Hamilton's 'Phobia' Drove Mercedes Forward According To Shovlin

Thursday, 02 January 2025 at 16:25

Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin outlined a unique "phobia" that makes Lewis Hamilton so special for an F1 team.

On January 1st, 2025, Lewis Hamilton's contract with Mercedes officially ended, and a new contract with Ferrari came right into effect for the 39-year-old.

Though he joins a new team and hopes to win at least one more title, the seven-time world champion does not have time to repeat his incredible success with Mercedes—eight contractors' championship titles in a row.

In the German F1 team, he will be missed dearly. Mercedes's trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin described for the New York Times what makes the seven-time world champion so unique:

"Well, there are no other drivers like him, so you could definitely say he is unique, from that point of view."

"He's good fun to work with. He's committed to success, as we all are, and in a team, that's what you would ask of everybody."

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"But Lewis has got his own, it's almost like a phobia of losing that drives his work ethic."

"And that's great, because when you get a driver who brings that to the team, they are endlessly pushing, endlessly wanting to improve. And it brings an awful lot of energy to the team."

This Lewis Hamilton's trait is something that Ferrari team principal, Fred Vasseur will be looking to utilize. One more crucial thing that Vasseur thinks the seven-time world champion will bring to his team is attention to detail. Shovlin continued:

"He's the only driver I can think of that I've work with where it manifests itself to such a degree. No good drivers like losing, they all hate it. That's absolutely standard."