Angela Cullen, Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Bahrain International Circuit, 2023

Hamilton confirms split from trainer Cullen after seven years

2023 F1 season

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Lewis Hamilton has confirmed he is no longer working with Angela Cullen, who has been his personal trainer and physiotherapist for the past seven years.

Cullen has been regularly seen alongside Hamilton in the paddock since first partnering professionally with Hamilton in 2015. The New Zealand born, Switzerland-based trainer was employed by Hintsa Performance, whose representatives work with many drivers on the F1 grid.

“For the last seven years [Angela Cullen] has been by my side, pushing me to be the best version of myself,” Hamilton said on social media. “I am a stronger athlete and a better person because of her.

“So today I hope you’ll join me in wishing her the very best as she takes her next steps to pursue her dreams. Thank you for everything Ang, I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for you.”

Angela Cullen, Lewis Hamilton, Singapore, 2019
Feature: The F1 ‘minders’ who help drivers unlock their last percent of performance
Cullen began the 2023 season alongside Hamilton at the Bahrain Grand Prix two weeks ago, but is not with the seven-times world champion in Jeddah this weekend.

Hamilton, 38, began working with Hintsa during his time at McLaren. He has often praised Cullen for the work she has done in ensuring he is able to perform at his best.

He relied on Cullen to help him recover from several punishing events last season, notably in Baku which he described as his “most painful race ever” after suffering from extreme porpoising at the high-speed street circuit. Hamilton underwent cryotherapy to help his body recover.

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Will Wood
Will has been a RaceFans contributor since 2012 during which time he has covered F1 test sessions, launch events and interviewed drivers. He mainly...

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55 comments on “Hamilton confirms split from trainer Cullen after seven years”

  1. Hamilton is probably running out of patience :)

    1. so… he fired his trainer?
      how does even make sense?

      1. Peter Rowlands
        17th March 2023, 19:21

        Did you not read the article? He di not fire her , she left to pursue a dream!

        1. ya, i know, I read the article too
          its tifoso1989’s comment about Hamilton’s patience I’m trying to make sense of

          do keep up

          1. T,
            Wolff’s has hinted that it was Lewis’s decision. How do you figure ?

          2. I figure it’s tantamount to speculation, wolff himself doesn’t know; see my comment on the article itself posted on RF

    2. 👍Good one @tifoso1989
      😂😂😂😂

      1. That was a reply about patience.

        1. @jjohn
          Crystal clear.

          1. Unless someone’s Thick as Two planks 😆🤣

  2. She can write her own ticket to doing just about anything, because being LH right hand on TV for 7 years during the peak of wins has made her valuable to others. It will be interesting to see where she pops up. Wish her all the best.

    I would buy her book if she wrote about her 7 years. I can’t even imagine all of the places she has been with LH and the people she has met.

    1. Agreed.

      Book maybe.

      But whatever Lewis was paying her, Hintsa Performance can charge 10% of the annual rate for someone to work one day with Lewis Hamilton’s personal trainer and physiotherapist.

      I suspect it’s the travel etc that made her move on.

    2. Yes yes but never mind all that. The big question is whether she will sit down with Oprah.

  3. Who’s gonna cut up his vegan tofu?

    1. As opposed to non-vegan tofu?!

      1. you honestly thought someone who’d come up with a comment like this would bother to learn about tofu?

        1. Sure. would
          Although regular tofu is vegan, there are a few types of tofu to look out for when following a vegan diet.
          You will want to check the ingredients list before purchasing any flavored varieties. Some brands may use additives that contain animal products, and some tofu recipes are prepared with non-vegan ingredients.

          Simples.

          1. semantics
            like you said: overall, regular tofu is vegan.
            Flavored varieties don’t hide their non vegan origins, its on the label and if you’re making it yourself, you’ll be forced to interact with the non vegan ingredients thus, would need to make a decision. Lewis/Angela have been honing in on this custom diet for over a half a decade now. They know what to look for.

            Nonetheless, Hamilton proclaims to be plant based not vegan; there’s a difference.
            No matter how you slice it, jblank’s comment is on shaky ground and I promise, it’s ok to acknowledge that.

        2. Tell us a vegan joke.
          Ah… there aren’t any.

          1. pack it up vegans!
            the king of comedy has declared there aren’t any vegan jokes

  4. She’s a middle-aged woman, which counts as diversity in F1 and many other professions.

    Maybe you should both stick to commenting on the Daily Mail’s website or whatever anti-woke outlet you enjoy best?

  5. Why are you so quick to assume Hamilton has fired her? Maybe she has been given a promotion in her organisation. Maybe she is going to spend a year working on a charity project somewhere. Maybe she has been made an offer of a life-changing amount of money by a sports team. The article doesn’t give any details. Maybe you have inside knowledge you could share?

