13/03/2025
NEWS STORY
Revealing that he lives in his own "little bubble", ahead of his Ferrari debut Lewis Hamilton admits that his true pressure comes from within.
Alain Prost, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel are three of the world champions who headed to Maranello expecting to add to their tally of titles. All three failed, indeed, the legendary Frenchman was fired for criticising the team.
Now, as Lewis Hamilton prepares to make his debut in red, the question is whether he will follow in the steps of that illustrious trio, or perhaps repeat the feat of fellow-Briton Nigel Mansell, who won on his debut for the Scuderia.
As he prepares for his first race wearing the legendary Cavallino Rampante, though he carried the weight of far more than a nation on his shoulders, the seven-time world champion insists that the true pressure comes from within himself.
"I think always through the years, the pressure that I put on myself has always been ten times higher than any other pressure that can be put upon me," he told reporters in Melbourne. "I've not joined this team and been made to feel any pressure. I have an expectation for myself.
"I know what I can bring," he continued. "I know I can deliver. I know what it's going to take to do that. And it's just getting your head down and working away. So I come with a very open mind coming in this weekend.
"I don't really read the news and I go for long, long periods of time without social media," he added. "So I'm not being bombarded with all the stuff on social media, so I'm kind living in my own little bubble in my head.
"I'm under no assumptions it will be easy. It is not. I know what I have. I don't feel the pressure, the outside pressure is non-existent for me. The pressure is from within and what I want to achieve.
"I'm not here to prove anything to anybody. I don't feel I have to do anything, I've been here a long, long time and done it time and time again. I know what it takes to do a good job and that's what I want to deliver for myself, my family and for this team that I really believe deserve success.
"When you see such a large group of people who are clearly so passionate and driven and have maybe not had as much success as they would like or deserve, you just want to work and contribute to doing that."
Asked specifically about adapting to his new team, he said: "Coming into Ferrari power, it's something quite new, different vibration, different feel, different way of working. The whole team works completely differently.
"I was just sitting just looking at like the race trace from last year and it's upside down compared to the previous ones! I don't understand at all," he laughed.
"You're looking at things from a different perspective, which makes it exciting and challenging. This is the most exciting period of my life, so I'm really just enjoying it and I'm so excited to get in the car tomorrow."