Q & A with Lewis Hamilton
By Jonathan Noble Friday, January 16th 2009, 13:45 GMT
Lewis Hamilton starts his third season in Formula One as the reigning world champion, and must defend his title in a year that has seen an almost unprecedented level of technical and rule changes.
But as the Briton told the assembled press during the launch of the McLaren MP4-24 at the team's technology centre today, he is unfazed by the task ahead of him.
Q. You are wearing the crown as champion; does it carry added pressure going into the new season?
Lewis Hamilton: I don't think so. I feel more relaxed going into the season simply because I'm come off a great season. It is like when you go from race to race - when you win one race the next one you have gives you some extra confidence. I feel I have reset my goals, and reset my targets back to when I started in Formula One. I want to be world champion. I don't sit here saying I am world champion; I sit here saying I want to be world champion.
Q. There were plans for you to do a tour and appearance in Woking after you won the world title this year. Is that something you feel should have happened?
LH: They had some plans to do it, but unfortunately it didn't work out. It is important for me to give something back to the fans to say thank you to them and last year we went to the Race of Champions and I participated in that. That was a great way of saying thank you to everyone.
Q. It seems like five minutes since the last lap at Interlagos. Has it all been a bit of a blur for you since then, and did you manage to relax at all over the winter?
LH: I have not really thought about the last race or last season much. I did as much analysing as after the first race of the season, analysing where we could improve, and then I just put it behind me. I was then working on preparing myself for this season. I was fortunate to have some time off over Christmas; I enjoyed myself, relaxed and completely put my racing out of my mind, and was able to live life normally.
Q. How normally can you live your life now that you are a world champion?
LH: I can't particularly walk around everywhere without being recognised, but there are ways you can do things. Going to the cinema is easy, keeping my hoody up and hat on, and most of the time I don't get noticed. But I don't go walking around town in whatever country I am in. I was in the States for a while and over there no one really notices me, so I do live a normal life.
Q. You have been a huge inspiration for children around the country. With the Stars of Tomorrow karting championship, could the industry do more to help kids progress up through the ranks?
LH: For sure we can always do more. I think the great thing is we have some great people running those championships, Carolynn Hoy does a great job, and I remember since the day they brought about Champions of the Future, it was a great championship that gave a great opportunity for youngsters like myself.
So, the more attention we can pay to those kind of series, I am hopefully going to go to a couple of those races this year, as I love watching racing. It is incredible to see how small the kids are, but I think the great thing was that a lot of the F1 teams are starting to pick up young drivers from an early age - like Ron did with me. He started a trend and hopefully they will do more now.
Q. There have been changes to the regulations which have been specifically introduced to help overtaking. In discussions with your engineers, can you confirm to us the switch to slicks and the adjustable front wing will make overtaking easier?
LH: I can't confirm it. I've not driven the slick tyres yet. I didn't do any of the end-of-season testing, so I have not driven with lower downforce, slicks or KERS. I have spoken to the test drivers and they say it is an interesting package to drive. I cannot comment much until I get to the track next week.
I hope we do have a little bit more overtaking. The way they have made the tyres I hear there is a small operating window, so looking after them will be even harder compared to last year. So it will be interesting.
Q. You've talked about making less mistakes in 2009 compared to last year. Can you talk a little about how a driver goes about doing that?
LH: Not really, no! I really can't! I analysed the mistakes I made last year and, for example Montreal last year, with the pit lane light – every time I go down the pit lane now I am always looking out for the light. You just have to learn from the previous experiences. I am sure there will be some experiences this year that will take you by surprised, and you are always learning.
I am sure the oldest man in the world is still learning today. You have just got to make sure we try to prepare ourselves in advance and try and avoid any mistakes.
Q. You say you have not been thinking so much about last season. I would think that when you win the world championship, after fighting for it for so many years, when you have some time surely you would be thinking about it? How do you do it? Do you not think at all about the sweet moments?
LH: Obviously there are very proud moments. Sometimes I may sit on the my laptop and go through some of the pictures I have from last year – and you just remember coming across the line, seeing the chequered flag, the finish line, one of the wins, or it might be a bad race. You look at those and you do reminisce and remember the great moments.
But then you just try to move on. I try not to live in the past. It is a fantastic season, I am world champion and it is a great feeling. I have got to embrace that and carry it with me. I am trying to enjoy my life. I am still young and I have all these wonderful things happening to me, and it is difficult to imagine how many things are happening. I am just trying to enjoy them.
