“This is much less dramatic than people say. Everyone says Lewis got it wrong last but that is not correct. The gearbox went wrong, he didn't get it wrong. His teammate was not nice to him, but he was fighting for the championship as well. The circumstances are completely different this year. You can't blame Lewis for last year, not for China either - we took him in too late there, he did nothing wrong,” said Haug in an interview for autosport.com.
The British driver failed to win his first world title in career last year when, despite coming to Brazil with a 7-point advantage over Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, a poor start and some problems with his gearbox caused him to only finish 7th in the race. That same result could keep him away from the title this year too, should Massa win his home race on Sunday.
Nevertheless, Hamilton winning the Chinese Grand Prix two weeks ago should be proof enough that the Brit is up for the challenge – considering he failed to finish the race last year while leading Raikkonen by 17 points with 2 races to go.
“Look at the result in China, that describes how he dealt with everything that was being said - and it was not the first time. People were bad to him before Silverstone and he answered on the track with a very convincing victory. What happens in the media is not correct at times, but that's just the name of the game. All the talking is just wasting energy. There's no time for political games, you have to be concentrated on your car and you have to be bloody on it!” concluded Haug.
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