Hamilton 'Most Naturally Talented Driver' Says Williams Team Principal

Thursday, 25 January 2024 at 13:00

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Williams's team principal, James Vowles, reflected on working with the seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton as he said he is the most naturally gifted driver he has worked with.

James Vowles became part of the Williams F1 team at the beginning of the 2023 season. However, he has been part of Mercedes ever since the team was established in 2010 until 2022.

Throughout this time, the team principal had the opportunity to work closely with and witness the greatness of the seven-time World Champion Lewis Hamilton. The 44-year-old said on the High-Performance Podcast:

"Lewis [Hamilton], when he joined us, was and still is today, within my Mercedes career, the most naturally talented driver that I had worked with, including Michael [Schumacher]."

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This is quite a statement, as the team principal worked with multiple World Champions in his career, including Jacques Villeneuve, Jenson Button, Michael Schumacher, Lewis Hamilton, and Nico Rosberg.

"Just so much natural talent. The journey we took him on was it isn’t we’ll win championships together."

Vowles had the opportunity to observe the differences between Rosberg and Hamilton, and he famously said what took Rosberg 1000 laps to achieve, Hamilton could do in just two... such is his talent.

The British team principal also said he could see a shift in the approach of the 39-year-old driver nowadays as he doesn't really have the car to compete for the championship.

"If you speak to him today, it’s migrated to he accepts that the second-places and the third-places are how you win the championship and building and working with the team on the days when you can’t win the race will give you far more reward than pushing everyone away in order to win that single race out of it."

Mercedes's technical director recently said Hamilton's success is not really in his hands at this point as he is very dependent on the car that he will be given.

Do you think Mercedes has the ability to build the car that would allow Hamilton to compete for the Championship in the 2024 season?