"He hasn't had a serious relationship for a long time because that's not a priority for him"- Lewis Hamilton's success largely because of his commitment to F1, says F1 pundit

F1 pundit Sarah Levinson has claimed that Lewis Hamilton’s unprecedented success in the sport is largely down to his immense commitment and work ethic.

Levinson believes that Hamilton doesn’t let his various passions outside of the sport hamper his ability to perform at the highest level on track, as evidenced by his lack of a serious romantic relationship. Speaking on the podcast Choosing sides: F1, Levinson said:

“Lewis [Hamilton] has a lot of other passions outside of Formula One, but he doesn’t let any of that get in the way of his performance and his success. He hasn’t had a serious relationship in a long time because that’s not a priority for him.”

She added:

“Lewis pulls all-nighters, spending time with his engineers to make sure that the car is right. He spends all of his time with the team at the factory instead of building out his life. He has made himself hard to beat really because of that commitment.”

Contrary to popular belief, Lewis Hamilton is probably one of the most hardworking drivers within the sport, and often gets himself deeply involved in the development and engineering side of things.

Former teammates and team members at Mercedes such as Valtteri Bottas and Paddy Lowe have previously talked extensively about Hamilton’s incredible work ethic, as well as his desire to explore every possible performance avenue that could yield him an advantage over his rivals.

Levinson believes that the seven-time world champion's attitude has allowed him to consistently stay at the front of the grid for so long despite the immense pressure from rivals. She said:

“You see in some of the other teams that are some of the drivers they don’t really care. They’re saying the engineers know best. I am going to let them do what they want, and I will just drive versus Lewis, who gives... Lewis works really closely with his engineers.’’

She added:

“He’s part of every decision that they make. He is fully involved fully invested.”

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Lewis Hamilton responsible for “dampening” Alex Albon’s F1 career

Red Bull’s special advisor Helmut Marko has blamed Lewis Hamilton for “dampening” former Red Bull driver Alex Albon’s F1 career after the Mercedes driver collided with the Thai driver on multiple occasions when the former raced for the Austrian outfit.

The collisions ended Albon’s chances of a potential podium and race victory at different races, which Marko believes were a severe hit to the young driver's confidence. Speaking to Red Bull’s in-house magazine The Red Bulletin, the Austrian said:

“Lewis Hamilton didn’t destroy his career, but he did put a dampener on it. Alex was in second place in Brazil in 2019 when Hamilton drove him off the track. Then Alex wanted to pass Hamilton on the outside at the Red Bull Ring in 2020 but got pushed onto the gravel.”

He added:

“He would have won that race, but he came away empty-handed. He took a long time to get over that.”

During his final season with Red Bull in 2020, Albon struggled to adapt to the tricky-to-driver Red Bull RB16, which suffered from rear-instability. After his contact with Lewis Hamilton in the very first race of the season caused him to come home last among the classified runners, his confidence took a further battering.

While he displayed occasional brilliance throughout the season, he failed to meet the team's expectations and was promptly demoted by Milton Keynes at the end of the season.