Lewis Hamilton says remembering he loves racing in Formula 1 and having more fun are targets for him as the season resumes at this weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.
The seven-time world champion’s move to Ferrari has yet to yield a podium so far this year, and failing to score points in Hungary left Hamilton particularly downbeat heading into the summer break. After a number of weeks off, Hamilton says he wants to enjoy himself more after feeling the switch to his new team came with added pressures that distracted him from his love of the sport.
“I feel determined to and motivated to [move forward],” Hamilton said. “We are just going to be working, keep our heads down, try to change a few things in our approach and start to enjoy ourselves.
“There’s been so much pressure in the first half of the season, it’s not been the most enjoyable. So I think just remembering that we love what we do, we’re all in this together, and trying to have fun.
“Ultimately, just to get on top of everything, the amount of work we have [done], all the new partners, the amount of shoots we’ve done, getting integrated into a new team… And it’s a big, big team, the biggest brand in our sport as well. So a combination of all those different things has been a lot.
“It’s probably the most important part [to have fun], because that’s the reason I got into this sport. It was fun for me, and I think for anyone in whatever career you’re in, if you’re not enjoying what you’re doing, then why are you doing it?
“There can often be so much noise, you can lose sight of what’s really, really important. I just really want to focus on getting back to that enjoyment. I’ve joined the team that I’ve always dreamed of driving for and there’s been so much noise around that it’s kind of clouded us from getting to enjoy it, so now it’s about moving those things aside and just getting back to focusing on the pure love of what we do.”
Despite his disappointment after the last race in Hungary, Hamilton says the break offered a chance for him to switch off before reflecting on 2025 so far.
“Not much has changed, necessarily, but the good thing is, when you get time to unplug like that, it’s a reset,” he said. “We had time to go through this past week, particularly, to go through where we’ve been, things we want to improve on, processes, and things we want to try and change moving forwards.
“I see a lot of potential. There’s a lot of positives to take from the first [half of the year] even though it didn’t look necessarily the most positive. There’s lots of positives to take from it, which we’ll take forward and try and build on that.”
