Lewis Hamilton: I'm a team player now for Mercedes

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton: I'm a team player now

Fernando and Nico's ears are burning!

Matthew Scott

Thursday 19 September 2019 08:30

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Lewis Hamilton says he has learned to become a "team player" over the course of his career, as well as consider the long-term impacts of in-race decisions.

Hamilton has been involved in fractious, to say the least, partnerships with the likes of Fernando Alonso and Nico Rosberg during his career, teaming with the world champion Spaniard in his debut year at McLaren, where things quickly turned sour.

Since Rosberg's retirement, Hamilton has found an even greater consistency alongside Valtteri Bottas and became the first driver to break the 400-point barrier in 2018, with a repeat certainly not out of the question after winning eight of the 14 races so far in 2019.

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"Now, the goal is to help the team get the most points and finish as high as possible," he told media in Singapore, discussing the differences between himself and Max Verstappen, whose title chances are now effectively over.

"When you're slightly further back, you're willing to take a little bit more risk to gain one extra position, and when you're in the lead, you're thinking long-term.

"It's a subtle difference, but also when you're younger, you care less in general, you know? Your perceptions are different when you're younger to when we're all older.

"When you're 21 to where you are now - so now I'm in the car, I'm thinking of how much space I have to give each driver, I'm thinking of the fact that I have 2000 people who make my car and they rely on me to make the smart decision and not be selfish and try to get that extra one spot - which would be good but it comes at a cost of potentially losing the team the constructors' championship.

"I think as I got older I've become more of a team player, more of an understanding of 'you can't win them all'.

"As a kid, you're like 'no, I have to win every single one!'. And I understand that it's a long game, it's a marathon not a sprint. And that philosophy for me, I didn't know that when I was 21 or 22 years old."