It scarcely seems believable that 2018 will be Lewis Hamilton’s 12th season in Formula 1, with the Briton having now established himself as one of most successful drivers in the history of the championship.
Last year proved to be the best of Hamilton’s career, as he recovered from a so-so start to storm clear of Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel, beating his rival in a straight fight, drawing level on four world titles.
Now, it all starts again, with everyone reset to zero. Hamilton was in a buoyant mood at the unveiling of Mercedes’ W09, the car with which he hopes will enable him to make it five.
“This is my sixth season with the team, crazy to think it’s been that long,” he beamed, having now been at Mercedes almost as long as he was at McLaren.
“This [car] is a work of art, it’s incredible, I’m in awe of the team because there’s so many people in the team, and to see them come together and bring their genius into this beautifully sculpted car, it’s amazing I was staring at the [car without] the back cover and I was like ‘how do they do that’.
It had been two months since Hamilton last reconvened with the press corps, and he was eager to relay tales of his exploits during the winter break.
“I had a slightly different winter,” he began. “I started off in Colorado, actually Los Angeles, then Colorado, but there was no snow.
"I was with family, then I made a trip out to Japan with [partner] Monster, which was pretty epic, I got to snowboard, which I love doing in the winter, which I do as much as I can, I didn’t get a lot of vertical feet this year as there wasn’t much snow, it was more icy in Colorado, so I don’t take too many risks [on ice].
“Then I was back over in the States, went surfing with Kelly Slater, which is pretty awesome. I say surfing, but I did a lot of swimming! In my dreams when I watch these top surfers like Kelly you see them on a big wave and a big bow coming over and I’m crazy and I think ‘that’s where I want to be’, so I go for the biggest waves and get barrelled over!
“We [then] had this cool set up with the PlayStation and I played online and against people who were called ‘HAM44’ and they probably had no idea they were playing against me. I think it was ‘HAM44’ he was pushing me off!
“It was the longest break I’ve had in 10 years, normally you have a bit of December and a bit of January and then you’re back, but the team has been great in giving me the time to really recharge as it’s been a long hard slog last year. So to recharge with my family around me, I feel great, I think if I’d come back a month earlier I wouldn’t feel as great as I do now.”
Those winter weeks spent slushing in the snow and splashing in the sea allowed Hamilton to completely forget about motorsport, an aspect he felt crucial after the ferocious battle of 2017.
“When we left Abu Dhabi, there’s some days after that when you’re around people [who talk about F1] at the factory, but then you forget about it.
“When I was with my family though Colorado and Japan I didn’t think about racing, had no-one reminding me I was a four-time World Champion so you kinda forget about it and go back to normality.”
Hamilton explained that trying to avoid the boredom of gyms, “I’ve started doing jujitsu” has been a key target, and accepted that a successful year – such as 2017 – requires a reset, as he outlined that matching Juan Manuel Fangio was a motivator.
“You can have down time. We've had a successful year. How can you get to what's next? Do you still want to come back and do these interviews? Do you still want to win races, still want to do qualifying? Do you enjoy driving the car? Can you be better? What areas can you be better? Or there are other passions that I have that I am as passionate about as racing. At what point do they take priority. All the different things that you have to take decision-wise.
“It's not a case of 'I've got to go to the gym'. It's kind of one day, after an amount of time, I miss working out and I look forward to getting back to it. As you get back into that training process, you start then to discover your goals again. It's quite simple. I want to somehow be better than I was last year.
“Last year was I think the best year that I've had performance-wise. How can I top that? How can I improve on what was a very, very strong year? But there are lots of areas actually. And even still my relationship with the team is constantly growing. How do I use their genius to help me achieve my goal? And how do I interact with them to help achieve their goal? Ultimately utilising them to get my goal helps them to get theirs”
Very little of Hamilton’s time was spent discussing the racing of the year ahead, though still had the presence of mind to make his rivals sit up and take notice.
“Hopefully if I am performing at my best there will be issues as they’ll be upset at it,” Hamilton said of his relationship with his rivals.
“[But] honestly I don’t play mind games, I just drive faster. Simple.”
And with that, the drive for five has begun.
