Ahead of his remarkable milestone 350th race in F1, Lewis Hamilton has made it clear that he’s taking a fresh approach after being “slapped and surprised” by last weekend’s challenging Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver is determined to stay positive, no matter the outcome, and is adopting a “zero effs” mindset as he looks forward to the remainder of the season.
After a great start of the middle of the season with two wins for Hamilton and one for George Russell, many races have been difficult for the Brackley team.
Ferrari’s home race of Baku seemed especially problematic for Hamilton, who began the race from the pit lane and came in ninth place. Russell though finished only third after being affected in his race by Sergio Perez and Carlos Sainz crash which promoted him to the podium finish.
Asked if he expected to endure in Singapore another tough race weekend amid Mercedes’ struggles, Hamilton chuckled and shrugged off the suggestion.
“I hope not, definitely not looking for a repeat of last week!” he said.
“Just when you think you’ve experienced it all and had the worst, you get slapped and surprised.
“That’s just motor racing, but I’m really hoping this weekend is stronger again. I’m coming in with more of a ‘zero effs’ vibe either way, and it’ll be good either way.”
The future Ferrari charger said that he had one thing in mind, which was not to lose sight of the goal and thus be bogged down by failures.
“I think these last two days, forced to think how last weekend began, because it was great… I was at manufacturing doing sim, which is thing I rarely do, getting ready, arrive and first lap I am on it.”
“Then all of a sudden it slipped through my fingers and it was miserable the rest of the weekend.” In one way, you can attribute it to so many factors. All of us do care, that is why the efforts are being made; all people work now.
“I think [it’s more about] coming into this weekend and we’re just going to give it absolutely everything and whether it goes well or not, it is what it is.”
‘I think we are in that stage of the season where we have to leave everything out there and if things don’t go well, well, we shouldn’t let it get to us and look on the bright side.We have seven more games to play so we do our best’.
This weekend, he will celebrate his 350 th Formula One race but when asked about the number, Hamilton skipped it and accentuated his love for racing.
“I guess these last couple of days I have probably been asking myself ‘how or why am I putting in all this effort just to be here for another hundred F—of races?!’, ‘ he noted.
“It runs in my veins, so it is expected, you can’t overemphasize on it.”