MONTREAL, Canada -- Lewis Hamilton is concerned he won't be able to fight for victory at this weekend's Canadian Grand Prix after learning a planned engine upgrade has been delayed until the French Grand Prix.
A quality issue meant Mercedes had to postpone the introduction of its second power unit of the season this weekend, resulting in Hamilton using the same engine he has used at all six races up to now. Meanwhile, rivals Ferrari, Renault and Honda are all due to bring updates to their power units this weekend and rival drivers from Ferrari and Red Bull are expected to start the race with fresh engines.
Hamilton is concerned that his six-race-old power unit will be down on power in comparison, and with such a tight battle at the top this year, believes it could rule out a shot at victory this weekend.
"If the others are bringing upgrades and are using fresh engines -- particularly with how close we are on performance -- we won't be in a position to fight I don't believe," he said. "I mean, it is a power circuit and there is power lost over the life of an engine and all I'm hoping for is that if I'm on the seventh race at a power difficult circuit on the engine I just want to see it through to the end. That's my only concern.
"Naturally I am still here to win but as I said if they've got upgrades on their engines which can be a tenth to two tenths -- Ferrari are particularly very strong on the straights, it will be interesting to see whether we're able to match them or not. But we're going to give it everything we've got, that's for sure."
However, Hamilton's title rival Sebastian Vettel is not convinced the extra mileage on the Mercedes engine will make such a big difference.
"No, I think with this generation of engines I don't think that is a big problem," he said.
Asked about Ferrari's engine upgrade for Canada, which debuted in the back of the Haas and Sauber in Monaco, Vettel added: "It's always been the plan, so let's see. It's hard to make any predictions.
"It also depends what other people might be doing here or not, which updates they might be doing. This track is a little bit different. It's more power sensitive so the engine can play a bigger role. But let's see where we are."