F1 News: Mercedes Engineer Claims Lewis Hamilton Is "Moving Target" For Competitors
Lewis Hamilton's Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin has gushed over the seven-time champions way of dealing with defeat.
The British driver joined the team ten years ago and Shovlin has worked with him throughout his time with the team. During Hamilton's time with the team, he won six of his seven drivers' championships and the team won eight consecutive constructors' championship titles.
2022 was a difficult season for the team with many issues on the W13 cars and it was the first season in Hamilton's career that he did not achieve a race win. On top of this, Hamilton was hoping to come back in "fight mode" after the controversial 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
During an interview with the BBC, Shovlin has spoken about how gracious Hamilton is in defeat and how he uses those moments to better himself. The engineering director explained:
“You can’t ask Lewis to be happy when he’s lost a race; that’s not how he works. But he loses really well if you want someone to come back and win the next one.
“He’s actually better at losing than most I’ve seen because of how diligently he goes through the block of work of understanding what he needs to be better, where did he miss the opportunities.
“He doesn’t enjoy it, but it’s about the result at the next race, not whether he’s smiling or giving a nice interview.”
Shovlin went on to explain that Hamilton's strong work ethic makes him a "moving target" for those trying to beat him. He continued:
“Lewis has natural talent in abundance, but his work ethic and ability to continually develop and improve means that, for drivers trying to beat him, he’s a bit of a moving target.
"The thing with Lewis now is his bad days are so few and far between and even on his bad days he’s as good as the others. That’s what’s brought him to the level he is. It’s the consistency. And when he’s at his best, the level is just phenomenal.”