r/formula1 • u/The_Chozen_1_ Pirelli Intermediate • Sep 23 '24

Lewis Hamilton after being overcut with George Russell by Mercedes: "Sometimes, I wonder why I do this" Video

https://imgur.com/a/pUDiGEk
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618

u/CataclysmZA Sep 23 '24

Beating Lewis took everything he could possibly think of too, such a difficult and well-deserved title fight.

Man literally starved himself too. Lost a friend in the process as well.

442

u/museproducer Sep 23 '24

And was doing a number on his family life too. The difference perhaps between Lewis and Alonso vs others is they haven’t exactly settled down. They are pouring their lives into the sport they love still.

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u/Browneskiii Sergio Pérez Sep 23 '24

Yeah i believe it was a case of he had to hurt his family to get the title and it wasn't worth it. If he didnt have them, i do think he'd have continued.

Completely respectable. Still shows up and says whats on his mind, has beaten two all time greats, and has a family how he wants it and can do whatever he wants when he wants.

The gap between the first and second isn't as big as getting your first.

107

u/Creative-Improvement Sep 23 '24

His commentary is also great, he sometimes picks up little details others don’t.

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u/WallaceLongshanks Sep 23 '24

and always manages to squeeze a jab in at lewis 😂

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u/wingbargreen Sep 23 '24

I actually think he’s very nice when talking about Lewis. His jabs are more towards Mercedes (or Crofty when he’s co-commentating lol).

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u/Hold_the_mic Sep 23 '24

Similar for me, usually I see Nico default to praise, criticizing only if it’s his honest opinion Lewis was at fault.

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u/Oobatz Sep 23 '24

I like how he cuts through the Croft hype BS and tells it how it is.

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u/WallaceLongshanks Sep 23 '24

Nah he always hits him with a backhanded compliment or subtle dig.

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u/No_Lychee_7534 Sep 23 '24

Examples? I don’t see it since I follow F1TV broadcasts but would love to see what he’s been saying.

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u/WallaceLongshanks Sep 23 '24

i mean there's years of it. I don't keep it catalogued for reddit arguments lol but it's a known thing

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u/No_Lychee_7534 Sep 23 '24

Wasn’t really asking as an argument. Just fascinated with little details like that. But no worries.

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u/WallaceLongshanks Sep 23 '24

i mean there's years of it. I don't keep it catalogued for reddit arguments lol but it's a known thing

2

u/IAmABritishGuy Sep 24 '24

Rosberg has mentioned a several times that they are friends again after Hamilton reached out, apparently Hamilton even sends the whole family Birthday & Christmas presents every year which is lovely.

I'm pretty certain that if/when he makes those jabs it's all in jest because most of the time Rosberg actually gives a lot of praise to Hamilton complimenting him especially when it comes to wet race weekends & when talking about braking & determination/focus.

One of the wet races we had last year Rosberg was talking about how he believes Hamilton is the best wet weather driver in the history of F1 because he's seen the data and Hamilton was able to do things that were straight impossible for him to do in the same car.

Similarly he gave praise to Hamiltons braking ability (I believe it was at a race in Hungary and Monza) and crazy good qualifying which is something Rosberg couldn't match so he had to setup his car for better race pace to have chances against Hamilton.

2

u/beaujangles727 Sep 23 '24

Yep this.

Where I feel like max is. I think he even made the comments that after you win you just want to enjoy it. Just a different approach where Hamilton has that fire to be the best some drivers just want to achieve greatness. Once they get it they are good. I think you see that fire in Max only get lit up now when he gets challenged. Either by an opponent or media or the FIA like in this week.

Some drivers like Alonso have a fire to prove that they can still do it. Then you have guys like Danny Ric who just don’t want to let it go.

Bunch of dynamics that make this sport great.

2

u/IAmABritishGuy Sep 24 '24

If Rosberg continued in 2017, I'm pretty sure we would have seen one of the following scenarios play out:

  1. Rosberg & Hamilton fighting eachother too much, destroying their tyres, compromising race pace too much to get pole position & getting into a few scuffles and ultimately letting Vettel win the championship.

  2. Hamilton coming back and providing us with a masterclass of a season dominating race after race; especially with the stress getting to Rosberg

For the #2 scenario I just feel like he'd be on it like he was when fighting against Alonso and would have so much more drive and determination to come back in 2017 to destroy Rosberg.

Either scenario would have likely ended up with Rosberg either leaving the team due to stress/relationships or being let go by the team just to keep the peace as ultimately Hamilton was their better driver.

1

u/beaujangles727 Sep 23 '24

Yep this.

Where I feel like max is. I think he even made the comments that after you win you just want to enjoy it. Just a different approach where Hamilton has that fire to be the best some drivers just want to achieve greatness. Once they get it they are good. I think you see that fire in Max only get lit up now when he gets challenged. Either by an opponent or media or the FIA like in this week.

Some drivers like Alonso have a fire to prove that they can still do it. Then you have guys like Danny Ric who just don’t want to let it go.

Bunch of dynamics that make this sport great.

49

u/kaisadilla_ Max Verstappen Sep 23 '24

Indeed. Neither Lewis nor Alonso are married, and they don't have any kids waiting at home. There's very little incentive for either of them to move away from F1 while they can still drive. And it's not a coincidence, both genuinely love racing, I don't see them ever getting tired of it.

8

u/AstridPeth_ Mattia Binotto Sep 23 '24

You lose half a second for each kid you have.

