Lewis Hamilton Interview: Insight On Giannis' "no such thing as failure" + Motivation To Keep Racing

So Lewis, I just saw you playing a bit of basketball. It looks like you, that's not your first time, right? You've played a bit before. I played when I was a kid, and I love to play when I can, but I haven't played for ages. Do you get competitive even in those kind of situations? I think it's almost like a sickness. When I lost, I was, yeah, I can't help it. I'm like, damn it. I'm like, rerun it. All I could think of was like, can I get, can I get them to rerun it? But and then at the end, I stayed and I just kept hitting just to get past that competitive part of me. So, yeah, it looked good at the end. At the end, it looked like you were, yeah, but it should be when the pressure was on. I should have been good. All I can say is we had George do it a couple of years ago, and you're better than George. So, oh, yeah, yeah. I mean, if I wasn't, I would be, it would be a huge letdown on that side of things. Like I grew up playing basketball. I love basketball, so I follow it. George definitely doesn't. Yeah. I don't know what other sport George, like maybe soccer or something like that, but. Well, we saw you two playing a bit of table tennis. That looked competitive. Oh, yeah, yeah. I need to get better at that as well. So, yeah, he had a ping pong table like we made a ping, like just a desk. Yeah. And then he bought his own ping pong like net. So, yeah, I think we have to re-up that game. I definitely need to get better at ping pong. So that's the one thing he's got on you, maybe? At the moment, he's killing me at, he beat me. Well, not killing me, but he beat me at ping pong. So I definitely need to work on that. Yeah, I can see that. We'll get a, hopefully, maybe we'll get a table more frequently and then we'll, we'll see how it is at the end of the year. Oh, it's great content as well. Seeing you two do something. Yeah, it's good fun. Yeah. While we're on the subject of basketball or back on the subject of basketball, I saw you posted Yanis's piece in the press conference where he talks about failure and the difference, the very big difference between failure and steps to make progress. What did that say to you? Because obviously it's something which you wanted to put back out there as well. I reposted it because I just I felt. I've been in that position. And I could feel the frustration. I knew exactly how how it is like that, because when you're working towards something, it's it's all about success is made up of a ton of failures. You know, you fail far more than you do succeed. And I think people are just a little bit complacent. Sometimes people are complacent when they're asking you questions. How does it feel to be failing? You know, like it's it's not really that that there are no mistakes. There are no lessons, I keep saying. And you can't always win, you know, but it's how you it's not how you fall. It's how you get back up. It's how you you show up a day in, day out and train and continue to try to get to wherever it is you're trying to get to, which is obviously the top. And I thought it was really inspiration. I thought he just spoke very, very well. Very I think he just he was very elegant with how he put it down. Because we tend to only see the success, the tip of the iceberg, if you like. There must be so much that goes on being a pro athlete to get to that point. And obviously, like you say, you know, failure is what you like along the way, but it's all steps towards something important, right? Yeah, exactly. And but also people, I mean, the the emotional stress you go through, you know, when you're working with a team, the emotional feelings you go through, the physical where where you're just constantly, you know, having to dig deep and all sportsmen and women out there will know what it's like. It's great to see there's so many people so super competitive. But yeah, it's it's it's obviously a different when you see them from our side of the table, when you're on the when you're on their side, being asked questions and and you're the one that's like you're going through all this stuff on the right in the spotlight as well. I feel sometimes it's yes, difficult for people to understand, I guess. Yeah, I mean, right now, obviously, things aren't quite where you want it, but your motivation is still there. We we heard you get out the car in Baku and you were saying, I don't just want one more year. I want several more years here. So where's that coming from inside you? I think, well, I mean, I love what I what I do. I mean, racing is it's been my life. Two thirds of my life is I've been racing. So I'm never there's never going to be a day that I don't. I'm always going to be watching racing. I was always going to be I will always be a driver till I die. Right. I think the the seasons are very long. It's it's a grueling career, but it's also it gives so much. But I think I don't know. I just I'm loving working with my team and continuing. I'm still loving racing. And I love being in battle on track. And when you can really tap into when you get in the zone where you're really on top of everything, there's there's a special synergy that you have, which is hard to find. And, you know, I'm 38, but I feel I feel younger than ever. I feel I'm training better than I've ever trained before. I feel like I'm in a great place. So I don't see why I would want to stop anytime soon. And there's a lot more I want to do within the sport as the sport continues to grow the work that we're doing, not only within the sport, but outside in terms of the impact. And working here today with IWC and Dibio, getting young kids an opportunity to get into STEM from underserved communities. That's some incredible work. And I want to be a part of that. It's really tied in with what you tried to do for Mission 44. And you were saying the other day that you'd like to expand it to the US. You'd like to expand it to Africa. Can you talk about what the plans are there? Yeah, Mission 44. We're working on a plan to expand it to. I'd love to bring it to the States and I'd love to do some work. You know, with