Lewis Hamilton recharged and ready: “I remember why I’m here, let’s try to enjoy it” | F1 Dutch GP. Lewis Hamilton arrives at Zandvoort recharged after the summer break.

Lewis Hamilton recharged after the summer break

After the summer holidays, Lewis Hamilton is back on track, fully aware of the challenges awaiting him in the second part of the Formula 1 season. This final phase begins this weekend at Zandvoort, where the seven-time world champion is called to show Ferrari fans – and more importantly himself – that he can still make a difference behind the wheel of a Formula 1 car, regardless of results and a championship standing that clearly offers little to ask for at this stage. Nevertheless, the former Mercedes driver arrived at the traditional Thursday press conference with the determination to “enjoy” his driving more than he has in the first 14 races of the year.

Sir Lewis speaks

“I completely switched off during the summer, and I feel determined and motivated. We will work hard, keep our heads down, try to change some things in our approach, and maybe even start enjoying ourselves,” Lewis Hamilton told several media outlets, including ScuderiaFans.com. “There has been a lot of pressure in this first half of the season, which hasn’t been the most enjoyable. So I think it’s enough to remember that we love what we do, and that we’re all in the same boat. I will try to enjoy myself.”

To truly enjoy himself, however, Hamilton knows it will be necessary to make the SF-25 perform optimally, extracting the most from Ferrari’s technical package after the latest upgrades. “I think we have made a lot of progress and I believe we are slowly starting to improve as a team. We are moving in the right direction, and with the new components that arrived, I think at Spa or something like that, we’ve started to be able to find a better setup. We are gradually extracting, race by race, more and more potential, and I hope this weekend we can perform even better,” he added.

“Have I faced situations of difficulty like this before? Well, many times! It’s never happened – he continued – that I got into the car and immediately started winning. There have always been difficult moments, and I’m the kind of person who doesn’t like to rest on my laurels and stay comfortable. That’s exactly what happened during my long-term relationship with my previous team [Mercedes]. I made this move to a team I truly believe in and I still have confidence in the potential of this team and in what we can achieve together. I think everyone in the team agrees on this, but no one succeeds without first going through those difficult moments. So I welcome this phase and look forward to calmer days ahead,” concluded Lewis Hamilton ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix weekend.