In the round-up: Lewis Hamilton says being out of contention for victories for most of the last two years helped him become a better team mate.
In brief
Hamilton a better team member because of Mercedes’ struggles
After scoring his first victory for two-and-a-half years at Silverstone, Hamilton said going for so long without winning had been “mostly a battle of the mind.”
“Keeping yourself sane, trying to pick up new tools,” he told Esquire. “Ultimately, it always comes back to persistence and dedication. Hard work. It always does eventually pay off. I think I learned that life is really about how much pain you can experience and keep going, and how much you can suffer and keep moving forward, you know?”
Hamilton said the challenges Mercedes faced taught them how to communicate better. “It’s not how you fall; it’s how you get up,” he said. “It’s how you continue to apply yourself every single day.
“It’s how you connect with people that you work with. I probably learned to be a better team mate in this period of time, because we’ve had more time to focus on communication.”Piastri says he’s “healed”
Oscar Piastri confirmed the rib he injured before the summer break has healed. The McLaren driver revealed he sustained the injury before scoring his first victory in the Hungarian Grand Prix. However in a social media post Piastri said he was “sunned and healed” and “ready for some more race cars.”
Newgarden defends restart tactics
Josef Newgarden insisted he complied with IndyCar’s rules during a late-race restart which led to a collision between his team mate Will Power, Alexander Rossi and other drivers.
“The procedure for race control is they’re watching your throttle,” he explained. “When you commit to going, that’s when they throw the green or they initiate the green.
“There is a zone. They put a zone out every race. I was trying to go at the end of the zone, as late as you possibly could. It looked like there was just a mistime there.
“It’s also possible, it looks like only one car really kind of ran into one other pretty aggressively, at least from what I saw. Maybe I’m wrong. It’s also possible that was just totally fine. If that one car didn’t have that problem, then we would have been all right.”
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Links
Extended highlights: Gateway 500 (IndyCar via YouTube)
Race highlights: Gateway (Indy Nxt via YouTube)
Blow to ESPN and Fox as US judge halts sports streaming venture (The Guardian)
'FuboTV said in its filing that it had tried for years to offer a sports-only streaming service but had been prevented from doing so because of ESPN. Fox and Warner Bros Discovery have imposed bundling requirements on FuboTV which it says forces 'Fubo to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to license and broadcast content that its customers do not want or need'.'
'A Formula One racing simulator is slated to fill the space once occupied by West Elm on Chestnut Street.'
'Silverstone Paint Technology claims a 7% reduction in total frame mass on previous generation Dogma models.'
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Touchdown in Zandvoort! 🛬#DutchGP #F1 #Formula1 pic.twitter.com/EGpEjhehge
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Comment of the day
This weekend’s caption competition winner is Coventry Climax:
“Pss… don’t tell: My tattoos were just wash-off stickers as well.”
Coventry Climax
Thanks to everyone who joined in, especially Rprp and Urvaksh who also came up with great suggestions.
Happy birthday!
Happy birthday to Harry Palmer, Sue and Isaac!
On this day in motorsport
- 40 years ago today Niki Lauda won his home grand prix for the first time while fellow Austrian Gerhard Berger made his debut for ATS
AllTheCoolNamesWereTaken
19th August 2024, 5:10
I really find myself in two minds whenever I come across quotes like this from extraordinarily successful people.
On the one hand, I realize that hardship is a relative term. Prior to 2022, Hamilton had never gone a full season in F1 without winning at least one grand prix. He had won seven world championships and been a serious contender for at least another three. While that is an almost unheard-of level of success, it is the level which he had grown accustomed to. So, from that perspective, it is understandable that a two-and-a-half-year winless streak would be painful for him. Even if it would still seem like a charmed life by most people’s standards, he would feel very differently about it. I get that. It’s just how the human mind works.
On the other hand, there are people out there living paycheck to paycheck, not knowing if they’ll be homeless a couple months from now. From that perspective, a billionaire talking about the pain of not winning races does come across as borderline entitled and out-of-touch. I have a sneaky suspicion that the people threatened by eviction would love to be experiencing Hamilton’s pain instead.
