Why ANGELA CULLEN left LEWIS HAMILTON?

G'day. Lewis Hamilton and Angela Cullen are back together for season 2025. But why did the New Zealand physio spend nearly two years away from F1? Stick around to find out. Angela Cullen is a New Zealand physiotherapist who worked alongside Lewis Hamilton from 2015 to 2023, before the pair split after the first race of 23. What ensued for Lewis was two years of disappointing results. But ten days prior to Lewis' first run on track with Ferrari, rumours surfaced about Angela reuniting with the seven-time world driver's champion. What started this rumour? An Insta post where Angela was wearing a red race suit with a number 44 sign in the background. Around the same time, Lewis posted a pic of him skiing in red as well. That was all it took to get tongues wagging about a potential reunion. And it turns out that where there was smoke, there was indeed fire. Because on the morning of the Fiorano test, sources close to the seven-time world champ confirmed to me Later that day, this fuzzy screenshot of her in the back of the Fiorano garage emerged, and at day's end, this put paid to any doubt. It was official. She was back. I caught up with Angela in Bahrain prior to testing, picking up Lewis' pass. She said she was excited about the return. One thing that had changed, though, was previously Angela would arrive with Lewis, sometimes even driving. During testing, though, she came in much earlier than him and set about prepping for the day, sometimes grabbing his breakfast from the team kitchen and having it ready in his room. Let's go back to 2023, Bahrain. Here she was by Lewis' side, business as usual, so we thought. But then prior to the next race, Lewis and Angela announced with simultaneous social media posts that they were parting ways. This shook everyone. No one saw it coming. And it came at a very odd time, one race into the 23 season. This was the last pic I took of her in Bahrain. So what had happened? Well, she didn't resign and Mercedes didn't push her. To answer that question, we need to go back a little with Team Lewis. From 2016 to 21, he was managed by this man, Mark Hines, an ex-British racing driver and a friend from junior racing. Then Lewis appointed a company called Copper, managed by Penny Tho, to represent him. Here's the first pics of Angela and Penny in Bahrain in 2021. Penny was a young achiever and was at the helm from 21 to the end of 23. She oversaw every aspect of Team Lewis, and Penny was in charge at the time that Lewis and Angela parted ways. Insiders I've spoken to suggested that Penny felt that it was time for a change for Lewis. It was decided then that Steve-O from Mercedes would take over the duties that Angela performed at the track. So for the remainder of 2023, we saw Steve-O with Lewis in the paddock, in Parc Fermé, on the grid. But he wasn't a trainer, and he certainly wasn't a physio. Jump forward to Mexico 2023, and this is the last picture I took of Penny at the track, because shortly after, Lewis re-appointed Mark to run the show. Mark at the time was actually managing another F1 driver, this fellow, Jokwon New. So Mark was involved in Lewis's deal with Ferrari, and once that deal was done, he appointed Perth physio, trainer, Kylie Tomic to work on the fitness and body side of things, and kept Steve-O for the on-track stuff. And then he set about putting together the Project 44 team for 2025 at Ferrari. Rather than having Steve and Kylie split a role that Angela used to do all by herself, it was decided to make Angela an offer. That offer happened around the time of the mid-Ohio IndyCar race in early July. At that time, Angela was working for New Zealand IndyCar driver Marcus Armstrong. Now, I have a lot of time for Marcus. Good-natured, funny, focused on his racing career, and he would have benefited greatly from working with Angela for the 24th season. But at some point, Angela said yes to that offer from Team Lewis, and quietly set about planning for this year. Remember, she'd worked very closely with Lewis for more than eight years. No one knew him better than Angela. It was a powerful pairing, to be sure. She was the only female F1 physio in the paddock. Lewis fans loved her too, and she adored working in F1 with Lewis. She was super popular too. Her Insta following was sizable, and it just kept growing. More than 400,000 in 2023. I'd see her signing autographs, posing for selfies, and then on the work side of things, she'd be his chauffeur, his valet, sometimes security guard. To and from the driver's room, handle his wardrobe, and took care of pretty much everything, leaving Lewis free to just concentrating on the driving. Drive to Survive viewers would have spotted her running behind him while he was on a scooter, and a lot of you took exception to that, saying, oh, why does she have to run? It's no big deal. Other trainers do it with their drivers. From time to time, she'd ride in on the back of the motorcycle with Lewis, in particular to Monaco, and come through the tunnel. She clearly loved her role, and the fans loved it. On the scooter, she's pretty handy as well. I discovered that while I was waiting for Lewis. And she was happy to do a few tricks in front of the media centre there. In my time photographing her and Lewis, they were always together. She'd drop him off sometimes in the car. She'd walk behind him and perhaps even swipe him in through the swipe gates. She'd prepare his gear for track sessions, hold the cooling fan for him in the garage, and during a race, she'd be headphoned up, ready to jump in if he needed a pit stop. One thing's for sure, she was on call from the moment Lewis woke up to the moment he went to bed. Going back to when those rumours surfaced about the pair reuniting, a couple of days prior to that Fiorano test, I contacted Angela, Marcus Armstrong, Mark Hines, and even Kylie Tomich, asking if they could provide some light on the story, but all of those requests went unanswered. And in fact, Angela Cullen took down her Instagram page around that time, I gather, because of the number of people contacting her. And at the time of recording this video, she still is not back on social media. The day prior to Lewis testing at Maranello, various sites were saying her return was imminent. I didn't post something straight away. I waited until the morning of that test when I got absolute confirmation. Then I posted this. Look, it's a photoshopped image of the pair in Ferrari kit. It was my biggest post ever by a factor of two. 4.4 million people saw this. That was more than double the number of my previous biggest post. This shot of Daniel Ricciardo leaving the track in Singapore. And it wasn't just social media that blew up. This was in major newspapers in England. Who cares a lot of people asked in that post? Well, clearly, a lot. So a little bit of background about Angela. She is 50 years of age, 10 years older than Lewis, supremely fit, and worked for a company called Hintzer. That company provides most of the trainers, coaches, physios in the F1 world. They're based in Finland, and they pretty much dominate the market. No one was closer to Lewis in his Mercedes days than Angela. The pair spent so much time together, both at the track and away, even skydiving together. Lewis admitted openly that she was indeed the hardest working woman in F1. And I suggest that few doubt that. Is there an element of superstition with her coming back? He was performing well with her, poorly without her. Maybe he just needed some close colleagues around at a time when he's changing teams and working with brand new people. Whatever the reason, Lewis and Ferrari fans will be hoping that this appointment will be for the good. When he shines, she'll be there to celebrate. And on shitty days, she'll be there to console him. In this cutthroat sport, you need people around you that you know and trust. And in Angela, Lewis has that. Did you know both of them have the same loyalty tattoos? And Angela initiated the move to veganism for Lewis. Roscoe too will be thrilled because she often walked the bulldog at the track. I've seen a couple of comments on posts asking, will she be holding his umbrella again? Probably. It's part of the gig. Although it did set many of you off when you saw pics like this. But other trainers also hold umbrellas for their driver. So I don't think you should read anything into that. As Lewis has stated in the past, I'm incredibly grateful for her. I love her dearly. And now the pair are back together, dressed in red at a new team. Asking her to come and start this new chapter with me and her accepting it was really exciting. And we've been having a blast this past month together. It's been really awesome. I can tell you it was great to see the pair back together in the Bahrain paddock for pre-season testing. And I think we're going to see a more focused, calmer and faster Lewis Hamilton in 2025. Now I know both Lewis and Angela would want you to hit the like button on this video and subscribe. And remember, you can find a whole lot of extra content and merchandise right here. Thanks for watching and stay passionate.