James Vowles: Hamilton acts like an octopus behind the wheel

We have already quoted the words of Williams boss James Vowles, who considers Lewis Hamilton a more talented driver than Michael Schumacher. A former Mercedes team engineer developed the idea further and explained the special qualities inherent in the British champion.

James Vowles: “Lewis has a lot of natural talent. He has such a characteristic that in the first training he behaves like an octopus behind the wheel. He gets behind the wheel and starts exploring the car and the track. In this he is inimitable.

I remember a case where the simulator data showed that in Brazil a section of the circuit had to be driven with an ascent in seventh gear, and after two laps Nico [Росберг] drove this part exactly as we asked him to. However, Lewis returned to sixth gear and managed to regain a tenth. And this continued throughout the session until Niko saw the telemetry.

Hamilton is a real optimizer. It uses telemetry data as a starting point and has no problem exploring boundaries. Thanks to his ability to see the limits of what was allowed, after just a few training laps Lewis understood the limits of the car and the tools he could use behind the wheel.

However, this also had a downside. He usually changed the machine’s settings so many times that he got lost. Naturally, as the session progresses, we receive more and more data, which allows us to see where we can improve. That’s why you often see Lewis slipping back at the start of a session, but then quickly speeding up as he understands what the settings should be. He can do a lot of things that other drivers can’t do.”