© Daimler AG
Outgoing Mercedes-AMG HPP boss Andy Cowell says he admires Lewis Hamilton “tremendously as an individual and as a racing driver.”
Andy Cowell will leave his position as the managing director of Mercedes-AMG High Performance Powertrains, a position he held since 2014, at the end of 2020. During his long Formula 1 career he had the opportunity to work alongside such greats as Ayrton Senna, Mika Hakkinen, Michael Schumacher and, in the last 6 plus years, Lewis Hamilton.
The man responsible for Mercedes’ dominant V6 hybrid power unit doesn’t hide his admiration for the six-time champion.
“Lewis is the best,” Cowell told F1’s ‘Beyond The Grid’ podcast.
“Outstanding natural talent and that inquisitive curiosity and tenacity. He’ll push for progress, he’ll push for people to hear his viewpoint in a nice way.
“And as an individual he’s not competitive to the point of being nasty and there are some individuals on the planet who push competitiveness to the point where it bubbles over to just not being sporting.
If you like SilverArrows.Net, consider supporting us by buying us a coffee!
“Lewis is a true sportsman and a motivator of the team. An outstanding talent. His exemplary performance makes everybody look up and go ‘oh, I need to be at that level, I need to be operating my game at that level’.
“But his comments in debriefs… a couple of years ago in one of the debriefs after a race, I was in the factory here, and he was like ‘oh it feels like we’re a bit down on power, are we down on power guys, what does the GPS say?’
“And then he says ‘Andy I know you are listening, we need more power’. Those little messages are awesome at pulling the team together.
“And his sportsmanship. He doesn’t want to get away with things, he wants to win fair and square. He wants the sporting field to be level and fair and I think that’s what he wants in Formula 1.
“I admire Lewis tremendously as an individual and as a racing driver,” concluded the Briton.
