HOW YOU VOTED
Lewis Hamilton 41.9%
MaxVerstappen 36.3%
CharlesLeclerc 10.1%
Carlos Sainz 4.6%
Valtteri Bottas 1.7%“and I haven’t quite finished it yet. It takes a
long timetomaster a craft and while Ifeel like
I am mastering it, there is still more pieces of
the puzzletoadd.”
Hamilton’s year has lacked the standout
moments of glory which characterised 2018,
but it has been more consistent, more
relentless. Once again he outfoxed Vettel in
wheel-to-wheel combat,forcing the German
tospin in Bahrain as heovertook him. And he
pressured theFerrari man into a mistake in the
closing stages of the Canadian Grand Prixtoo.
Heisn’t afraidtogotoe-to-toe with Max
Verstappen, as heproved with his hunt and pass
for the leadin Hungary andonthe opening lap
of the Mexican GP – although hedid concede he
gives Max moreroom thanother drivers.
His engineers at Mercedes havelikened
Hamilton’s improvementtoan upgrade in a
mobile phone, as trackside engineering chief
Andrew Shovlin revealed in an interview with the
BBC: “When youget a new operating system
for your phone, at first it’s not that different,
but there are afew bug fixes and afew
improvements and stuff, and you don’t notice
it until you go back three orfourversions and
you think: ‘Wow, that’s changed a lot.’ And I think
that’s the case with good drivers and certainly
the case withLewis.”
Shovlin says that Hamilton works tirelessly
toavoid making the same mistake twice. It’s a
questfor continual improvement that shows
no sign of relenting.
“Every year he comes back as a more
complete driver,” added Shovlin. “There are
areas he starts tryingtoexploittofind
more performance and there is more that
he is capable of.”“A big thank youto everyone who
voted for me and who continue
to support me. It’soverwhelming
and encouraging and inspiringto
see the support that I’ve hadover
the years. Each year itfeels it
grows in increments and that lifts
me up in the difficult times. So I
want peopleto know how much I
appreciate them. This sport would
be nothing without thefans. They
really add that sparkto make the
sport what it is.Look at Silverstone
this year and actually a lot of races
had big turnouts – they create
the atmosphere that makes it the
exciting spectacleto watch.
“Big shout out to everyone and I
hope I can continueto contributeto
the sport.Formula 1 gives you so
much, but it equally takes as much
with regardsto the energy and time
you haveto devote, the sacrifice
you haveto giveto deliver each
weekend. It’s a lotfor everyone
within eachteam. Seeingfans at
airports, hotels, events that I go
to and then seeing the flags in the
grandstands, knowing that they’re
with you – plus the messages Iget
on social media, I can’t put avalue
on how great that is.”
LewisHamiltonF1 RACING JANUARY 2020 101