In a rare moment of candor, seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton has opened up about the challenges he has faced with one-lap pace this season, admitting he is “stubborn” when it comes to adapting his driving style.
The Mercedes driver currently trails his younger teammate George Russell 10-4 in the qualifying head-to-head battle, a stark contrast to Hamilton’s usual dominance in this aspect of the sport. With 104 career pole positions to his name, Hamilton is the record holder for the most poles in Formula 1 history, cementing his reputation as one of the greatest qualifiers the sport has ever seen.
However, the new generation of cars introduced in 2022 under a revised set of technical regulations has not been kind to the 39-year-old. Despite his wealth of experience, Hamilton has struggled to gel with the behavior of Mercedes’ current challenger, often finding himself lacking the one-lap speed required to consistently challenge for pole position.
“I’m stubborn, I keep trying to drive the way I want to drive,” Hamilton admitted to media including RacingNews365. “But then I realize it doesn’t always work and then I try to massage my way through. But it’s not worked that well.”
In a sport where adaptability is often the key to success, Hamilton’s admission of his own stubbornness is a rare moment of vulnerability from the typically unflappable British driver. However, he is well aware of the need to evolve his approach in order to extract the maximum performance from the car.
“Still to this point, I think ultimately as a driver, you have to be adaptive and you have to concede that sometimes your approaches to certain things aren’t perfect,” he said. “You just start looking at ways in which you can still hold on to the essence of what’s made you as good as you’ve been and see how you evolve that to get to achieve what you need to achieve.”
Despite his recent struggles in qualifying, Hamilton has enjoyed a stronger run of form of late, winning twice across the last three races. This uptick in performance suggests the 39-year-old may be starting to find a compromise between his preferred driving style and the demands of the current generation of cars.
“Ultimately, as drivers, you should be able to drive anything, and I think we can,” Hamilton concluded. “In certain situations, some drivers are able to deal with things better than others and it takes some people a short time, others longer, to adapt. But I wouldn’t say it’s a disaster.”
As the veteran driver enters the twilight of his career, his willingness to confront his qualifying struggles head-on could be the key to securing a fairytale ending to his time at Mercedes before his highly anticipated switch to Ferrari in 2025.
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