“How he appears to me is he is in great form, very positive, motivated, energised,” said team boss Toto Wolff of Hamilton. “Maybe the best so far I’ve seen in those 10 years after the winter? And he knows what he has with the team.
“We won eight constructors’ titles in a row – and I’m not saying anything that you don’t know – and we got it wrong last year. So the capability is there, and we just need to continue to develop like we’ve done last season. I don’t think it plays in Lewis’ mind, any doubt that the team can perform.”
Wolff said often last year that you learn in adversity, and thus the struggles with the W13 would only make the team stronger in the long run. It’s a philosophy that Hamilton agrees with.
“Well, I think ultimately, and it applies to everything in life and every genre of job, through difficult times, through failure, is where you gain the most strength,” said the former champion.
“That’s when you have to analyse and be critical of yourself. And that’s for sure the time that you grow stronger. So last year was a year of strengthening for us, even though from the outside, it was not a great year for us.
“But I think it was a time when we all had to dig deeper. If you look at just everyone showing their vulnerable side, everyone having to deal with the failure in their own way, but also as a team.
“And so I do think that I’m proud of how we got through it. And I’m proud of how we came together. And I do think that it set us up for a much, much better future. We’ve had to change things back in the factory in how we do things, and how we go about things, which I think will help us in the long run.”
It’s not just the team that has learned. One of Hamilton’s great strengths is that he has never rested on his laurels, and he has evolved as a driver both on and off track over the years.
“If I was doing something differently, I wouldn’t tell you necessarily!,” he joked. “I think not only do we have to look at ourselves as a team and how we function, but ultimately, I’m hired by the team.
“I have to look at how I operate, how I communicate, how I use my time and how I deliver results. So I continue to be very critical of myself to be able to understand where the bar is. The goalposts are moving all the time.
“But how you can evolve as a driver, that’s something I’m very, very focused on. I’ve done more simulator running than I’ve ever done for the past 18 months. More time with the engineers, more going over data, and just continuously looking to see how you can evolve as a driver.
“And on the other side of things it’s the mental and the physical side, just continuing to try to evolve, working with different people.
“I don’t want to highlight what areas, but just on the physical and mental side of things there’s so much great research out there of how you can advance your body, how you can be more focused, and practices that you can take into your daily life.
“So there’s things like that that I’ve been working on trying to adopt. And yeah, we’ll see how that works.”