How "real phenomenon" Lewis Hamilton left Toto Wolff and Niki Lauda staggered

Mercedes

How "real phenomenon" Hamilton left Wolff and Lauda staggered

"How can you allow that?"

Ian Parkes

Friday 23 December 2022 09:50

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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff has revealed how Lewis Hamilton left himself and three-time F1 champion Niki Lauda staggered by his travel mileage.

Rest and recuperation are quickly becoming vital components of success in F1 as the calendar stretches to 23 races in 2023, with the potential to hit 24 events should the cancelled Chinese Grand Prix be replaced.

But for seven-time champion Hamilton, his commitments away from F1 see him travelling the world between races, something that left the late former Mercedes non-executive chairman Lauda dumbfounded.

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Wolff himself missed races last season due to the increased workload and asked if it surprised him how much travelling is completed by Hamilton, speaking to GPFans in an end-of-season interview, Wolff said: "When we met, I had the same kind of feeling - how is that possible?

"I remember Niki saying to me in Singapore before he put in this astonishing performance, that Lewis had basically travelled around the world.

"He'd been in Shanghai to launch his fashion collection, went to Los Angeles, went to New York, back to London, and then to Singapore, and Niki said 'How can you allow that?', and I said 'Let's wait and see'."

Hamilton able to regenerate - Wolff

Hamilton duly delivered what is widely regarded as one of greatest pole laps in F1 history ahead of the 2018 race around the Marina Bay street circuit.

Highlighting Hamilton's powers of recovery, Wolff added: "He is great because whenever we fly together, he steps on the plane and sleeps, whether it's day or night.

"Whatever the situation, he is very good at regenerating. He's a real phenomenon.

"But we are all different in terms of how we relax, how we regenerate when travelling, in terms of getting different impulses from different countries, from different people in roles or jobs.

"That's something that helps him to regenerate, while another person needs to be at home and lie on the sofa, so we are all different in that respect."

Additional reporting by Ewan Gale