F1 – Lewis Hamilton: his truths about his Mercedes and Verstappen

« You have to be very, very suspicious, more suspicious than ever before. Rather than giving someone else the benefit of the doubt, you need to know what’s going to happen. So you have to be prepared to avoid a collision at all costs, even if it means going off-road. In the end, you want to be there again at the end of the race, right? “

“If you’re stubborn and stay where you are, you’re going to crash. So that’s what I tried to do. I tried to avoid the collision (…) I know that sometimes, this is the path to take. You have to be the smartest. “

“Sometimes that makes you lose points, that’s for sure. But I am not the only one concerned. You have 2,000 people behind me. I could be selfish and say, “No, I’m going to maintain my position” and give up. It will cost my whole team potential bonuses at the end of the year, jeopardize all the good work they are doing, destroy the car ”.

“If you hang on, they can say ‘Yes, yes, but this or that happened…’. It’s a tactic this pilot uses. Me, I want to be the purest of pilots, to win thanks to my speed, my hard work and my determination ”.

« If I was in this position, I would do the same thing again. I see this from my piloting experience. And I think I have a good record in general about overtaking, my positioning of the car… But there were different scenarios (…) At that time, I needed points and I was a bit less eager to leave my place (…). I was very far in the standings at this time of the season ”

“We knew we were going to lose a lot of downforce. And as soon as we found out exactly how much, the characteristics of the single-seater evolved. What we have been working on for years – bringing the car to its maximum potential like last year – has been undone (…). We had to do with what we had and he found clever tricks for work with less support« .

“This season has been quite confusing (…). There were races where we were ahead. And others where we were dropped. We never managed to figure out how the car was going to behave when arriving on the circuit (…) Toto (Wolff, editor’s note) said that we had already had diva cars. This is a sacred one ”.

“This car was the most difficult to adjust. I’ve done a lot of simulator, but even then the software doesn’t behave the way it’s supposed to. The grip level is not good or the thermal degradation of the tires is wrong. You can get wrong numbers and you have to be careful with the data and the decisions you make ”.

« In Brazil, I got the car I wanted. It was like putting your finger on the solution. But it’s only happened once or twice this year »

“So we go further into details and try to find performance (…). Brake discs, tire pressure, gearbox ratios (…). We make sure we don’t have 4 kilos of gasoline remaining at the end of the race (…). This is where I put my energy and pushed my team further. We need every thousandth, especially on the tracks where things were not going well. I have never been so involved« .

« George is a super talented boy and I think there is a lot of respect between us. I think our relationship is balanced today. But he’s going to want to be quick. I know he’s going to want to come out and win and do whatever you need to do in this new role ”.

“I remember my confrontation with Alonso. Obviously I wanted to beat him from the first race and I expect George to have the same mentality. I really want him to succeed ”.

« You have to be very, very suspicious, more suspicious than ever before. Rather than giving someone else the benefit of the doubt, you need to know what’s going to happen. So you have to be prepared to avoid a collision at all costs, even if it means going off-road. In the end, you want to be there again at the end of the race, right? “

“If you’re stubborn and stay where you are, you’re going to crash. So that’s what I tried to do. I tried to avoid the collision (…) I know that sometimes, this is the path to take. You have to be the smartest. “

“Sometimes that makes you lose points, that’s for sure. But I am not the only one concerned. You have 2,000 people behind me. I could be selfish and say, “No, I’m going to maintain my position” and give up. It will cost my whole team potential bonuses at the end of the year, jeopardize all the good work they are doing, destroy the car ”.

“If you hang on, they can say ‘Yes, yes, but this or that happened…’. It’s a tactic this pilot uses. Me, I want to be the purest of pilots, to win thanks to my speed, my hard work and my determination ”.

« If I was in this position, I would do the same thing again. I see this from my piloting experience. And I think I have a good record in general about overtaking, my positioning of the car… But there were different scenarios (…) At that time, I needed points and I was a bit less eager to leave my place (…). I was very far in the standings at this time of the season ”

“We knew we were going to lose a lot of downforce. And as soon as we found out exactly how much, the characteristics of the single-seater evolved. What we have been working on for years – bringing the car to its maximum potential like last year – has been undone (…). We had to do with what we had and he found clever tricks for work with less support« .

“This season has been quite confusing (…). There were races where we were ahead. And others where we were dropped. We never managed to figure out how the car was going to behave when arriving on the circuit (…) Toto (Wolff, editor’s note) said that we had already had diva cars. This is a sacred one ”.

“This car was the most difficult to adjust. I’ve done a lot of simulator, but even then the software doesn’t behave the way it’s supposed to. The grip level is not good or the thermal degradation of the tires is wrong. You can get wrong numbers and you have to be careful with the data and the decisions you make ”.

« In Brazil, I got the car I wanted. It was like putting your finger on the solution. But it’s only happened once or twice this year »

“So we go further into details and try to find performance (…). Brake discs, tire pressure, gearbox ratios (…). We make sure we don’t have 4 kilos of gasoline remaining at the end of the race (…). This is where I put my energy and pushed my team further. We need every thousandth, especially on the tracks where things were not going well. I have never been so involved« .

« George is a super talented boy and I think there is a lot of respect between us. I think our relationship is balanced today. But he’s going to want to be quick. I know he’s going to want to come out and win and do whatever you need to do in this new role ”.

“I remember my confrontation with Alonso. Obviously I wanted to beat him from the first race and I expect George to have the same mentality. I really want him to succeed ”.