Lewis Hamilton has just returned from his longest break, from F1, in 10 years. Since his 2017 campaign ended at Abu Dhabi in November, he has been snowboarding in the USA (\u201cIt was icy in Colorado \u2013 too dangerous\u201d), then more snowboarding in Japan (\u201cWe didn\u2019t have any snow\u201d), then surfing in Hawaii (\u201cNot the greatest surfer yet, but it\u2019s good for working out\u201d).<\/p>\n
He looks absurdly fit and healthy, but he smooths down the front of his race suit and admits that the aim is \u201cto keep the same strength but lose some of the fat for the first race\u201d. I look at him and wonder: what fat? <\/p>\n
We\u2019re at Silverstone, at the launch of the car that could allow him to match the five world titles won by Fangio and Michael Schumacher. To do it, he\u2019ll have to beat Sebastian Vettel \u2013 another man chasing his fifth. But does this matter, does Lewis chase numbers?<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw something in the last few days about being up with Fangio and that is an exciting prospect, but honestly when I left Abu Dhabi and when I\u2019m with my family, I don\u2019t have a single thought about racing. It helps that I had no one reminding me that I\u2019m a four-time champion \u2013 so I went back to reality.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen I went into the new year, started training, and you ask, \u2018Why are you training? What are your goals?\u2019 It\u2019s not as simple as writing it down \u2013 you have to find out where you\u2019ll find your determination and drive.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says he is better prepared for 2018 than ever, but admits that he needs to find ways of \u201cgetting through\u201d the training. Listening to music helps, he says, but \u2013 as you would expect of a racing driver \u2013 he can\u2019t sit still. Surfing, snowboarding, jogging, Lewis needs to keep moving.<\/p>\n
Until last year, however, perhaps the only chink in Lewis\u2019s armour was psychological \u2013 not physical. Dramas in his personal life seemed to affect his racing, and there were Grands Prix when he just didn\u2019t seem to turn up. He\u2019s had another drama in his personal life this winter, with a misguided Instagram post and subsequent winding down of his social media activity. Did this affect him?<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had already planned to have a clean slate [on social media] at the beginning of this year \u2013 it just turned out it was an opportunistic [sic] time. I have been very open with my life for several years, and it\u2019s always difficult to make a change because I like being open. But we are living in a strange time in the world, when things are magnified a lot more than previous years. It will continue to be part of my life, to connect with fans, but maybe I\u2019ll be a bit more strategic in what I do and don\u2019t show.\u201d<\/p>\n
How then does he handle the pressure of being in the spotlight? \u201cFor me, to get around a stressful scenario I go for a run. It helps me work out solutions. Trying to live my best life very day. We all handle different scenarios in different ways. Our journey is determined by how much you put into it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI put a lot of positive people around me. I don\u2019t put people around me who suck my energy. I only have people around me who make my light brighter. You\u2019ve got to remember that life is a challenge for all of us. We all come across hurdles. It\u2019s not how you fall it\u2019s how you stand up. We have Billy Monger here, and he is racing British F3 this year \u2013 so anything is possible.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I\u2019m racing it\u2019s easy. I put on the helmet, put on the blinkers and enter a different zone.\u201d<\/p>\n
What about mind games. If he feels threatened by another driver, does he then look away from \u2018self\u2019 and see if he can affect the performance of others? His reply is brusque, but satisfyingly so. \u201cHonestly I don\u2019t play mind games; I just drive faster\u2026.\u201d<\/p>\n
He admits that he \u201ctries to veer off negativity\u201d but his body language shifts when the discussion moves to the weight of the current F1 cars. Accommodating the new halo device has forced the rulemakers into increasing the minimum weight by 6kg (to 734kg) to compensate, but the actual impact of the device including the mountings is thought to be as high as 14kg \u2013 much of which is placed high-up, thus affecting the centre of gravity. When Hamilton won his first F1 world championship, in 2008, the cars weighed 605kg\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cCars are getting heavier,\u201d says Lewis, \u201cand after braking zones, brakes are on the limit. I hope things don\u2019t get heavier. There are parts about lighter cars I prefer \u2013 like they\u2019re easier to manoeuvre in combat\u2026\u201d <\/p>\n
Nice line, that. Say what you like about Lewis the man, but he\u2019s always been a racer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"tags":[167],"issue_decade":[121600],"issue_year":[121673],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/issue_content"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54728"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54728\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223093,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_content\/54728\/revisions\/223093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54728"},{"taxonomy":"issue_decade","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_decade?post=54728"},{"taxonomy":"issue_year","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.motorsportmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/issue_year?post=54728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}