier in the year. In order to make it to the end of the season, Hamilton will require one or more new units, therefore Mercedes feel this weekend's race is the best venue for the championship leader to climb up the order and still score points, despite starting last.
Whilst Hamilton says winning is still the aim, he admits making it into the top ten is a more realistic target.
"In terms of winning, that’s the goal but it’s going to be very, very hard if the gap is close between other cars," he said.
"We’re in the third year of evolution of these cars, so Red Bull have been very quick in some of the races, same with Ferrari particularly and down the whole grid, so it’s going to be harder than it was last year or the year before to climb through the field, for sure – but I’ll do everything I can."
When asked how far he believes he can climb up the order, he replied: "Honestly, I have no idea. It depends [on] the pace of the other cars. If Red Bull are right close to us, that’s two cars less, that’s three down and then the gap follows behind. If the others are much much slower than the possibilities go up.
"There’s going to be safety cars, all sorts of things. I started last in Belgium, er, in Hungary a couple of years ago when the gaps were much bigger and came fourth, so Sunday’s definitely going to be harder than that and I just hope that I can get into the points. As long as I’m going forward, that’s what matters."
Hamilton refused to blame the team for his earlier reliability troubles, of which he has suffered the most this season compared to team-mate Nico Rosberg.
"I mean it is a team sport. We win and we lose together as a team. Whether I make a mistake and the team take the penalty for it, or the team make a mistake, sometimes it’s not actually mistake, it’s just the kind of thing that happens. I don’t look at it as incompetence, I find it a growing experience for us because we’ve learnt a lot from the issues that have happened and hopefully won’t have them again.
"It’s just unfortunate that I’m the – I guess – the test mice, or whatever you want to call it, that’s tested all of these issues, because obviously none of the other Mercedes engines has had the problems I’ve had."
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