Interviewed on the occasion of the 2023 Brazilian GP, the driver Mercedes Lewis Hamilton answers questions about his love for Brazil and Mercedes' fight with Ferrari.
Hamilton's love for the Brazilian GP
The first question asked of Lewis Hamilton is: How special is the Brazilian GP weekend for you? Be honorary citizen, you have a great record, a excellent record here Interlagos. Senna was your idol, of course: you brought fantastic grip to the track today. Tell us a little what this race means to you.
It has always been a special race for me. I won my first world championship here and it was really crazy at the time. I felt like enemy number one there because, obviously, I was racing against Felipe, but the growth I felt here, the welcome, the extraordinary support I've always had... Even as a kid, growing up at home, I was a football fan and I I had always liked Brazilian colors. In fact, a few years before the GPs, when Hamilton was still small: My brother and I played FIFA, for example, and he always took England, while I always took Brazil.
And then there was Ayrton Senna, of course, a great hero to so many of us. And when you get here you really feel his presence; it's a beautiful culture, and then the track is iconic. Unfortunately They don't make circuits like this anymore. It's a race that I think all drivers love. It is a race in which it is very fun to do a single lap on this circuit but the race even more so. Because there is the long straight where you can fight and then there are the first three corners and you can fight up to turn 4, so it's a good circuit for overtaking too.
Lewis Hamilton amused by the battle with Ferrari
The Brazilian GP therefore lends itself, for Hamilton, to another couple of questions.
Considering last weekend's podium and the pace of last year's cars with a one-two, what expectations do you have for this weekend?
Well, I don't know, because I expect the Red Bulls to be very fast as always. And I think this prediction was valid almost everywhere, except Singapore. We expect the Ferraris to be fast too, but I hope our car works well here, as it happened, for example, in the last race. But you can never predict why it can go wrong, how it can go well, so I just try to prepare in the best way.
And how do you see the constructors' championship fight between Mercedes and Ferrari? You have a advantage of 22 points at the moment.
Yes, and it's a very fun and enjoyable battle. They were very strong in qualifying in the last Grand Prix, however, fortunately, we managed to overtake them in the race. But I think we will be close in these last few races, so we will have to leave no stone unturned to stop their recovery.
