Lewis Hamilton on Mercedes' team unity, finding a balance and being 'empowered' after reawakening the passion within

Hamilton took the points lead for the first time this year and became the only driver to score consecutive wins with victory at Monza

Lewis Hamilton is in a good place as F1 heads into the business end of the season (Getty)

Lewis Hamilton believes that they key to his crushing 59th career victory on Ferrari’s homeground of Monza lay in the forest fire of empowerment currently blazing within him, his Mercedes’ team’s unity, and the work his engineers did following his close win over arch-rival Sebastian Vettel the previous weekend in Belgium.

Vettel, who was only 2.3s behind him there, was third this Sunday, a distant 36.317s adrift, as Hamilton and his team-mate Valtteri Bottas finished first and second and Hamilton took the points lead for the first time this year and became the only driver to score consecutive wins.

“In hindsight you always say you could have done this, or you could have done that,” he said of Belgium. “At Spa there were sections where Ferrari were really killing us. But our guys analysed these and found areas in the set-up where we were not so comfortable. That helped us here and I’m sure this weekend there are more learnings to put us in a better position next time out in Singapore, though I still expect Ferrari to be better there in the slow- and medium-speed corners. But I’m going there with the attitude that we will be trying to win.”

He said his preparation for what he expects to be a tough encounter, in which Red Bull will also be in the mix, included family time, time with friends and lots of sleep during the summer break. “A real good balance between playtime and training. We’d been flat-out all season and it was the perfect time to recharge the batteries. Now they are recharged and I’m at the top of my battery pack again.

“I always drive with my heart, that’s my engine and the power behind what I do, but my mind is the rudder.

“I’ll start my preparation for Singapore not with pasta tonight but with a big, big tub of ice cream. Then I have several commitments. The obvious thing is to go home and sleep, but I don’t do that very well. I rest and have a bit of play – recently I’ve seen my mum and my sister and the kids drove me crazy, and I love that. I’ll do a test in the UK [in the Mercedes simulator], and that’s rare for me. I’m not a tester! But I’ve offered to do that.

“Then Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I have appearances, but I’ll balance it carefully to make sure I arrive with the positive mentality.


 Hamilton dominated the weekend (Getty)

“The last four races have been really solid. I definitely feel more heart and passion in myself. Silverstone was really empowering and it sparked a forest fire in me. I’m grateful for it, but by no means feel comfortable. I still have to apply myself like I have in the last four races. I was 20 points behind and now we’ve changed the picture, so maybe he [Vettel] can feel that way for a while. There is a real solidarity and unity in our team this year. It’s like that movie Unity, where the guy has a ring with unity on it and punches a guy in the head and leaves the word stamped between his eyes!”

He received a surprisingly big cheer when he appeared on the podium in Monza, but there was inevitably an element in the record crowd of tifosi who booed the victorious Mercedes drivers. Afterwards he laughed and admitted that was to be expected after the beating he and Bottas had handed out to their beloved Ferraris.

"I had a real nice song playing in my head, and it kind of went over my head," he said. “It's to be expected here in Italy. Over the years it's been common to have that if a Ferrari driver is not on the top. Inevitably you're going to be the villain here, if you're the one that's stopping the Ferraris. If I wasn't driving today and Valtteri wasn't driving today, the Ferraris would have won!


 Hamilton took the lead in the drivers' championship for the first time (Getty)

"We are the villains. Some days I'm happy to be the villain, and I really don't mind. I just try to remain respectful. I admire their passion. They feel a little bit more like football fans here, the aggressive ones. But it's all in the name of love for the red cars."

While Hamilton celebrated his dominant win, and spoke again of Maya Angelou’s poem Still I Rise – “with all the trials and tribulations of life there is still a way to rise above them,” - Ferrari president Sergio Marchionne accused his team of getting it all wrong.

"I think we just screwed up," he said. "The set-up for the car was wrong. I think we underestimated the circuit. We screwed up from Belgium, from Spa, into here. Now, we need to go back to the factory and find out which way the car went sideways. But we will be back in Singapore."

Like Mercedes after Belgium, Ferrari will look intensively for answers back at the factory in Maranello. But while Marchionne was upset, Vettel was buoyant and clearly pumped up afterwards.

“To be honest, I’m still pretty overwhelmed from the lap back to the pits and the podium ceremony,” he smirked. “I think it’s been amazing, the power of the people, to see so many fans for Ferrari is unbelievable.

You could say it was a bad day, but I know the team is on the right way and there is a lot of stuff that is going to improve. I know that we only get stronger, so I’m in a very, very positive mood. Overall, it was a difficult weekend but I know that there is still a long way to go and we have got the people behind us, and I know we have a strong car, so it is a great feeling.”

Both rivals know that there will be tracks that suit their cars better than the others and that the fight is very far from over, with seven races yet to come. Like boxers, they’ll keep slogging it out.