© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Lewis Hamilton attended the 2023 Canadian Grand Prix Thursday Drivers’ Press Conference. Here is the full transcript!
Q: Lewis, why don’t we start with you, if we could. Seven wins here in Canada, you have a phenomenal record. And of course, one of those wins was your first one in Formula 1 back in 2007. What is it about this place?
Lewis HAMILTON: Good afternoon, everyone. I don’t know. I think it’s one of the drivers’ favourite circuits, I think, for sure. It’s the city, it’s the energy. I was asking one of the Canadians recently if the city is the same when we’re not here. But the energy is always great. Got a great and amazing crowd since the beginning. And the track, you’ve got these long, long straights, but it’s a bit like a go-kart track in how you have to throw the car over the kerbs. It’s just always gelled well with me. It’s a big, big braking circuit and that’s always been my strength since I was younger.
Q: I was just going to say: does it suit your style?
LH: Clearly!
Q: The record speaks for itself! And how much confidence do you have coming into this weekend after what was a really encouraging race in Spain?
LH: Yeah, definitely a lot, that we’ve been making progress and the car, last race, we’ve all been buzzing, I think, back at the factory and the whole team has this new energy and kind-of feels like we’ve got a North Star: we know where we’re going; we know how to get there. So, everyone’s just churning away and working as hard as possible. So, excited to come here. I’m hoping that… we generally don’t know whether this track suits our car, and the car’s characteristics, but the weather may change that and we’ll see.
Q: Are you doing a rain dance?
LH: I don’t think I need to! Those clouds are looking pretty big outside!
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Q: You’ve seen the forecast! Final one from me. You did say in Barcelona that you were hoping to hook up with Toto Wolff after the race, to talk about your future with the team.
LH: We’ve never hooked-up!
Q: Did you have a meeting? You normally do it over pizza, right?
LH: No, we never have pizza! I’ve seen Toto, we’ve talked several times, we have a great relationship but there’s nothing else to say at the moment.
Q: Any progress made?
LH: Yeah… but nothing else new to really add to it.
Q: Kevin, let’s come to you next, your 150th race in Formula 1. What a ride it’s been for you. Just how do you reflect on the last ten years?
Kevin MAGNUSSEN: Yeah, I mean, it always… when you think back, 150 races, it sounds like a lot but it actually doesn’t feel like that much. I always get surprised when new guys come into F1, and I see their age and I think about my own age and suddenly feel quite old! Actually, I feel young still, but time flies and I’m not a youngster anymore.
LH: How old are you?
KM: I’m 30.
LH: 30!
KM: Were you surprised I wasn’t older, or…?
LH: I think it’s the beard.
KM: So, I look old! People say I look older than my Dad! I’ve seen that on the Internet. But no, it’s been a really fun ride, and it doesn’t feel like it’s anywhere near over yet. And yeah, I’m excited to be around still, and excited for the future.
QUESTION FROM THE FLOOR
Q: (Simon-Olivier Lorange – La Presse) Lewis, it’s been a year and a half since you got a first place. After winning so much in your career, is it getting heavier and heavier to get this next win? Or are you able to really reset between every race and get to the next one with the idea of finally this is going to be the one?
LH: Yeah, I don’t feel any weight. We’ve gone through a tough patch and we’re kind of, like, on that up. And I feel that there’s been a feeling of like… For example, the last race and some of the races, it feels like we’ve had wins. It’s just about perspective. Of course, we’ve not been in first place but there have been many wins in the steps that we’ve taken. Last race, for us, as a team, to be on the podium with both drivers, that was a win for us. And so we’re just focused. We know, as I was just saying earlier, that we have that north star. We know where we need to go. We don’t know everything of how to get there but we know that together we can get there if we just keep our heads down and focus on the science. The engineering team is fantastic within the organisation. We’ve got great development team and I honestly think we’ve got the best development rate, as good if not better than any team in the sport and so you’ve just got to keep chipping away.
Q: (Luke Smith – The Athletic) Lewis, you spoke in New York, I think yesterday, about Mission 44, Ignite and the work you’re doing, obviously to improve diversity through motorsport. And with the contract talks with Toto, how much are these programmes a part of your future with Mercedes, something you’re talking more about, advancing them? And does it also point to this being way more than just a driver in a team wanting to work together to win races and championships? It’s about helping deep-rooted change in the sport.
