Lewis Hamilton wants to be “kinder to myself” while maintaining high goals

Lewis Hamilton has opened up about how he's planning on being nicer to himself this year. Amidst his debut season with the Prancing Horses, the Brit plans to keep in mind that he's got more than a few titles under his belt over his career in the sport. Hamilton explained how he has very high standards set for himself, which he attributes to being one of the reasons why he's got to where he is in his life but is looking to change things.

Speaking with SkySports, the Ferrari driver explained:

“I have high expectations for myself — but that’s how I got to where I am. I’m definitely in the phase of my life where I need to be kinder to myself. I have to remind myself that I’ve actually won a lot of championships.”

Lewis Hamilton has secured seven championships so far during his career in Formula 1. His first came in his second-ever season, driving for the McLaren outfit and beating out Felipe Massa for the 2008 title by a single point. After a string of fourth and fifth-place finishes in the standings, he would secure back-to-back titles in 2014 and 2015, before losing out in 2016 to his Mercedes teammate, Nico Rosberg. From 2017 to 2020, Hamilton would get back on a roll and end up matching the record of Michael Schumacher.

In 2021, he got close again, but lost out in the season finale to Max Verstappen, who has gone on to secure four consecutive titles since then.

After seven races of 2025, Lewis Hamilton currently sits in sixth place in the battle for this year's title. After only securing podiums at the Sprint races in China and Miami and staying below P5 for most of the season, he put in his strongest finish this past Sunday at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, where the British driver crossed the checkered flag to take fourth place.

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Lewis Hamilton describes the "great feeling" after Imola

Lewis Hamilton during the Formula 1 AWS Gran Premio del Made in Italy e dell'Emilia-Romagna 2025 in Imola, Italy, on May 18, 2025 - Source: Getty

Lewis Hamilton put in his best performance driving a red car at this past weekend's Imola Grand Prix, where he managed to make it up to P4 after starting in 12th place for the event. Speaking later, the 40-year-old explained how amazing it was to have been able to get such a solid finish and shared that it was one of his best races.

“I would say for me, I don’t remember the last time I had a race like that where you’re moving forwards. I’m sure there was one maybe last year, but this one’s different obviously because I’m in the red car and I haven’t done that yet, so to finally have that connection, that synergy with the car today and progressing was a really great feeling.” [via F1]

Hamilton's teammate, Charles Leclerc, started ahead of him in P11 and finished the race in P6.