“She has been one of the greatest things that’s happened to me in my life”- Lewis Hamilton praises his physio as the Briton racer explains her role.
Lewis Hamilton by the end of the season will become arguably the most successful Formula 1 driver ever. The Briton publically often gives credits to his team working behind wheels.
But in the latest interaction, he has credited his performance coach Angela Cullen, who is usually seen around Hamilton before and after the race, and she is responsible for the overall fitness of Hamilton to enhance his performance on the track.
“People for sure won’t understand it, naturally, because they see it from a distance, but she has been one of the greatest things that’s happened to me in my life,” said Hamilton.
“I’ve been fortunate to work with a lot of people… and she’s the single hardest-working woman that I get to be around. “She’s focused, selfless, and she makes my weekends peaceful,” Hamilton added.
“Every day I wake up, whatever time it is, she’s just positive – never a single day has she been negative, so that’s very, very important. I think it’s important in life to put positive people around you.”
“You can’t be going around with deadweights, you can’t be going around with people who don’t inspire you to be better and lift you up when you’re down. You need to be around people who can do that for you, and she’s one of them.”
Different from other trainers
Hamilton further went onto reveal that the added advantage of having Cullen is that her role is different from usual F1 trainers and her involvement has helped hi overcome niggling injuries.
“When you come into Formula 1, there’s this whole idea of physios, but a lot of them, or some of them, are just trainers,” said Hamilton. “They still take on the title of ‘physio’ – but a physio is a physiotherapist, and for years, I’d always had a male trainer, but I noticed that I was always having different problems.
“I’d have, like, muscle tightness in my neck, or I’d have problems with my lower back, or glute, whatever it might be, and my trainer could never fix it.”
“So you’d have to just deal with it through the weekend and I was like, ‘This doesn’t make sense. I don’t need to train on the weekends.’ So I was like, ‘I need to find a physio.’
“Angela had done a bit of work on me back home, so I spoke to her and asked her, ‘Would you like to come on the road with me?’ and little did I know that we would have the greatest partnership.”
