Mercedes’ head of trackside engineering Andrew Shovlin has revealed that seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton is able to take defeat ‘better than most’, with the 38-year-old having a habit for “understanding” why he lost, and how to prevent it from happening again.
Hamilton has been so dominant since joining Mercedes in 2013, with the Stevenage-born driver having won six World Championships since he ditched McLaren for the Germans.
With so much success, though, often comes a lot of defeat, something he felt the full force of in 2021.
“You can’t ask Lewis to be happy when he’s lost a race; that’s not how he works,” Shovlin told the BBC.
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“But he loses really well if you want someone to come back and win the next one.
“He’s actually better at losing than most I’ve seen because of how diligently he goes through the block of work of understanding what he needs to be better, where did he miss the opportunities.
“He doesn’t enjoy it, but it’s about the result at the next race, not whether he’s smiling or giving a nice interview.”
Shovlin went on to talk about the British driver’s “natural talent”, with the Formula 1 icon having a mentality that sees him “continually develop”.
Given how long he’s been in the sport, Hamilton has had to adjust to so many different driving styles over the years, with each generation of drivers seemingly discovering a new way to drive an F1 car.
He’s had to overcome the likes of Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Max Verstappen over the years, each presenting a completely different challenge.
Hamilton himself, though, has become a target for so many drivers, given that he is statistically the greatest F1 driver of all-time.
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“Lewis has natural talent in abundance, but his work ethic and ability to continually develop and improve means that, for drivers trying to beat him, he’s a bit of a moving target,” Shovlin said.
“The thing with Lewis now is his bad days are so few and far between and even on his bad days he’s as good as the others.
“That’s what’s brought him to the level he is. It’s the consistency. And when he’s at his best, the level is just phenomenal.”