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Lewis Hamilton admits he could sit down and think ‘I’m pretty good’, but that’s just not how his mind works.
The Briton tied Michael Schumacher’s record of seven world championships in a dominant campaign in 2020, while also surpassing the German’s benchmark for most career wins, with Hamilton now having 95 to his name.
So at this point it would be easy for Hamilton to sit back and revel in his accomplishments, but in reality he’s more focused on threats that might come from his rivals and how he stays ahead.
He also warned that the moment Mercedes as a team begins to “rest on our laurels” then they could be heading down the wrong path.
“I think there is an underestimated workload for the people in the background and for the drivers in terms of interpreting the tools that we have,” he told Autosport.
“The detail that we go to to try to adjust these little things – a millimeter here, half a millimeter there of roll, for the passage of the front, whatever it is. But every year I get this new set of tools and I have to study like everyone has to study to be aware of these things [and] try to be ahead of the [other] Drivers.
“Personally, I just don’t think, ‘Yes, I have six [now seven] world titles ”. I could just sit on it and think, “I’m pretty good.” But that’s not how my mind works.
“My mind is like, ‘Jeez, these guys are chasing me, how can I stay ahead? How to stay one step ahead? How can I help the team stay ahead of the game? ‘And that’s a really big process, because we can easily go down the wrong path – if we are resting on our laurels.
“If you look at last year, it made the races so much harder for me when I didn’t perform to the best of my ability, usually on Saturday.
“It just meant the pressure was even higher for Sunday, which I think is sometimes unnecessary pressure. So this year to be able to work on it, with Bono [Peter Bonnington] and the engineers to make sure we deliver better performance on Saturday, that was a relief [in that it] makes Sunday in general, not easier, but just less under pressure.
Your BBC sports personality of the year 2020! ⭐️
Congratulations @Lewis Hamilton! 👏👏#SPOTS # SPOTY2020 pic.twitter.com/PvPv7WkGOP
– Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@ MercedesAMGF1) December 20, 2020
There’s no denying that, armed with the W11, Hamilton has reached a new level of dominance in 2020, even though he says it’s the losses that make him stronger as a driver, rather than the wins.
There is no better example than the 2016 title battle with Nico Rosberg, the only season in the turbo-hybrid era where Hamilton did not win the world championship.
“I’m definitely one of those people who thinks that the losses made me stronger than the victories,” he confirmed.
“I am definitely saying that the most difficult races are the ones in which you evolve the most. And it’s not just on the driver’s side, it’s also with all the engineers and mechanics – we feel it for days. And it definitely makes you come back and fight faster, harder next time.
“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t improving, I mean, if I wasn’t getting the results, and then maybe it wouldn’t improve, but I definitely have to… I can’t stay motionless. This sport does not stand still, technology is constantly evolving.
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