James Vowles has explained how Lewis Hamilton’s thinking about racing has changed during his time at Mercedes.
Vowles currently leads Williams as team manager, but spent 20 years with the Brackley-based outfit, having previously worked at BAR, Honda, Brawn and finally Mercedes.
This includes the former McLaren driver working closely with Lewis Hamilton for 10 years since his move to Mercedes in 2013, a move that would prove monumental in the following season. In addition to his title with McLaren from 2008, he won six further titles.
James Vowles: Lewis Hamilton was the most naturally talented driver I’ve ever worked with.
Vores appeared in high performance podcast His final years at Brackley were spent as strategy director at Mercedes, where he discussed the changes in his career after moving into team management and leadership.
Having had first-hand experience with Hamilton throughout his dominant years, Vowles explains how Hamilton’s mentality has evolved since joining Mercedes and how he is focused on maximizing results, rather than just focusing on the top step of the podium. He said it shows that he has become a driver who is proactive about improving his performance.
“Probably what excites me most about F1, and you’d struggle to find any other sport similar to this, is that it’s a team sport. But it starts with beating your teammates. “You can’t beat your teammates, you’re the problem,” he said.
“The key behind it is that it’s just one fight. But every single person contributes to the team’s success. Simple like that.
“Lewis was, and remains, the most naturally talented driver I have ever worked with during my Mercedes career, including Michael. ” [Schumacher].
“He really has a lot of natural talent.His mentality was great when he joined.
“I understand why he was successful, but it was, ‘I’m going to win every race, no matter the cost.’ It doesn’t matter what the cost is, I’m going to win that race.” . end. ‘
“Talking to him today, I could see that he accepts that second and third place is the way to win championships, building on that and working with the team on days when you don’t win races. You’ll get much more reward for doing that than pushing everyone aside to win that one race. ”
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While Hamilton’s win-at-all-costs mentality wasn’t necessarily a weakness, there’s no disputing that his shift toward maximizing results led to greater success overall.
Mercedes itself, under team principal Toto Wolff, played a key role in supporting Hamilton’s change in approach, adopting a logical approach to racing focused on establishing a culture of blamelessness.
Baules explained how this slow evolution happened as a result of first-hand conversations, including the wisdom of the late three-time world champion Niki Lauda as the team’s non-executive president. .
“It wasn’t a journey of one person – or Toto or me or even Shobu at the time.” [Andrew Shovlin]” explained Vowles.
“I can now call him Niki Lauda, a strong-willed man who won multiple world championships and I learned a great deal from him.
“It starts with something as simple as that, being open and honest with drivers. Too often we avoid getting to the real truth of the issue and avoid it.
“At the end of the day, they are, in many ways, the best in the world at what they do. That makes it difficult to have direct conversations. How I am in public, how I am here. You’ll find that the way I am and the way I am off camera is exactly the same.
“Be open, honest and transparent. That’s where it starts. Having open and honest conversations about it, including when their actions hurt the team or hurt themselves. included.
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