"Adversity only makes you stronger" - Lewis Hamilton reflects on first half of 2022 F1 season in a struggling Mercedes car

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that the first half of the season was a bit disappointing but it is this adversity that leads to growth and improvement and makes everyone stronger.

Talking to Heikki Kovalainen while getting interviewed by Viaplay, Lewis Hamilton reflected on the subdued season as compared to what Mercedes has been used to in the turbo-hybrid era.

The Mercedes driver admitted it's not been a perfect season for the team in any which way. He said,

"I think it's definitely not been perfect. I've definitely not been perfect in the background. I definitely would say it's been a struggle, particularly off the end of last year, so it's been a real kind of odd kind of growth process. I've tried a lot of things with the car and experiments, and it's often caught us out. I've struggled with feeling comfortable in the car this year."

Lewis Hamilton also touched on how he was now leading the car than the car leading him and how he was now on top of the problems that plagued him earlier in the season, saying,

"To finally be in a place where that's not the case... I'm in a more kind of leading position with the car now, rather than it leading me. It's been good. I think also there's people in our team that have been here for many, many years, even before our success, and then there's people that are new to the team, who have been here only with the wins, so this is a new experience for them also."

In the end, he also added that,

"I think for anybody, it's a good experience to have. The adversity only makes you stronger. It's the failures, I think, that truly make us strong."

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Lewis Hamilton reflects on a tough winter after the Abu Dhabi debacle

Lewis Hamilton reflected on what was a tough winter for him after losing the title in the fashion that he did. He talked about how he kept himself away from the phone and spent time with the family to get his mind over these things.

Talking about the winter, Lewis Hamilton said,

"It was definitely tough. My winter was a lot of self-reflection... I was surrounded by my family, that was the most beautiful thing. My family really, really reacted and all came around me. I wasn't on my phone, I wasn't on social media... I was just playing with the kids, building snowmen. We were playing in the water, playing in the waves."

Lewis Hamilton did admit it was tough to accept the fact that Mercedes did not have a car to compete for the title this season. He said,

"I continued to train, because that was kind of healthy for my mindset, and a lot of thinking, kind of, 'What do I want to do next? How do I want to take this?' Then, to turn the negative into a positive and be like, 'Okay, I'm gonna come back and fight,' and then to not have the ability to be able to fight back, and regain what I had fought for last year, has definitely been tough."

It's always interesting to hear what goes on in the mind of someone as accomplished as Lewis Hamilton and how he dealt with such a huge setback throughout his career.