LEWIS HAMILTON says Formula One chiefs are deliberately trying to stop his march to a seventh world title.
F1’s governing body – the FIA – are set to ban special electronic modes that turn up the engine to maximum power during qualifying.
And Mercedes star Hamilton, who has a 30-point lead over nearest rival, Red Bull driver Max Verstappen, admitted: “It’s not a surprise.
“It’s obviously to slow us down, they’re always trying to slow us down, but I don’t think it’s going to get the result they want.
“The guys at our team have just done such a good job with the engine. But that’s totally fine if they do it.”
Once dubbed “party mode” by Hamilton’s race engineer, Pete Bonnington, the setting could be outlawed as early as the Belgium GP at the end of the month.
It comes after Mercedes also suffered from a change in tyre pressure regulations in the last two Grands Prix at Silverstone.
Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas added: “We are not panicking.
“If the regulation comes then it is the same for everyone. We’ll just take it as it comes.”
Meanwhile, Hamilton’s pet bulldog, Roscoe, has been letting Bottas know he’s Mercedes’ No2 driver.
The curious pooch has been sniffing around Bottas’s motorhome and last weekend at Silverstone left a special deposit for the Finn.
Bottas, who is turd in the championship – sorry, third – said he did not offer the dog any meat as like Hamilton he is on a strict plant-based diet.
He said: “Lewis and I have actually been neighbours the last few weeks and Roscoe dropped a big turd right outside my door last Saturday.
“I was doing some barbecues in the evenings and Roscoe always came to smell it, but I never gave anything to him.”
