Hamilton, who has been racing competitively since he was six years old, said he has also battled with depression as an adult, and has found it difficult to open up about his journey.
Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton battled with depression for years from an early age as he dealt with the pressure of pursuing a career in motor racing and faced bullying at school, the 39-year-old told The Times in an interview.
Hamilton, who has been racing competitively since he was six years old, said he has also battled with depression as an adult, and has found it difficult to open up about his journey.
“I think it was the pressure of the racing and struggling at school. The bullying. I had no one to talk to,” Hamilton said in the interview published on Saturday.
“I’ve struggled with mental health through my life, depression from a very early age when I was, like, 13 … when I was in my twenties I had some really difficult phases.”
Seven-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton battled with depression for years from an early age as he dealt with the pressure of pursuing a career in motor racing and faced bullying at school, the 39-year-old told The Times in an interview https://t.co/ybT6sEo03E
— Reuters (@Reuters) September 30, 2024
Hamilton made his F1 debut in 2007 when he was 21, becoming the first black driver in the series. He won the championship the next year and matched Michael Schumacher’s record of seven championships in 2020.
The Briton said he felt more mature today than he was earlier in his career.
“You’re learning about things that have been passed down to you from your parents, noticing those patterns, how you react to things, how you can change those,” he said.
“So what might have angered me in the past doesn’t anger me today. I am so much more refined.”
Hamilton said he has tried silent retreats to improve his mental health, and while talking to a therapist years ago did not help, he would like to find one in the future.
This past weekend Hamilton said things were okay between him and the Mercedes team, days after criticising their strategy during last weekend’s Singapore GP, in which he finished sixth.
“I battled as hard as I could to fight to go on the medium tyre, but the team continued to suggest that I start on the soft … everyone was on medium,” Hamilton said at the weekend.
The team’s technical director, James Allison acknowledged the mistake, saying it ruined the race for Hamilton, who is sixth in the championship with 174 points, while Red Bull’s Max Verstappen leads with 331.
However, Hamilton took to social media on Saturday to say the soft tyre strategy was a bold and risky move that could have given him an advantage at the start of the race, but did not pay off.
“I know there has been a lot of chat around the last one and our strategy in Singapore, which just didn’t work. When that happens, it’s natural to be frustrated and easy for me to speak out in that frustration,” the Briton wrote on the Instagram app.
“Make no mistake though, things are cool with the team … we’re not afraid of those tricky conversations and challenging moments, which is why we have achieved so much together. We will support each other to the very end.”
Meanwhile, Renault are to stop producing engines from 2026, ending almost half a century of use in F1, the French manufacturer’s Alpine team announced on Monday.
The move had been flagged by Alpine’s former team boss Bruno Famin in July. The team are expected to use Mercedes power units from 2026.
The firm’s F1 engine factory at Viry-Chatillon, near Paris, is to be transformed into an engineering centre for future Renault and Alpine cars.
Reuters and AFP
