It’s been a battle of the mind’ – Hamilton reveals lessons he learned during winless run of almost 1,000 days
Lewis Hamilton has reflected on the key learnings he took from the two tough years he faced prior to his return to winning ways at the 2024 British Grand Prix, with the seven-time world champion admitting that dealing with the struggles became a “battle of the mind”.
Following the introduction of the turbo-hybrid era in 2014, Mercedes enjoyed a dominant run in the sport which saw Hamilton win the drivers’ championship in every season – barring 2016 – from that year through to 2020.
Thus, when technical regulations were changed in 2022, the Silver Arrows had problems with their car and hamilton failed to secure a win for a long time until this August when he won the British GP after 945 days without a victory.
Hamilton shared in his interview with Esquire how he describes it what he understands about himself when transitioning from having a string of great performances on to some difficult games.
“It has been mostly a war fought in the head,” the 39-year-old admitted. “Staying as sane as possible, to try to glean some new tricks. Lastly, it goes down to perseverance and commitment. Hard work. Turkddlaha It always does eventually pay off.
“I think I learned that life is really about how much pain you can experience and keep going, and how much you can suffer and keep moving forward, you know? And that’s life, right?
“It’s not how you fall; it’s how you get up. It’s how you continue to apply yourself every single day. It’s how you connect with people that you work with.”
Alongside this, Hamilton cited another way in which he feels that he has progressed, adding: “We may have improved on becoming better team mates in this period of time, because we have had more time to involve in communication.”
Thinking more about that game-changing win in front of his home fans at Silverstone, which also saw Hamilton make it nine wins at the circuit, the Briton said that the win has helped him to ‘rebuild’.
They were all saying it was this fairy tale. And it really, really was unexpected,” said Hamilton. “When I went into that weekend I did not expect that that would be possible. In fact, it had been such a long time.
One feels so many things at a time. Some of them you start to potentially believe in, bit by bit. But then they finally come and I have that day where I am able to perform or we perform as a team and it just kind of turns all that off. And it helps you rebuild again.
“It was so wonderful to do that at home, in my home country, with my family nearby. The last race in Mercedes at Silverstone is the final race. There was no possible way that it could have been more magical.
Hamilton is now ready to enter his last six races with the Silver Arrows before joining Ferrari in 2025, following his contract to join the latter after signing a long term deal.
