© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Lewis Hamilton says he wants to succeed in Formula 1 “through speed, through sheer hard work and determination”, and not through shady tactics on the track.
In an interview with selected media Lewis Hamilton said he wants to keep his racing clean so that there’s “no denying at the end what I’ve accomplished”.
“It’s just how my dad raised me,” said the Briton.
“He said to always do your talking on the track. I was bullied as a kid, both at school but also on track, and we wanted to beat them the right way, not by a car falling off or colliding.
“Then, there is no denying that you’re better. If you have collisions, they can say, ‘oh, yeah, but this happened, this is one tactic that that driver has’.
“I want to be the purest of drivers, through speed, through sheer hard work and determination, so there’s no denying at the end what I’ve accomplished.”
Lewis acknowledges that some younger drivers might be taking a different approach and be more open to risking collisions, but he says this might have to do with the increased level of safety in racing today.
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“What I would say is the drivers today, the younger drivers, the tracks the drivers today have grown up on, they all have the big run-off areas.
“Whereas when I started in cars, most of the tracks hadn’t got to that point, which was more fun, more risky and you had to drive more, not going over the limit always.
“You had to really build up to it slowly, whereas their generation can go way over the limit and go wide and come back on track. There is less penalty to pay. That’s the only real difference.
“But they seem super-driven. We know we have more drivers today that have come from wealthier backgrounds than working class backgrounds than ever before, that’s nothing new.
“But I think we have a pretty decent pedigree of drivers coming through,” concluded the seven-time champion.