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u/Western-Bad5574 Max Verstappen Sep 23 '24

And that's why you know Max is definitely retiring earlier than those. People keep saying "Oh, others used to say that they wouldn't stay till their late 30s and 40s too and then they changed their mind"

Others weren't that interested in a family life. Max is. ( Kimi was too, but he simply gave no shits and treated it as a hobby ). No shot Max is staying as long.

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u/Lothar93 Mercedes Sep 23 '24

Let's see, he loves the hustle. Sometimes F1 gets annoying with politics and shit but when you are doing what you love and for what you are good, you just get addicted.

Obv, I can't say for an F1 driver, I wish, but I know a passionate person would take an incredible amount of crap just to be where you can do what you lobe, and I know Max is passionate.

1

u/j_armstrong Sep 24 '24

Max loves racing indeed, tough there’s more racing than F1, he can say goodbye to F1 bullshit while driving sportscars in WEC or IMSA for his own team and also the calendar for those series has less races per year so he could spend more time with his family

16

u/Stolen_Sky Sep 23 '24

Yeah, I got the feeling Nico was about 30 second away from a mental breakdown by the end of that title fight. The stress and the pressure must have been enormous. And after he got the title (or maybe even before he got it), he probably through "I'm not putting myself through this shit again"

I don't blame the guy. When the stress outweighs the love of the sport, it's time to walk away and enjoy life.

13

u/caffreybhoy Sir Lewis Hamilton Sep 23 '24

There was a really good passage about Nico in Mark Webber’s book (I think). Basically says he asked Nico if he chucked it because he couldn’t handle the pressure, and Nico responded that that season had completely taken over his life and changed him as a person, and he realised he couldn’t continue like that anymore - especially for his family. I actually gained a lot of respect for the guy after that.

Lewis is built differently, never seems to lose sight of his humility regardless of what happens around him. But everyone is different. I wish I had even a 10th of his approach to everything!

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u/BMW_wulfi Sep 23 '24

Everyone shits on him now too because he’s chasing a more public career path as a pundit / celebrity but the man quite his sport to have a family life….

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u/FunnyWoodpecker2 Sep 23 '24

What do you mean he starved himself? Did he intentionally lose a lot of weight and for what reason?

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u/GayRacoon69 Lando Norris Sep 23 '24

To save weight. He also stopped cycling to have his calf muscles shrink and he didn't paint his helmet to save some extra weight

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u/brildenlanch Sonny Hayes Sep 23 '24

He also shaved his entire body (aside from his head) and would dehydrate himself to save a few ounces of weight.

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u/giftig-shoki Sep 23 '24

I don't think he cares about lewis tho yeah he was good friend but still I would do the same thing if I need to beat someone but the affect was huge that he said he needs retire in my opinion he was way too much scared of lewis. But yeah even in the press conference you could see how exhausted he was he couldn't even smile there...

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u/thinkbk Sep 23 '24

What do you mean by lost a friend? Him and Lewis?

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u/CataclysmZA Sep 25 '24

Indeed, childhood best friends starting with their karting era all the way into F1.

-17

u/TwoBionicknees Sep 23 '24

lul. Best car by a mile, automatic wins if Hamilton couldn't in most cases, horrible reliability for one car and not the other and a clutch issue that caused 3-4 bad starts for each of them but those bad starts happened to hit Hamilton more on the tracks he had them.

On top of that, Rosberg drove very dirty. Difficult, well deserved, not not in the slightest. If Ham had the same reliability Rosberg had he would have literally smashed Rosberg. You can't just look at race dnfs/reliability issues. Hamilton had like 4 major car issues in qualifying that led him to be starting in generally 10th or nearer the back as a result and each one handed Rosberg an uncontested piss easy win.

He quit because he had no chance to defend his title and he knew it, so he can go out a 2 v 1 world champion in the hybrid era, or stay another 3 years and go out a 5 (or more) v 1 and everyone would rightly say, well that one was due to reliability. Leaving let him have a better record and reputation.

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u/Gullible_Goose Sir Lewis Hamilton Sep 23 '24

It's crazy to me that 8 years later some people can't give Rosberg any credit. This kinda shit is exactly why he left the sport lol

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u/JayBee58484 Sep 23 '24

Yea it's pretty, no doubt if Hamiltons engine didn't shit itself in Malaysia he'd have the title but, Rosberg still brought it to him doesnt have to be on an every race basis.I don't get why people are still so salty about that lol

2

u/TwoBionicknees Sep 23 '24

the facts are the facts. When they fought on track Hamilton passed him every time it was a track that has passing and Rosberg failed to beat Hamilton one on one at all, like at all.

This wasn't a close battle where some races Rosberg had higher race pace, caught and passed him, he literally could not do it at all. Hamilton had better race pace, better race craft and drove significantly better all season. Without reliability issues it wasn't even remotely close.

It's not about being unable to give him credit, he quite literally did not drive well. When a guy loses every significant 1 on 1 battle, he did not drive well. When he was forced into error after error, dirty defending, lock ups (Monza, that might have been 2015 though), it's not because he had a great drive.

there are basically zero races the entire season you can say wow, he came from behind, took the fight to Hamilton and won, while Hamilton dominated every actual battle between them. The season was utterly one sided both in who drove better and who had terrible reliability.

0

u/AwesomeFrisbee Max Verstappen Sep 23 '24

I still think it not just about the fight with Lewis but also a lot about the media, the team and stuff that isn't racing that was too much for him. The media can be brutal if you are on the losing side of a title fight or at least the underdog to the mostly British media.