Lewis Hamilton spending extra time in Mercedes garage with engineers attempting to save their faltering F1 season

LEWIS HAMILTON has been spending extra time working in the team’s factory to help save his season.

The Brit has seen Red Bull’s Max Verstappen open up an 18 point lead in the championship after the Dutchman’s last victory at the Red Bull Ring.

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Lewis Hamilton has been spending extra time working in garage to help save his season[/caption]

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The Brit has taken on is driving the team’s simulator at Merc’s Brackley HQ[/caption]

Verstappen is aiming to increase that gap at this weekend’s Austrian GP, at the same track, and with Hamilton bemoaning the lack of upgrades, he has gone back to Merc’s Brackley HQ to try and help out.

One of the duties he has taken on is driving the team’s simulator – a task he has hated in the past.

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He said: “I can’t say that I’ve enjoyed it, particularly after those few difficult races we had.

“I just went in to try and see if there’s any way I could try and help the team just be better prepared.

“There’s been a couple of good things from it, but not life changing.

“I’ll continue to work with them, we’ve got drivers on there that do a lot of work, just working on the processes of how we communicate with them on their programme, so we’re getting the right things tested.

I just went in to try and see if there’s any way I could try and help the team just be better prepared

Lewis Hamilton

“Overall, it’s been positive.

“I hardly ever drive on the simulator. I maybe do 20 laps a year. I have no interest in the simulator.”

Meanwhile, Verstappen has laughed off his criticism from the FIA Race Director, Michael Masi, for doing a burnout after his win last Sunday.

Masi took a dim view of the stunt and gave Verstappen a ticking off, however, the 23-year-old joked he will do a donut instead!

He said: “I’ll try to do a donut next time! I understand, of course, about safety but I looked at my mirrors, went all the way to the right, took it easy.

“Everyone was on the left. I just did a burnout and OK if it’s not allowed, I won’t do it again. But at the time, I thought it was really funny and safe.

“But of course, I understand that you don’t want to see this happening again which is fine for me.”