Lewis Hamilton and his former performance coach Angela Cullen parted ways at the start of the 2023 season, following a professional relationship of about seven years. Almost two years after leaving F1, she has revealed what pushed her to make such a decision.
“For me, coming into motorsport, most people who are involved here are about the cars whereas I’m about the driver and the performance of the driver”, said Cullen according to Speedweek. Cullen then explained how she wanted to move away from Motorsports and hence decided to quit F1.
#F1 | Lewis Hamilton on Angela Cullen: “I think she’s a healer. She’s a positive person. Her purpose is to bring love to everyone that she meets, which she does.”
“I think she’s really enjoying [working in IndyCar] a different environment, but still racing. And I think from her… pic.twitter.com/OHNzSqv2am
— deni (@fiagirly) May 3, 2024
However, after taking a year off from F1, she ended up returning to motorsports. Cullen is now working alongside IndyCar driver Marcus Armstrong.
Cullen has been working in high-performance sports for 25 years now. Prior to her F1 job, she worked with Olympians. She started by working with 100 and 200-metre sprinters for the British Olympic team.
She fondly discussed the 2004 Athens Olympics that she attended as Britain got the Gold Medal. She then joined Hintsa Performance in 2015 and it was through them that she connected with Hamilton.
During her year away from Motorsports, Cullen took multiple vacations and tried various adventure sports. Most of these seem to be inspired by Hamilton’s interests.
During her time off, Cullen tried her hand out at surfing, skiing, skydiving, and even took some meditation classes. Cullen posted about all these on her Instagram account. However, even in her time away from F1, she continued to support Hamilton and even posted stories about the British driver.
Hamilton believes Cullen now belongs in motorsports
Cullen and Hamilton were inseparable on the track as she would follow the British driver everywhere. The two would enter the paddock together, and she would also check up on the British driver’s condition after exhausting races.
Although Cullen left Hamilton and is back in Motorsports, the Mercedes driver had nothing but good things to say about her. The two still keep in touch as they’ve been through a lot together.
According to Si, Hamilton said, “I think she’s really enjoying a different environment. But still racing. From her time here, she became such a passionate racing fan. Once you catch the bug, it’s hard to get out of it. Why should she? She belongs. She belongs in the sport. She’s definitely very, very happy right now.”
During her interview, Cullen explained how Armstrong invited her to attend an IndyCar race. Once she was there, she fell in love with the sport and since then, she has been spotted multiple times on the track.
