Peptalk from dad Anthony helped Lewis Hamilton win in Hungary
F1 News
Lewis Hamilton had to claw back 20 seconds and overtake Max Verstappen within around 20 laps after a Mercedes pitstop put him on the medium tyres. The Formula 1 world championship leader questioned the decision himself on the team radio.
Once Verstappen found clean air, he was lapping around the same time as Hamilton. The Brit started to lose faith in victory but Toto Wolff reminded him of some special words his father Anthony Hamilton always use to tell him.
“We had a lot of doubts because we knew we had to make up for a second per lap. We could hear the disbelief in his [Lewis] voice when we told him what times Verstappen was driving. He somehow recovered afterwards. I think we helped him do that over the radio," Wolff told the press after the race.
"One thing his father told me is that you only need one sentence to motivate him: 'You can do it.' Even if our schedule had said that we would not have enough laps to make up for that time, I still think we could help him by saying this to him."
The strategy worked well and Hamilton managed to overtake Verstappen easily as the Dutchman's hard tyres started to fall off the cliff.