Lewis Hamilton has said he believes this has been his best start to a season since his Formula One debut in 2007. The British driver, now in his 13th year in the sport, leads the world championship after a dominant opening with seven wins in 10 races. His rival Sebastian Vettel has insisted he is still strongly motivated to continue with Ferrari, despite a season in which their car has been off the pace and he has failed to match the Mercedes.
Hamilton and Mercedes have delivered with exceptional skill and with two victories to Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas the team have won all but one race. Hamilton leads Bottas by 39 points in the championship with 11 races remaining. Vettel is 100 points behind and out of the title fight.
Hamilton, who began his career at McLaren with a superb debut season in which he very nearly took the title, recalled that being the only year he had enjoyed a similarly robust opening.
“My first season was pretty strong – the first nine races I was on the podium,” he said, speaking before this weekend’s German Grand Prix. “Since then I don’t recognise another season being as strong as this one, having the seven wins. All the years at Mercedes we have maybe had 10 in a season but never seven in the first 10 so it definitely is an outlier and something we are really proud of. But we have to keep our head down and keep pushing.”
Hamilton also revealed how he became an executive producer of the film The Game Changers, which is set for release in September. The documentary is an examination of the role meat plays in the diet of athletes and whether it is necessary as a source of protein. Hamilton became vegan in 2017 and has since extolled the health benefits of a meat-free diet. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Novak Djokovic and the film director James Cameron are also executive producers.
“I spend a lot of time in LA and when I am there I have a lot of meetings and film and entertainment is an area I am interested in, particularly TV and movies,” he said. “I heard that James Cameron wanted to get in touch with me about this project. I am a huge fan of his and jumped at the opportunity. It was really interesting to see different people’s perspectives. I had gone along the same journey as some of the people and achieved another level of physical fitness. I mean look at Djokovic, there is an extra little bit there that people seem reluctant to look in to.”
Vettel has been increasingly facing questions about his future in F1, although he has one more year on his contract. He insisted he had no intention of retiring early.
“I love racing, they are the fastest cars there are, the joy that I get from driving is as much as it has ever been,” he said. “The motivation is high to get the job done with Ferrari.”