The key Lewis Hamilton trait that rival drivers don’t notice

The seven-time F1 world champion has been feted by rival drivers for an entire generation for his skills on the track, but his current teammate has identified other reasons for his longevity and glory.

“I think he’s a very good people person,” Russell told Square Mile. 

“He’s very good at getting the most out of the people around him, motivating the team. 

“He’s very resilient, he’s always pushing himself further. And he has a lot of hobbies as well away from the sport, which I think is really interesting, because it allowed him to take his mind away from the racing and to be in a better head space for when he comes back.

“We’re obviously at very different stages of our career, but I’m definitely taking inspiration from how he conducts himself, how he approaches his racing and how he approaches his life. He’s very impressive.”

Hamilton was outperformed by Russell last season and finished below his younger teammate in the F1 standings.

He watched on as Russell claimed Mercedes’ sole win of 2022 at the F1 Brazilian Grand Prix.

But part of the reason for Hamilton’s apparent struggles was the amount of time that he dedicated to solving Mercedes’ porpoising problems at the beginning of last year.

FIA press conference host Tom Clarkson has questioned if the more experienced Hamilton is playing mind games with Russell this season.

“Every time a question was posed to both of the Mercedes drivers, Lewis was quite happy for George to answer the question,” he said.

“He almost became the spokesperson for the team in that press conference. And I was interested as to why Lewis was happy to just sit back and let that happen. I don’t know whether he’s sort of keeping his powder dry.

“Is he trying to sort of give him a sort of false hope of being the dominant person, and then he’s going to really hit him hard where it matters most on the stopwatch later on?”