LH: Yeah, I think we already covered a lot of that already in the previous contract and so it’s really… we’ve got an amazing group of people back at the factory who are really refocused on D&I and really, there’s been huge progress within our team since the first time we’ve had the conversations, like the serious conversations, and the work that we’re doing with Accelerate 25, Ignite, which is now within Mission 44. And that’s really my role within Mission 44. And I think the team is always super supportive. I don’t know when you’re referring to, to be honest, maybe the Forbes thing you mean? Yeah. That’s still always going to be a focal point and the important thing, obviously, Mission 44 I think, I’m really proud of where we got it to. We’re now funding, I think it’s 25 or 26 different organisations out there, so starting to really start to have impact and see… Hopefully, we’ll start to see a better, fresher chain coming through from with more diverse students.
Q: (Joost Smedema – NOS) Lewis, in 2017 you equalled the record of pole positions of Ayrton Senna here in Canada. This weekend, Max can equal the numbers of victories of Ayrton. If you think back on 2017, what is your feeling if you think back to that weekend? And could you describe the impact for you as a Formula 1 driver to be compared to Senna, which Max may experience this weekend as well?
LH: 2017. Jeez, I don’t remember it. Yeah, I really can’t remember off the top of my head. I need to see a video or something like that. I’ve got a bad memory. But for me, it was very, very surreal just that being five years old, watching with my dad and the dream was to be like Ayrton. The dream was to get to Formula 1 and do something like him and then to then find that you’re matching equally in terms of results. You know, ultimately it’s unfair because there’s a lot more races in our time than there were back then. But still it was a real honour. I think I got it, they gave me a helmet or something like that, replica helmet, something like that, and so that was very cool. Yeah, Max has been doing an amazing job. He’s had such an incredible career so far and he’s for sure going to surpass that. (We’re) working on getting the car to where it needs to be so we can slow him down.
Q: (Adam Cooper – Motorsport.com) There’s a lot of talk about trying to bring the weight down for the next regulations in ‘26. But just now, Fernando said the bigger issue is the size of the cars, the dimensions in terms of manoeuvrability. Would you agree with that, that that’s more of an issue than the actual weight?
LH: I think the dimensions are pretty good. I quite like the size of the car but obviously there are some places where it is tight as Checo said. But I think it is the weight that has definitely gone too far. Our wheels this year are a ridiculous weight. And there’s just no need. We’ve had light wheels in the past, and then the cars, just the braking zones are longer but I definitely think there’s some good changes they can make for the future. It’s not my decision, obviously.
Q: (Phil Duncan – PA) Lewis, Toto said earlier this week that it would be days rather than weeks in terms of the contracts. Given your latest discussions with him, is that how you see the timeline developing? And just going back to Max potentially matching Senna’s number of wins this weekend, that will take them to 41, I know he’s obviously quite a long way off your record of 103 but do you think there’s a chance that he could catch that or eclipse that given that he’s only 25?
LH: He’s got a very long career ahead of him so absolutely. Ultimately, records are there to be broken. And he’s got an amazing team. But as I said, we’ve got to work harder to try and continue to extend it. I hope we get to have some… at least within the last period of time in my career, I hope we get to have some more close racing. And then I don’t really have a huge amount to say on the contractual side of things. It’ll get done when it’s done. If that’s next week, if that’s in a month’s time, as long as it gets done I’m not really bothered.
Q: (Chris Medland – Racer) Lewis, actually having to look forward to Silverstone in a few weeks’ time, your home race, does the performance of the Mercedes in Barcelona bode well for your chances at that circuit? What are your hopes from the car there? And just how special is it to race at Silverstone?
LH: Yeah, super excited to get to have the British Grand Prix. Hope… the weather has been amazing in the past week or so. When I left I think it was 29 degrees which was amazing. So let’s hope that that extends out to when we get there. And yeah, I’m really, really hopeful that the performance we had in the last race… I mean, we’re only like three tenths off… each lap, I was around three or four tenths off Max, which was the closest I think we’ve ever been this year. And I’m hoping by then, we will hopefully have taken another step. So I’m really, really hopeful that we can… maybe that will be a race where we get to actually race them but we’ll see.
Source: FIA.com
