Throughout his career, Lewis Hamilton has often stressed that his priority is to stay as clean as possible, but is he really?
Despite the crash at Silverstone with Max Verstappen, Hamilton has clarified his top-most priority in the race – to stay clean. The Briton suffered a 10-second penalty after the collision, but he still won the race.
However, on multiple occasions, the seven-time World Champion has toned down the aggression on the track this season. For instance, in Imola and Sao Paulo, he let go of the throttle while battling the Dutchman.
Verstappen and Hamilton collide on lap one at Silverstone. Who’s fault is it? #silverstone pic.twitter.com/dEqi3gndnz
— Dokta Stockmann (@Tai_japh) July 18, 2021
When asked, he said that it is better to play safe against such aggressive drivers. In an interview with Motorsport-Total, Hamilton revealed that his father is one of the biggest reasons behind his approach.
He never prefers to take the ugly route on the track. He said, “That’s how my father raised me. He said I should always give the answer on the track.”
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Lewis Hamilton does not follow the footsteps of his idols
The British racing driver idolizes Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher. Interestingly, none of the two drivers embraced a clean career. Both own a handful of controversial title-deciding moments throughout their F1 career. However, Hamilton prefers to avoid any such aggression.
Moreover, he admitted that he was bullied a lot in school and on track. Consequently, this pushed him to challenge the battles in the right way and not by crashing into others.
“I was bullied as a kid, both at school but also on track, and we wanted to beat them the right way, not by a car falling off or colliding.”
Furthermore, he said that this way, they cannot deny that you are a better driver. “If you have collisions, they can say, oh, yeah, but this happened, this is one tactic that driver has.”
The British racing driver wants to be the cleanest driver through speed, hard work, and determination. So that in the end, there is no questioning his accomplishments.
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