Lewis Hamilton describes himself as an "old school" Formula 1 driver

Lewis Hamilton says his approach to driving is that of an “old school” Formula 1 racer and he prefers traditional mechanical controls to the co...

Lewis Hamilton says his approach to driving is that of an “old school” Formula 1 racer and he prefers traditional mechanical controls to the complex technology needed to pilot modern cars.

In a revealing interview with the Wall Street Journal, Hamilton said he favours just stepping straight into the car and learning as he hits the track rather than visualising the perfect lap beforehand.

He said: “I’m a real basic driver. There’s drivers over time that close their eyes and envisage a lap and all that stuff. Maybe that works for them. For me it doesn’t. Me, I drive. I drive the seat of the car.”

Hamilton also admitted that he prefers the stick operated gearboxes that are no longer commonly used in racing cars over the paddle operated systems found on the back of F1 steering wheels.

He said: “I’m generally more old school. I don’t like tiptronic [paddle gearboxes], even though I race with tiptronic. I like having a gear stick. I like three pedals. I like the heel-and-toe effect. You just have a little bit more control.”

Paddy Lowe, executive director (technical) of Hamilton’s Mercedes team, recalled that when the British driver joined his former team McLaren – where Lowe previously employed as a technical director – he told Hamilton not to worry about the engineering side of racing as the team already had “200 engineers.”

That approach enabled Hamilton to focus purely on driving the car and scoring the best results.

Lowe said: “We had a clean sheet of paper, a guy that knew this was a fantastic break, and knew that he didn’t know anything about racing in Formula One.”

Ahead of the Belgian Grand Prix, F1 introduced new start procedures that handed control of the clutch systems solely to the driver, and the team could no longer provide information on start performance. This was expected to favour drivers who spend more time focusing on car set-up and studying engineering data.

But on race day at Spa, it was Hamilton who made a perfect getaway, whereas his teammate Nico Rosberg, often said to be a more discerning driver, fell down the order off the start line.