Lewis Hamilton did his best to stay upbeat for the future on Sunday after yet another wretched weekend in what he described as a "nightmare" year with Ferrari.
Both the seven-time world champion and his team-mate Charles Leclerc were forced to retire from the Sao Paulo Grand Prix in Brazil, where he is an honorary citizen.
Hamilton was retired by the team after battling on for 40 laps in a damaged car following several incidents in the opening laps and a penalty, while Leclerc retired on lap six following a collision in which he was an innocent victim.
"It’s a nightmare," AFP quoted Hamilton as saying. "I’ve been living it now for a while and the flip between living the dream of driving for this amazing team and then the nightmare of the results that we’ve had.
"The ups and downs. It's challenging, but tomorrow I’ll get back up. I’ll keep training and I’ll keep working with the team.
"I really wanted to get them good points this weekend, but I’ll come back as strong as I can in the next race and try to recover.
"We are really having to fight through those hardships at the moment, but I believe there is something up ahead in my life and in my destiny.
"Truly, I still believe in this team and what we can achieve. I just have to keep pushing and never give up.”
Hamilton has added an unwanted record to his many spectacular successes this season by going 21 races without a podium finish, an all-time low among Ferrari drivers, and on Sunday suffered more bad luck at the start of the Interlagos race.
"I don’t really know what happened at Turn One, but obviously it’s not great to be hit and after that the car was just gone,” said Hamilton, who was given a five-second penalty for colliding with Alpine’s Franco Colapinto on the opening lap when he also in contact with Williams’ Carlos Sainz, the driver he replaced at Ferrari this year.
"But that’s how it has been this season. It's obviously a disaster, a stress and a disappointment for everyone in the team. but I'm trying to keep my head above water.
"I'm trying to remain positive. Charles did a great job in qualifying yesterday so there is some performance in our car and I agree that at this point I just have to believe that something will come out of all these hardships we’re going through."
