Relaxed and free, Hamilton does not comment on Sutil’s remarks

After a relatively disappointing 2011 season, despite three wins, Lewis Hamilton, who was heavily criticized for his behavior last year, approaches 2012 determined to turn things around and make people forget this rough patch: « It’s always great to take a step back, to change the scenery. What’s great about Formula One is that you start each season on completely new ground, everyone starts from scratch, and that’s always motivated me. »

For this, the 2008 world champion took advantage of the off-season to take stock and spend time with his loved ones: “I think it was a fantastic winter during which I spent time with my friends, family, and I really got to relax. I took a break the first week during which I did a bit of skiing and then I ate pancakes and all those kinds of things that I said I wouldn’t do,” the Briton told Reuters after the launch of his 2012 car, the MP4-27. “Then, I began quite an intense preparation and sat down to analyze the past year and some things in my personal life that didn’t go as well as they could have, and I worked on fixing them. Today, I feel very fresh in my mind and free from, perhaps, all the burdens that weighed on me last year.”

Many observers have pointed out, to explain the difficulties faced by the McLaren driver in 2011, the role played by his entourage, nonexistent for some, unsuited to the support of an athlete for others. At the end of the season, Lewis Hamilton notably seemed to suffer from the aftermath of his breakup with Nicole Scherzinger and made good resolutions on this subject for 2012: « What I decided this year is to stay focused on what’s most important: racing! » an approach already claimed by Jenson Button who, in 2010, separated from his partner, Jessica Michibata, to focus on racing, before reversing his decision a few months later.

For the first time in his career, outpaced by his teammate, Jenson Button, and sometimes even challenged within his own team according to some reports, Lewis Hamilton remains one of the bookmakers’ favorites to compete with Sebastian Vettel. Thus, while the German has odds of 11 to 10, Fernando Alonso is credited with odds of 4 to 1, and Lewis Hamilton with 5 to 1, better than Jenson Button (7 to 1) or even Mark Webber (12 to 1): « I want to win every race and I think I can do it. […] I think if the car is where we hope it will be, there is nothing that can stop us from achieving it. The only thing that stands in your way is your mind and your own insecurities or the obstacles you impose on yourself. But I think the most important thing is to manage to set that aside, to overcome them, and I think I’ve achieved that. I feel stronger than I was particularly a few months ago, but also more than I was at the start of last season. »

But, barely has the 2012 season not yet started, the future of the McLaren driver – under contract with Woking until the end of the year – is already stirring the media: “It’s going to get a lot of attention,” admits the Briton before assuring that, for now, he is focusing solely on preparing for the upcoming season. “I think that, possibly after the first races, it’s probably something we will want to settle so that we can focus on the rest of the season without the team being concerned about it and without it being something we carry with us, so that you [editor’s note: the media] don’t ask questions about it anymore.”

But the media are full of questions, and, when asked to react by Reuters to Adrian Sutil’s statements, which according to Bild, called him a coward and said he was not a man, it was finally a McLaren team spokesperson who responded: “We were told that Lewis really shouldn’t go there because there could still be an appeal. So, can we move on to the next question.” As for Lewis Hamilton, he followed his team’s advice: “I listen to what he tells me,” he said with a smile, regarding the McLaren spokesperson’s statements.