Lewis Hamilton has compared leading a Grand Prix in dominant fashion to F1 testing, labelling it “so boring”.
While Max Verstappen’s ideal way to win races is to dominate a Grand Prix and crush his opponents, fellow F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton says he much prefers the challenge of slicing through the field to win a race.
Lewis Hamilton: You have to be chasing something
Hamilton explained his viewpoint on how he views leading from the front as he spoke on the Performance People podcast, opening up on a situation he got very accustomed to during Mercedes‘ dominant years between 2014 and ’20.
Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes is lined up in place to start the 2024 Japanese Grand Prix.
While Hamilton regularly stuck his car on pole to dominate a race, the seven-time F1 World Champion revealed it’s not the type of racing he enjoys most.
“Oh God, it’s so boring,” he laughed.
“Honestly, starting from first, leading the race all the way through, it’s really boring compared to fighting from the back and having racing.”
The lack of wheel-to-wheel action is something that’s missing in such a scenario, Hamilton said, comparing the situation to a simple day of testing.
“It’s not racing,” Hamilton said. “You could be on a test.
“You are fighting a time gap behind you. [But] you have to psych yourself into thinking that you’re fighting a car ahead or something like that. You have to be chasing something.
“But it’s different when you have a car or cars ahead of you and there’s a track that you can overtake, like Austin or Silverstone, for example.
“Different lines you’re trying to discover, utilising the tyres, the wind, crosswinds, all these different things.
“And then you finally get someone in a battle, that’s the best thing. That’s the most rewarding experience as a driver.”
Lewis Hamilton’s favourite races
Asked to pick out examples of the type of racing he’s enjoyed the most over the years, Hamilton smiled: “I have a few!”
“So I think it was 1995 or ’96 in karting in Buckmore Park, I was fourth all the way in this race, and I couldn’t keep up with the top three. I just couldn’t get closer,” he said.
“Then, on the last lap, they were all squabbling and I overtook them all in one corner, and I won this race.
“That was one of those reminders just to never give up. It’s never over until it’s over. So that was the first step that I particularly remember.
“And then, in Formula 2, I spun in Turkey. I can’t remember – sixth to last, or something like that. On that scene, the F1 teams are watching you. Every single moment, every movement that I did, Ron [Dennis, then-McLaren boss], who was my boss or sponsor, was sitting on the wall watching, or in his office watching.
“So I made that mistake, and I was like, ‘Damn’, in my mind. I was like, ‘That’s veered me off of winning and getting to Formula 1’.
“So I drove back from, I think it was like 20th, or something like that, to second. So that’s one particularly that I remember. And then probably my wet race in Silverstone 2008 probably was one of my best performances ever, I would say, yeah.”
