SUZUKA, Japan (AP) — Lewis Hamilton said he finished a recent morning training run and returned to his hotel sweating after his workout to find a few fellow Formula 1 drivers just getting up.
“I know that none of the drivers I’m racing against have trained as hard as I have and given it what I have, especially at my age as well,” the 41-year-old Hamilton said Thursday at the Suzuka Formula 1 circuit in central Japan, site of Sunday’s Japanese Grand Prix.
“I love that — that I still have that drive to push myself,” he added.
Not that he needed a boost. Hamilton is Formula 1’s most decorated driver. He’s won the most races (105), claimed the most poles (104) and has been on the podium 207 times.
And the British driver is tied at seven with Michael Schumacher for season championships.
But if he needed extra motivation he found it last year in his first season racing with F1’s most storied team — Ferrari — after record-setting seasons with Mercedes.
By Hamilton’s standards, it was abysmal. He didn’t win a single race and didn’t make a single podium. He finished four times in fourth place.
Hamilton was suddenly an also-ran, an uncomfortable spot for the sport’s most high-profile driver and its most familiar face for two decades.
It’s early in the season, but Hamilton seems to have found a remedy. He has a competitive car, finished third two weeks ago in the Chinese Grand Prix and he’s tuned out critics.
“Just not letting all the (words) coming out of people’s mouths get in the way of knowing actually who I am and what I’m able to do,” he said. “I’ve not lost what I had.”
Mercedes has won the first two races — one each for George Russell and Kimi Antonelli — with Ferrari the other team that has fared well under this season’s sweeping new rules.
F1 cars are using hybrid power units that are divided 50-50 between electric power and internal combustion power. Adding to the changes are lighter, more nimble chassis.
Some drivers have chafed under the new rules, and the most outspoken has been four-time champion Max Verstappen of Red Bull. He and others have called the racing “yo-yo racing” with cars pulling ahead, only to be overtaken as power seems to ebb and flow.
“It’s making the racing better, but at times it’s artificial,” Verstappen’s teammate Isack Hadjar said Thursday.
Added Hamilton: “I think a lot of the drivers are not enjoying it, I’m just personally enjoying it.”
For Hamilton, that comes down to having a car this season “that can fight for wins,” he said. He also said being battered last season by bad results has increased his drive, though he repeated several times he’d never lost his confidence.
“It’s a natural part of a process as an athlete,” he said. “You’ll go through seasons like that and (in) some of the most trying times — one of the most important things is getting back up and that’s what I’ve done this year.”
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