10/10 Series: Big Picture - Lewis Hamilton
Throughout the 10/10 Series, we have learned about the different components making up a champion. There are seemingly endless directions in which an athlete can and must grow. All are important. However, you will rarely begin your career complete in all of the components that we have discussed. As they progress in their discipline, sportspeople grow, advancing as close to perfection as possible. As experience increases, so does performance. To be a champion, you must learn your sport's breadth and depth, and they come with time.
Of course, the rise of your performance must plateau and then decrease at some stage. Often, this is because your body is unable to do what it used to. Performance also may decrease due to declining motivation or your team or employer moving on. Maintaining longevity in itself is a skill. Understanding the bigger picture is essential for increasing and maintaining one's peak in their sport. We have already spoken about the ways that athletes such as Michael Jordan managed such a feat. This week, we shall look in detail at one of the most exceptional Formula One drivers and successful athletes to represent the UK. He is still rising and winning, he is a champion on and off the track, and his name is Sir Lewis Hamilton.
At 36, Hamilton knows Formula One reasonably well. He has just finished his fourteenth season, having had dominant cars as well as average cars. He has been in the championship fight ten times and won seven of them. There have been spectacular highs and worrying lows. This is the nature of any sport, and these moments have made him the man he is today. Lewis shows no signs of slowing down either. As long as he signs a contract with Mercedes soon, he can astonishingly make it a century of wins and eight world titles in 2021. Madness.
The result of having been through these experiences is that Hamilton has become more potent with time. Those who have worked closely with him have spoken of the champion's relentless performance analysis. Between runs, he will make notes. After sessions, he will push himself and his engineers to find more performance. As Toto Wolff said after Lewis won last year’s Belgian Grand Prix, 'you would think he's finished 15th'. The gains seen are often marginal, yet, vital to success.
During his early years, there will have been instances in which Lewis will have learned from, making his stronger for the future. As a rookie, having Fernando Alonso as his teammate will have taught Hamilton many things, not least how to go head to head with Nico Rosberg so effectively when he moved to Mercedes. We still hear the scars of the fateful race that year, in China, which saw Lewis slide off the track on tyres well past their best. He is mocked nowadays for worrying too much about his tyre degradation - experience gives him good reason to be. But, ultimately, that experience is what has made him one of the best in the business at driving fast without damaging his tyres.
Other key learning points include: driving a bad car to victory in 2009, coming under pressure from the media in 2011 and learning the power of being himself when he moved to Mercedes. These are just some of the defining moments that have affected Lewis Hamilton as a person and competitor. They are what separate him from the likes of Max Verstappen or Charles Leclerc. Lewis has gathered more puzzle pieces on his journey.
Lewis' move to Mercedes was probably the most criticised decision that he ever made in Formula One. It was also his best. Of course, the car was incredible. New regulations in 2014 saw Mercedes go from competing for points to being the team to beat. Six more world championships have followed Hamilton's move to Mercedes so far.
Equipment aside, Mercedes allowed Lewis Hamilton to be free of the more corporate character that Ron Dennis and McLaren had made, giving Lewis the chance to grow up. The team bosses of Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda were instrumental in creating an environment which got the best from Hamilton.
Wolff's leadership style, as we have learned earlier in this series, is people-focused. Such a stance gave Lewis the chance to explore what made him tick; therefore, a faster driver. Whether it is fashion weeks, learning to sing or going to Crop Over Carnival, Lewis found out about himself. He found more purpose in his life. While many wondered whether Hamilton was sensible with his lifestyle - clearly different from his peers' life of training in Monaco according to social media. However, as has often been the case, those doubters were quieter when they realised that he was still winning, if not better.
The best example of that was when Lewis touched down in Singapore for the Grand Prix, in 2018. He had spent the last two weeks flying to Shanghai and New York to unveil his new clothing range in collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger. Although the paddock had already seen him pull off this busy yet winning lifestyle, many thought this was a step too far. Hamilton would then blow the field away with arguably one of his most incredible pole position laps of all time. There were no mistakes. Instead, there was a gap of seven-tenths of a second to his teammate in the same car. Lewis knows who he is, and that makes him stronger.
Having Niki Lauda as a boss and mentor at Mercedes has also led to Lewis' development. Lauda was a racer. He knew what Lewis was dealing with as a driver and the thoughts and feelings that come with that. This meant that he knew how to talk to Hamilton, allowing his mentee to learn from the mistakes that he made. Graham Benzinger did some brilliant interviews with a small number of important figures in Formula One (if you haven't seen them, I recommend them). In his interview with Benzinger, Lauda recalls Hamilton taking offence to being blamed by the Austrian for the crash between Hamilton and Rosberg at the beginning of the Spanish Grand Prix in 2916. Lauda then met Lewis at his home in Ibiza to discuss it in a more relaxed environment. Lauda went over the incident again in his typical matter-of-fact manner. Needless to say, Hamilton hasn't made that sort of mistake again.
The move from McLaren, who raised him, to Mercedes was in itself proof of Hamilton's' ability to read the big picture well. With the help of Wolf, the creator, and Lauda, the mentor, Hamilton became better aware of himself and his competitors, but also his strengths and weaknesses. Such self-awareness has made him a force to be reckoned with. George Russel had arguably one of the greatest apprenticeships of all time as the test driver for Mercedes in 2018. In reflecting on Hamilton's work, Russell explained that you don't really improve as a driver. You simply become more complete. Obsessed with chasing perfection, Lewis Hamilton is getting ever-closer to the ultimate level.
In 2020, Hamilton reached a new level of what it means to be a champion. Using his platform to fight for a better world off the track while becoming statistically the greatest ever F1 champion on it. Last year embodied a Rafa Nadal quote that resonated with me: 'real champions lift communities as well as trophies'.
Iconic Moment: Abu Dhabi 2016
In comparing Hamilton to the other greats of Formula One, some commentators have ranked him at the top. Is he really better than Schumacher and Senna? Statistically, he is as good, if not, better. But what sets Hamilton apart from these legends is his proven desire to always win in the right way. While others have been prepared to crash with rivals to beat them, Hamilton has often elected to drive down the road and have faith that what he does within the rules has been enough. In most cases, it has been more than sufficient.
I suppose one moment you might question his sporting nature, was when he tried to back Nico Rosberg into the pack in the last race of 2016. To win the championship, Lewis needed to win the race with Rosberg off the podium. In one of his most impressive drives, Hamilton drove his slowest race possible, holding up his teammate without allowing him past. Ultimately, these tactics didn't work.
Even if they had, Lewis wasn't doing anything against the rules. This grey area is where Lewis excelled in beating his completion. He can race precisely on the edge without ever going over. This ability has forced rivals, such as Rosberg and Vettel, to go over the limits on occasions due to Hamilton's immense pressure. The draining nature of competing with Hamilton was a significant factor in Nico Rosberg's decision to retire just days later.
Lewis learned how to race on the edge over many years. Ron Dennis' decision to put Hamilton alongside Alonso in 2007 was probably as important as Lewis' decision to move to Mercedes. It forced the young Briton into the mistakes that have taught him how to win, and nobody has won more than Hamilton.