“I Didn’t Leave My Hotel, Hardly Ate” – How Lewis Hamilton Struggled With Defeats in F1

Winning and Losing, it’s always been a part of Formula 1. The unpredictability of the sport is what makes F1, the exciting spectacle that it is. But it’s not always easy dealing with defeat in F1, even if you’re one of the best in the business. Lewis Hamilton revealed how he dealt with having bad days at the office and its extreme effects.

Lewis Hamilton on his dealing with failure

Today, Lewis Hamilton rarely makes any mistakes or has a bad race in the sport. It’s partly due to his ability as a racer and also because of the dominant Mercedes car he drives. But early on, Hamilton had his share of problems – some because of his mistakes while others were sheer bad luck.

But the reigning Champion had a difficult time dealing with bad races and opened up on the negative aftermath. After a bad result at the 2008 Japanese Grand Prix, Hamilton apparently, locked himself in a hotel room for many days.  The 6 times World Champion didn’t eat for days on end and was in a dark place. 

Speaking to Graham Bensinger, Hamilton said:

“I remember after that race, I would just have like the biggest headache and just like you’re under the biggest dark cloud”
“(I) was in my hotel room for three days and I didn’t leave my hotel, I didn’t eat, hardly ate”
“I just stayed in silence and I guess just trying to wiggle my way out of this negative headspace anyways I came back and won the next race”

Hamilton revealed that he used to take days or even weeks to move on from failures.

“What the point is, I think in life and I’m sure many people do it, you know, where you hold on to things”
“You hold on to things and you dwell on thigs”
“And at the point, at the time in my life, I was so stubborn and so set in my ways,
“I couldn’t get past things”
“Sometimes it’ll take days, weeks to get past failure because you train so hard, you’ve don’t it a million times”

Hamilton went on to add that he was past those “failures” and that the bad moments helped him become a better driver.

Source: ourlastgame.com