Nulla Pax (@nullapax)
19th August 2024, 8:30
This is precisely what I wanted to say.
I hope Lewis means that he understands that “some” peoples lives are about pain and suffering.
I really hope he doesn’t think it applies to him …. does he?
Tristan
19th August 2024, 12:58
Why wouldn’t it apply to him? It applies to all of us in our own ways. We might look up to people with lots of accomplishments or money and say “how can they be going through pain and suffering?” but we have absolutely no idea. Sacrifices made, hours put in…
I don’t think it’s okay to judge anyone or presume the difficulty of their situation.
Tristan
19th August 2024, 13:00
Hmmm… Wish I could tell that to a younger me.
ludewig
19th August 2024, 16:58
@Tristan
Perhaps Lewis has gone through some serious suffering that we do not know about, but given that he’s embellished the poverty of his upbringing in the past, it seems at least as likely that he is simply exaggerating.
Jeanrien (@jeanrien)
19th August 2024, 13:31
Because any person in the street have experienced the mental load and burden of not delivering up to the expectations from millions of followers.
We live in different contexts and experience different struggles, and it’s not like what we’re facing is written on our foreheads.
Easy to say the others have it easy because they have what you lack, but they might lack what you have…
No matter the paycheck, trolls can hurt you!
Andre
20th August 2024, 12:14
He knows hardship, don’t forget where he came from.
Ludewig
20th August 2024, 13:31
From a nice middle class neighbourhood and community, while he pretended to come from a ghetto, you mean?
Alan Dove
19th August 2024, 9:58
What absolute codswallop. This kind of logic means, if followed, means the only person who can speak about pain and suffering is the literal worse off human becasue by default everyone else ‘has it better’.
Imagine going to someone under threat of eviction and then saying “well, you say you’re under distress, but there are people in the world who’d give their right arm to be under-thread of eviction in a 1st world country with healthcare and access to food”. We’re all incredibly lucky to exist right now. Even ‘poor’ people have access to stuff that kings only a century ago could dream of having.
It doesn’t mean people can’t suffer and can’t express how they fell, because that would be an insane standard to live by. Lewis isn’t saying “I am in a state that’s equilivent of a homeless person” and it’s a nonsense expectation for him to have to qualify statements as such. We’re all grown up to know this and understand it.
Joe Pineapples
19th August 2024, 16:23
‘context’
CarWars (@maxv)
19th August 2024, 18:37
Hulkenberg still hopes for that podium from the wilderness
Nick T.
19th August 2024, 10:16
What luck to have a career where three seasons in a car that has ranged from second to fourth best most of the time can be called “wilderness years.”
pcxmac (@pcxmac)
20th August 2024, 18:17
They sabotaged their own efforts by pushing an unproven concept. When you go from uber success, to complete denial and self-sabotage, i would call that pretty rough.
Why would Mercedes push the zero pod design right when RBR becoming the most dominant car on the grid (potentially due to rule breaking means) ? Why not optimize and improve ?
It’s the leadership at Mercedes that took them in to the wilderness, maybe because they think they are a prophet or someone who can part the waters, or maybe because it was a great way to gin up one Max-a-million Verstappen, and pivot the confidence/attention of the fans,,, In order to obtain \a future strategic objective(s).
CarWars (@maxv)
19th August 2024, 18:36
Something he will quickly unlearn when fighting for a championship. And let’s hope he will with Ferrari (where champions go to die).
Nick T.
21st August 2024, 0:00
Right before my father passed from cancer, he signed a deal with Ferrari. I plan on trying to get a deal with Ferrari too when I become terminally ill.
Mayrton
23rd August 2024, 21:37
What a career this man has had. Hands down the most blessed athlete I have ever seen. Lady luck is totally in love with him. Great driver by the way, no doubt about it, but incredibly lucky at the same time.