WORDSSTUART CODLING
PORTRAITSTEVE ETHERINGTONLEWIS HAMILTON
IN CONVERSATION WITH
40 F1 RACING JANUARY 2020Lewis Hamilton has played a key part in Mercedes’extraordinary
run to six consecutive world championship doubles. In this
exclusive chat with F1Racing,Lewis explains what makes this
such a specialteam, how the group is empoweredto flourish,
and the role he performs as the “rudder” of the ship
“HE [TOTO] AND IARE
PROBABLY ONE OF THE
BEST PARTNERSHIPS
THEREHAS EVER BEEN
IN FORMULA 1. IT’S GOING
TO BE HARD FOR ANYONE
TO BEAT THAT”
Toto Wolff has been a constant
through all these years of success
Mercedes has had. What is it abouthis
management stylethat brings outthe
best in you and also in the rest of
the team?
I’ve had th e privilege of working with
Toto since 2013– he joined Mercedes
not long after me.What we alwayshave
to remember is that the success ofthe
team is builtover time. A lot of the
guys I work with have been there for
15-odd years.
Many of the people in the factory
have been there 20 years. It’s beena
long campaign for many of them. Ross
[Brawn] was there before, and he was
part of the initialshift – as was Norbert
[Haug] – with Mercedes, trying to make
the changes. And then Toto came in and
put even more energy into that wave
and made it far greater.
Where Totois great is thathe’s very
personable. He understands structure
and strategy,and he understands that
we all havea unique element within
us. It’sabout putting people in the
right environment to be able to
flourishand be great.
He’s a whizz at knowing – he
cares about those people, about how
they’re doingat home, whether there’s
anything he can do to support them.
The amount of work he puts in to create
the right environment, evendown to
little things like the lighting in the office
so that people are energised.
He andI are probably one of the
best partnerships there has ever been
in F1. We understand each other – the
relationship, the communication has
been key. We’ve always been100%
open with each other.We’ve always
overcome whatever obstacles we’ve
faced. It’s going to be hard for anyone
to beat that.You’ve often said that thisteam is
special. What makes it that way
and enablesit to carry on being
so successful even when the
regulationschange?
It’s a c ase of putting people in the
right positions to do what they do
best, where their real talentis. Some
have been there for years, others have
come in and been great additions to
a great team.
My role is to encourage and to
continue to bringin positive energy for
the team, to help be the rudder, helping
the engineers to steer developments in
the right direction. Simulations might
calculate that you’ve come up with the
perfect car, but in fact there’s never
a perfect car. A computer-simulated
driver works differently to therealthing and can’t feel certain things that
are key to advancing the car.
So a lotof th e guys have been there
a long time. But everyyear they’re
gunning for it – they’re super-excited,
enthusiastic, and determined to win
again. It inspiresme and I t hink when
they see that, it works both ways.You talk about ‘raising the bar’, and
those arevery easy wordsto say – but
you’ve actually done it, year on year, as
new challenges come up. Where do you
find thatextra level?
The key thing is belief.That has never
shifted. AsI grow older and I observe
what’s around me,I’m constantly
looking at how I canutilise my
surroundings to help advance
my performance.
How can I improve my performance
as an athlete, how canI have more
energy, how can I bemore efficient,
how canI be more consistent through
the season –make fewer mistakes–
how canI extractmore from the tyres
and my engineers? I think over the time
the confidence between you and the
engineers grows.
If I s ay something, they believe me.
And I also have the mentality thatI
don’t take this position for granted.
Yes, I have these world titles butI’m
fully aware that there’s a youngster just
waiting for me to either slip or for my
performance to drop. I feel like every
year, every race,I have to own it. I have
to deliver every single time.Our thanks to Monster Energy for
faci litating this interview