  6. joe mclaughlin
    17th March 2023, 13:56

    Maybe she only wants to work with winners…

  7. That seems rather abrupt right at the start of the season, hope they’re both alright.

    1. “That seems rather abrupt … ” so true. Inside scoop wanted.

    2. Perhaps because today is exactly 7 years, to the day, that she started working with LH.

    3. Yes it does seem abrupt. A lot of pressure on both of them actually, Working in the “F1 fishbowl” has got to take its toll.

    4. Pat Ruadh (@fullcoursecaution)
      18th March 2023, 9:36

      It makes sense if you think about it.
      I don’t think I can do this for another season… At least give it one race to be sure.

    5. According to another article on here today Toto said Lewis had decided to effectively sack her and Toto stands by Lewis

  8. Maybe it’s not just the car that’s lacking performance

  9. That our minds go to nefarious reasons is more of a reflection on us than probably Lewis and Ang.
    Look, travelling all over the world for 20+ weeks a year to F1 races sounds like a wet dream for most of us as race fans. But when it’s your job and you HAVE to do it I can guess that it gets old very quickly. It’s been 7 years. I’m aware that she has(d) a marriage: not sure about kids, but that has to weigh heavily on personal life. Oh and by the way, that’s just the race weekends. Lewis is known to train heavily during off-time. It’s likely she is with him to some extend between races as well.
    I’d be surprised if theirs is not one of the longest physio/race relationships in F1

    1. Exactly. It’s normal for people to move jobs after seven years. And the F1 circus is of course very full on. I don’t think it’s anything more than what it is. She has moved on, and whatever her reasons, are hers and nobody else’s.

      1. All true, but the odd thing is finishing one race into the season – normal would be end of season or at the outside just before the new season. One race in makes little sense for either.

        1. I don’t think it’s that odd, she may have been wanting a split for a while, and kept going. Then realised this year is a ‘bad mood’ year, so no use hanging in there with someone that’s not all that motivated of peppy. F1 drivers are who driven childlike creatures, they all get upset when the team is over promising and under delivering. Shes seen what the last 2 years were like, so she’s likely moving on to happier, more stable pastures outside the paddock.

  10. Few people work seven years in the same job these days, no need for crazy theories to ‘explain’ a move like this.

    Michael Schumacher famously worked with Balbir Singh for many years, Hamilton and Cullen obviously had a long partnership as well. Maybe it’s their successes that made these people more famous, but I’m not actually sure if all other drivers similarly work long-term with particular trainers.

    1. OK, so you’re saying he fired her because he had learned of her links to Epstein, Soros and Putin?

      1. There are rumors floating around Saudi that she is training Donald Trump for his election cycle.

  11. In other news, Max has fired his phone sanitizer

  12. There was some talk about them being in more than a professional relationship. I read about it a few times. I wouldn’t say I believe it is true but if it is then it probably had to do with her leaving.

    1. Same as Adrian Sutil, a more than just friendly relationship.

  13. I always assumed they were dating. Is that not true?

  14. Strange to part ways after one race in the season. But what Lewis said: good lick Angela!

      1. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

    1. …it might be your last 🤔

  15. Well, Sir Lewis Hamilton has to keep on being a ‘news item’. I am sick and tired of all of the journalists and pundits keeping SLH in front of us no matter what.
    Enough is enough!

    1. Between SLH and T Wolff, they seem to account for about 40% of the headlines and articles.
      One could wonder if all the professionals in the press corps would remain employed without these two.
      Shades of Donald Trump providing CNN with a large portion of their news material.

    2. It’s a news item they wrote regarding Hamilton. If you are so “sick and tired” why (WHY!) do you feel compelled to read it and make a nasty comment?

      I’m so tired of nasty people. They should get their own website or something.

      1. They have many. The Facebook, YouTube, the Daily Mail… They’re all dominated by nasty people.

        At least on this site, we only tend to get nastiness when there’s an article mentioning Hamilton or Mercedes.

  16. Reading through the comments section of a Hamilton article is like digging through a bin of dirty laundry trying to find a fresh sock. I never know why I bother. Still less why those ‘outraged’ by the mere mention of Hamilton waste precious moments of their life obsessing about his every move.

    1. Agreed. It also can’t be doing them any good to be so full of hatred and bile. It reminds me of a quote:

      Hate is like drinking a vial of poison and expecting it to harm the other person

      1. @drmouse +1 You’d think after years expressing the same rancour, they’d move on… But no.

  17. She cannot help Lewis in this crisis, he is done. So better move to another job.

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