Lewis Hamilton Revealed Dark Side to F1 Failures: “I Hardly Ate, and I Just Stayed in Silence…”

Lewis Hamilton is arguably the greatest F1 driver in history. He has won 7 world champions and won over 100 races in the sport and absolutely dominated the sport in the last decade. He has experienced some of the highest highs, but also heartbreaks while racing at the pinnacle of motor sport.

The Mercedes driver experienced heartbreak on the track as recently as the 2021 Abu Dhabi season finale. Hamilton was denied the chance to win his eighth world championship last season. In his interview with Graham Bensinger in 2016, Hamilton revealed he was extreme when dealing with loss in the early years of his career.

” An insane amount. It was unhealthy. I remember after that race, I would just have the biggest headache, and just you are under like the biggest dark cloud and I was in my hotel room for three days. I didn’t leave my hotel, I hardly ate, and I just stayed in silence. Just trying to wiggle my way out of this negative headspace,” said Hamilton.

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These are indeed some hard measures that the then-McLaren driver took to combat loss. But he revealed he has become better at dealing with experience and uses it as motivation.

Lewis Hamilton explains how he deals with losing a race now

Although, the Mercedes driver does not experience heartbreaks so much on the track. He has developed a remarkable ability to channel his loss and negative energy into doing something productive.

” When I was younger, I would never think losing was acceptable, but I now, being older, understand that losing is a part of it. Losing has actually helped me be the driver I am today. Those lows make the highs even higher. Those difficulties you go through, the character-building process, necessities,” explained the 7-time world champion.

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These are two diametrically opposite ways to deal with losing that the British driver has explained. It just shows how much he has grown as a person and how he reacts to negativity now. It is nice to see that he has developed into such a mature driver who tackles losing and failure so well.