The invisible enemy that’s made Hamilton’s title charge tougher

Lewis Hamilton has seen it all before when it comes to coping with the pressures of a Formula 1 championship battle. From the intra-team rivalries with Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg, to facing off against the best that Red Bull and Ferrari can throw at him, the fight he is experiencing this year against Max Verstappen is not anything out of the ordinary.

Like he’s done so many times in the past, Hamilton's charge has centred on knuckling down with the team to help perfect the machinery underneath him; and then make sure on Sunday afternoon he is flawless.

While on the surface we are witnessing one of the most epic head-to-head title battles in F1 history, with two great drivers performing at their best, away from the public spotlight Hamilton admits that there have been some exceptional challenges thrown at him that many on the outside don’t appreciate.

In particular, he confesses that the ever-present danger of coronavirus – which if he catches again could signal the end of his F1 championship ambition – has been one of the hardest aspects of 2021 to deal with.

“I've been in so many championship fights throughout my career, so they have all just been really different and unique in their own ways,” he says, when asked by Autosport about how this season compares to title battles of the past.

“It's difficult to say one is harder than the other, because you are just in a different place. When I got my first championship in F1, I was a kid. I didn't have the knowledge my team-mate had.

Hamilton says he's a very different person to the "kid" who won the 2008 title

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images

“I knew I had the ability, but I didn't understand… I'd not really been in a lot of interviews. I didn't have an understanding of being in the public eye like that. There were so many different things within that year. But I was in a different state of mind as a youngster.

“I think this one's been unique in its own. I would say the biggest part of the pressure has been the pandemic. That's really made a monumental difference in terms of just kind of, the isolation, and knowing whether you can or can't be around people and isolating yourself. It's been quite tough... I would say harder to find a balance in normal life, in and around your work life.”

Of course coronavirus is not a new experience for Hamilton or any of the other drivers, plus life on the road has been more normal this year than it was in 2020.

"My social interaction is different to how it was in the past, because you keep your distance from everyone: hold your breath around everyone! So it's definitely, I would say, much, much harder" Lewis Hamilton

But, says Hamilton, with lockdowns ending, it has actually made things much harder. Life has had more an appearance of being normal, and that opens up the dangers of reverting to old behaviours that can increase the risk of being struck down.

“It's definitely been different to last year, but I would say… last year was all squeezed and compact into one, right?” he reflects.

“So whilst that six months was difficult, this is the whole year of it. So I would say it’s worse this year. In some places, they are relaxing the rules and then it's so easy to let your guard down and find yourself in trouble.

“It’s just constantly keeping it on your mind. My social interaction is different to how it was in the past, because you keep your distance from everyone: hold your breath around everyone! So it's definitely, I would say, much, much harder.

“But I wouldn't say that it's been less isolating, You still spend a lot of time on Zoom and home alone. I would say having the experience last year, maybe I managed it a little bit better this year. But you still live in fear, you know?

Hamilton says the relaxing of COVID rules while the pandemic continues has been tough to juggle

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

“Everyone I see around me - all my friends, most people, maybe not people in my sport, but everyone outside in their businesses - if they miss a day of work or a week of work, it's not the year over. Whereas, it’s critical for us drivers. The year can be over if you miss one or two races.

“I've seen other sportsmen that are also super-relaxed and don't care. If they get it, they get it, and it's been really strange seeing that. That's made it difficult.”

It’s all too easy to be sanctimonious and say that, if Hamilton has been so worried by the COVID-19 situation, he should be shutting himself away and steering well clear of celebrity events around the world.

But part of Hamilton’s strength as an F1 driver is the fact that he leads something of a dual life: at the track racing in grands prix, and away from it as a global icon and campaigner for equality. Doing the latter, and throwing time and resources at it, gives him the ability to shut off from the stresses and strains of F1. So, when he comes back to the race track, he does so with a fresh mind.

“To finally find something that has real purpose and real potential change and shift for the industry, and for people, that feels super rewarding,” he explains. “So, yeah, to be able to focus on something other than racing, it’s great. It takes the pressure right off.

