"To be the best, you have to be hungry"- Lewis Hamilton on what inspires him throughout his F1 career

Lewis Hamilton has stressed the correlation between being the best and having an insatiable appetite for success, admitting they both go hand in hand for him.

The Briton has not had a season as tough as this current one in more than a decade after narrowly missing out on what would have been an unprecedented eighth F1 Drivers' World Championship.

Mercedes have not come up with the best interpretation of the 2022 F1 regulations and are yet to unlock the true potential of the W13. This has shown in the team's results in general and Lewis Hamilton's performances in particular.

The seven-time world champion's highest qualifying position has been P4 this year and he has never gone this far into a campaign without recording a win. Lewis Hamilton's record of having a win in every F1 season he has competed in is also in jeopardy.

Despite the obvious hurdles in his path, the Briton remains undaunted. In a pre-recorded interview session with interns from Petronas Motorsport, Hamilton opened up on how he has kept himself going ever since the start of his F1 career. The 37-year-old said:

"We had quite a difficult few months at the end of this last season. And I think, I wasn't necessarily seeking inspiration. I was trying to find out whether I still wanted... because you have to be hungry. To be the best, you have to be hungry. You have to be willing to go further than everybody else."

The Mercedes man emphasized the need to go the extra mile in the pursuit of greatness, adding:

"You need to be willing to put more time in. Sacrifice more than anybody else is willing to sacrifice. And in order to get there, it takes preparation. As I said, the studying to keep up with all these engineers is not easy. And I think for me after all these years, I want to make sure I've still got that hunger. If not then. I don't want to do this anymore. I'm here to win."

He came close to a win last time around at Zandvoort during the 2022 F1 Dutch GP before Mercedes' strategy failed him on the day.

---

Martin Brundle defends Lewis Hamilton from Fernando Alonso's criticism, calls him 'one of the fairest and cleanest drivers'

After Lewis Hamilton was called an 'idiot' by Fernando Alonso for crashing into the Spaniard on the opening lap of the 2022 F1 Belgian GP, former F1 driver Martin Brundle defended Hamilton and called the comments unfair.

The seven-time world champion started in P4 and found himself wheel-to-wheel with Alonso by the time the pair had reached the end of the Kemmel straight. Hamilton, however, did not leave enough space for his former teammate and ended up colliding before subsequently retiring for the want of an uncharacteristic error.

Alonso sounded off on the radio, accusing Hamilton of being incapable of racing unless he started at the top of the grid, as he has done for the majority of his career with Mercedes.

In his column for Sky Sports, Brundle batted for his compatriot when he discussed the incident between the two world champions, where he wrote:

“Mercedes just couldn’t switch their tyres on in qualifying but would undoubtedly be better in a warm dry race. Lewis Hamilton didn’t get a chance to find out because of a rare error into the Les Combes chicane when he simply pinched into the side of Fernando Alonso whilst trying to go around the outside, and flying through the air.”

The Sky pundit then called Lewis Hamilton one of the fairest and cleanest drivers in the history of the sport. Brundle then cast his mind back to the 2021 F1 Sao Paolo GP when the Briton overcame a 25-place grid penalty on a sprint weekend to win the feature race. He wrote:

“Fernando’s radio comments, albeit fuelled by anger and adrenaline, about Lewis only being able to win from the front were in my opinion wholly inaccurate and unfair. Lewis is one of the fairest and cleanest drivers in the history of F1, he hasn’t needed to resort to too many professional fouls given his relentless speed, and just cast your mind back to Brazil last year to remember how he can scythe through the field. Twice.”

Lewis Hamilton was also issued a warning by the FIA for not following the safety protocol and visiting the medical tent after his DNF at Spa, as is required by the rule book.