my trip to Africa and discovering more about my heritage within Africa, I see there's so much opportunity out there for kids. And it's really hard to believe it if you can't see it. You know, so it's creating an opportunity for these kids. Every kid deserves an opportunity, a good education. Every kid should understand what STEM could lead to. And it's not just one job. And and I think there's just a lot of that. And also just I'm really focused on just transforming the lives of young underserved kids. That's that's like what drives me when I'm in the car. If I can get on the podium and get first and I have a bigger platform to push that narrative and and work with great brands like IWC to to to actually make impact when we are in these places. And it's not just about a product. It's actually about a real story in the journey that we're on. Yeah, sounds cool. Just to go back to what you were saying earlier about getting an F1 car. There's nothing quite like it. You have done some pretty cool things. You've been in a fighter jet. You've done. Yeah. Has anything ever come close to that feeling of being in a car? Can anything come closer? I'm sure there will be. I think you can always it's all about mindset, right? I think I mean, when I'm skydiving, you can get close to the excitement run that you get. But for me, because it's what I do racing a car, there's something I'm able to do in the car that I will never be able to that. I don't know if I've not been able to tap in in anything else. I'm not as good at anything else than I am at that connection I have with the wheels and in the engine. And so, no, I don't think there's anything that matches that. But I'm still all these other little things I do fill in the gaps when, you know, when we're not racing every week, every day. Right. So in the winter break, when I'm surfing. Yeah, it's perfect. It's just enough. It's not too hardcore for me unless I get on the crazy big waves. Skydiving. Yeah, I like trying everything. Can you explain why? This is a stupid question away, but you explain why you're so good in the car, what you've tried with these other things. You know, you're good at it, but you're not exceptional. You're not like the number one in the world. Can you explain what it is about you and four wheels, steering wheel, two pedals? They just click so well. I think it's a hard one to read. It's hard for, I think, any body that's good at something to explain. There's the innate ability naturally that I was definitely born with the ability. I think it's it's how you perceive things in your depth perception. It's how you're able to your mind's have to compute. Like I'm not great in a classroom. I can't sit in the meeting and come up with you know, I can't. I'm not great at maths. I can't come up with the, you know, solve the greatest equations. I can't draw an amazing art. But when I'm in the car, that's like my paintbrush and I can. It just flows out of me. I think it's it's it's always meant to be. That's what I'm supposed to do. And there's something when you when you're at the edge, when you're at the hundred, you know, close to 100 percent, just over 100 percent capacity within the car, the way the brains function and everything quietens down. And you're in a realm that that's I mean, you feel like you're on your own in that realm, but it feels like it transcends you to some other part of the universe for a second. You know, it's really, really strange experience, but pretty powerful. Sounds a little bit like what Edson Senna used to say about that out of body experience, all of a sudden a lap around Monaco. He's seeing it from almost a different perspective than. Yeah, well, I quote that I really, I really loved. I think is that we're not humans having a spiritual experience. We're spirits having a human experience. And so, yeah, so just thinking how big the universe is and just, you know, we're all shining stars. And I think for me, I'm just trying to be the best I can be with what I have. This is what I was meant to do. This is what I was born to do. And it won't last forever. You know, there's going to be lots of young up and coming bright stars. I love seeing these kids here because I'm like, I'm so excited about their future, about what they could do. And I love that to be has given them an opportunity to get into STEM, which they may have not known that that was important for them. And and what that could lead to, you know, in 15, 20 years time, what they'll next be doing. They'll be the next leaders, hopefully within whether it's government game changes, maybe they'll be working at, you know, an event like this, which is even more diverse and encouraging an even bigger audience of young kids to get into to have better education. Yeah, I hope so. One last question on Miami. I remember I think it was around 2017 first race of the season. Liberty had just taken over the sport and you're asked, where would you like to race anywhere in the world? You said Miami. Danny Ricardo said Las Vegas. And here we are. How cool is that? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I've been yeah, I've been chatting about having a race in Miami and the next one I've been talking about is South Africa. And that's what I'm pushing for in the background. So hopefully you'll see that comes to light soon as well. And that's a real big dream for me to to have raced in South Africa and in Africa during my career is is a huge, huge dream for me. So I know we have a big a big following out there. I have a big following out there. And I know a lot of people into Formula One now there. So and that would be amazing, because when we go the work we're doing here with IWC and De Beers dreams, just imagine what we could be doing when we're in South Africa, you know, and the work that needs to be done there. And and also just highlighting just how beautiful that continent is. So I'll be pushing for that. Is that something you're talking with Stefano and trying to help out? I'm pushing as hard as I can in the background of going high up, high up to make sure we have that race happen. I hope it happens. All right. Well, thank you very much. Thank you.