Q. With testing so heavily restricted this season, does it change the way you approach pre-season testing?
LH: I think what is important is that because we have a completely new car, a completely new package, I have come back into the factory – and although I have watching closely the development of the car, I am sitting down more with the engineers and it is a bit like the preparation I had for 2007. I am understanding the differences in the suspension, KERS and all the safety aspects.
But also those vital few tests we have, I have like only seven days in the car, and so we are going to make sure that we really extract the most from those days. Hopefully we don't have any reliability problems. We have been very, very fortunate in the past, in two years we have not had any reliability problems, so I am confident the team have done a great job.
Q. You are going to be defending your world title in a completely different atmosphere because of the rule changes. Do you think that is going to make it harder for you to establish a period of dominance like McLaren's past champions have, and will the introduction of slicks impact on your attacking driving style?
LH: I think definitely it is going to be interesting. If we had an evolution car that was evolving over a few years, then perhaps it would have been easier – although it is never easy.
Definitely when you change the rules so drastically, sure it will be tough to stay dominant for such a long period of time. But as long as we prepare properly and do the job we are supposed to do, which is everyone working flat out to make sure that this car is the best.
We are learning every day with the car in the wind tunnel. We are developing new components for it, so it is going to be developing at such a fast pace this year. How we monitor that and how we make sure we continue to improve with such short testing is going to be interesting.
I think my driving style with slick tyres, I have driven slicks in the past, in GP2, but I not sure if they have similar characteristics, so when I get to the test next week I will get my first feeling of that. But I have always found I am quite good at learning and understanding with tyres, and knowing how to use them. So I don't think I will be at a disadvantage.
Q. Bernie Ecclestone has said quite a few times since the end of the season that he would like the title to go to driver with the most wins, not the most points. Clearly you would not necessarily agree on that on the basis of last season, but would you like that sort of system?
LH: Not really. We work hard as a team to win and be consistent, and being consistent, whether you finish first or third, it has to be the team and the driver who has done the best job over the year. It is not just who has won the most races.
Q. Ron Dennis has been a part of the team throughout your period here. He has talked about handing over the reigns in the next few months. How would you feel about that?
LH: Ron is a huge part of the team. He has got racing in his blood, so he will never leave the team. He will always play a part, whenever he steps down and chooses to play a more quiet role in the background. I am sure he will do something like that.
I will always remain close to him. I've known him see I was 10-year-old. We have a great relationship, and he has made a huge impact on my life – and he still does today. We are great friends. The great thing is we have got great people in the team. It is a huge team, and we are very powerful together. It is not as if when he steps down we are going to struggle. We are very, very fortunate that we will stay a strong team.
Q. We know you are highly motivated, but just this week Bernie Ecclestone has said that given his bad luck last year it would be good for Felipe Massa to win the championship this year. Does that provide you with a little bit of an extra kick, and do you see him as your main opposition?
LH: Not really, because I've not really kept up to date with what people have been saying. Felipe and I get on very well, we had a great battle last year and I am looking forward to competing with him again next year. I am sure he is even more motivated, as am I, and it is going to be a close battle. I don't know if it will be me and him, or him and Kimi (Raikkonen). We don't know, we have to wait and see. I hope we are at the top to keep with them and we have to wait and see what happens.
Q. Let's talk about the car. You've probably had a seat fitting and seen the controls from the wheel. What are your impressions of it?
LH: This is the first time I've seen the car all put together. I've seen the guys working on it over the past few months, and as always it looks very elegant. It is quite a bit different with the smaller wing at the back, it is unusual to see, and it is great to see the slick tyres. The sidepods look quite a bit different to how they have done in the past, but the cockpit is the same pretty much – although I have a few other buttons to play with which is more fun for me. I've always liked gadgets, so I have a few more devices I can play with.
Q. The job of a driver is to get the most out of the equipment they have got, but those buttons give you quite an opportunity to make a difference. How excited are you by the subtleties of what you can do with that? And secondly, drivers of your calibre once they win that first championship they take off. Your rivals are afraid that is what is going to happen with you. Do you feel you are about to take a step forward?
LH: Firstly I think we don't really know to what effect the new controls will have, so for sure the team and the driver that gets on top of it more than the others will have a slight advantage. That is what we are working towards.
And I think for sure once you get the first win out of the way, in every championship you compete in, it does take the pressure off. It does give you a bit of momentum. But every year is just as hard, if not harder with the new regulations, so it will be tough.
Q. How does living in Switzerland compare to living in Woking?
LH: You cannot really compare it. I had a great time living in Woking. It was great to be able to run and cycle down here to the Technology Centre, and I had a great time in town. Blockbusters was just down the road. I don't have Blockbusters in Geneva, but I enjoy it over there.
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