“I know what I need to do to remain focused. I never take my eye off what my ultimate goal is in racing and winning the championship. But I have these other things that, kind of, help me strike a balance.

“Mission 44 is taking a lot of time. The Hamilton Commission is taking a lot of time. And that's been a positive focus, which has only enhanced my focus when I come into the arena. We've had these ups and downs with all these different things, but it's not like I haven't had those in my past. So it's nothing new.”

Hamilton donned a rainbow-liveried helmet in Qatar in support of the LGBTQ+ community

Photo by: Steve Etherington / Motorsport Images

What has been new in 2021 is that Hamilton has needed to throw some extra effort and commitment into his work with Mercedes this year as, for the first time in the while, the team has been battling against a quicker car at times.

The change in floor regulations at the start of the campaign, in a season where chassis designs were carried over, hit Mercedes more than anticipated. And unlike in the past, when a team stumbled it could simply develop itself out of trouble, 2021’s homologation rules meant that was impossible this year. It’s no wonder Hamilton has referred to it as a “nightmare” at times.

“We knew we were going to lose all this downforce and, once we found how much downforce we lost, the whole characteristics of the car shifted,” he says, looking back at how the 2021 rules impacted Mercedes. “What we had worked on for so many years, getting the car into that sweet spot like last year, it’s been a nightmare to undo or play with the tools, when you can’t actually change any of the tools.

"There have been a lot of elements that have made it harder than ever. [The W12 has] been the hardest car to set up and I’ve done a lot of sim testing" Lewis Hamilton

“It just is what it is, and it’s been about trying to find smart ways to work around less downforce. There have been a lot of elements that have made it harder than ever.

“It’s been the hardest car to set up and I’ve done a lot of sim testing. But even sim days, you go and do a sim day and the sim is not in the right place it’s supposed to be - the grip level’s not right or the wind effect is not right, or the thermal deg is set wrong, so you can come away with bogus numbers.

“You have to be so careful with the data that you are receiving and the decisions that you’re making. It’s been a rollercoaster ride.”

And it's a rollercoaster ride that has forced Hamilton and Mercedes to dig deep. The pressure and intensity of F1 is never easy, but when it comes to being in the middle of the kind of tight competition experienced this year, the differences are made from the most marginal of gains.

Intensity of the title fight with Verstappen has been clear from the start of the season in Bahrain, where Hamilton narrowly won out

Photo by: Charles Coates / Motorsport Images

“I would say you’re just looking deeper into more detail to try and find any performance that's left over,” he says. “So if, for example, the bodywork is slightly too open for cooling, so you’re leaving 30 milliseconds of performance on the table, you chase it more than you've ever done before. You're really hard on the guys: ‘Close the damn car up.’

“Or it could be heating from the front discs, or tyre pressures, gear ratios. When you're shifting the gears, the bog revs when you do the launch, fuel target: making sure that you're not finishing the race with four kilos of fuel and leaving a second or whatever it is on the plate.

“So those are things that I've been applying more energy towards and being a lot harder with the team on. Because we need every millisecond we can get, particularly at the places where we have been really quite a bit down. So [we're] just going into more detail everywhere.”

With two races to go though, and Hamilton just eight points behind Verstappen, nothing is lost and there remains everything to play for.

The W12 is in a much better place now, and so too is Hamilton, having finally shaken off some symptoms of long COVID that dogged him earlier in the campaign.

“The first half of the season was one of the toughest, I would say, that I’ve had,” he reveals. “In the future I can dive more into it all but right now I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time. So somehow I’ve managed to migrate or push through it.

“I’ve really focused on recovery and training, breathing techniques and, I was just running the other day, feeling better than ever.

“In the last few races, with the heat and everything, because I’ve been able to train and push my body a little bit further now, particularly since the break, I’ve not had any problems in the races and I’m really grateful for that. I feel like it’s gone, thank God.”

Hamilton is operating at the top of his game after back-to-back wins in Brazil and Qatar heading into the final two races

Photo by: Steven Tee / Motorsport Images