The life of an elite athlete is a pure dream, right? Let's take Lewis Hamilton in Formula 1. Chasing glory at the front, millions of fans cheering you on, earning money you could never realistically spend as it drops into your bank account.
Sure, talented rivals might stop you from becoming the very best in the world at times, but the adventure of trying and the lifestyle that comes with it render it all more than worthwhile, because you simply never have to face the difficulty that ‘normal’ people do in their workaday existences.
Except that is not strictly true. Fans, journalists and spectators may often perceive athletes as high-performance robots who live lives of such blissful luxury that nothing could ever truly challenge them on a real human level, but even at the very top, pitfalls like pressure, rejection, failure, social media abuse and grief can cut deep.
Megastars may be bestowed with more privilege than most of us could ever conceive of. Still, that level of wealth, fame and power does not render them impervious to pain, as demonstrated by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton who, in an interview with The Sunday Times, revealed he has struggled with mental health at different points throughout his life.
“When I was in my twenties I had some really difficult phases,” Hamilton revealed. “I mean, I’ve struggled with mental health through my life.”
“Depression. From a very early age, when I was, like, 13. I think it was the pressure of the racing and struggling at school. The bullying. I had no one to talk to.”
Lewis Hamilton doesn't shy away from topics others may consider difficult
Hamilton added that he had tried therapy at one point, but found it “wasn’t really helpful”, and explained that meditating and taking long runs in the morning provide him with a peaceful space in which to think clearly nowadays.
These particular mental health history details had not been discussed by Hamilton before, but the tone with which he handled the topic is typical of his approach to communication.
The longer he has spent in F1, the more the 39-year-old has made the active choice to contend with sociopolitical issues like racism, homophobia, and climate change in public forums, whether it be as a special guest speaker at bespoke events or while drenched in sweat in post-race media pen interviews.
He has teamed that with a willingness to demonstrate his own emotional vulnerability, openly talking about the impact of all manner of issues in his life, from the racism he faced in his early years in F1, to losing the world championship under highly controversial circumstances in 2021, and the way that his relationships with his close family members have evolved over time.
Hamilton is given a greater platform to discuss whatever is on his mind than most other athletes thanks to his immense sporting success and mainstream level of celebrity, of course. After all, the broadsheet newspapers and lifestyle magazines that spend months if not years chasing sit-down interviews with him would have pretty much zero interest in doing the same with any other driver on the F1 grid.
But that doesn’t mean that opening up as a top-level figure in sport - where strength, consistency and indefatigability are musts and vulnerability is seen as a potentially fatal weakness – is anything approaching easy. In fact, it demonstrates a level of honest, positive leadership that is otherwise lacking elsewhere in F1 and at the top of other major sports.
Hamilton is widely considered the greatest F1 driver of all time, and the statistics back that argument up. But his real, substantial impact on F1 can be measured far better by considering how he has used his communication skills to push motorsport in a more progressive direction.
Initiatives including F1’s pledge to go carbon neutral by 2030 and Mercedes’ commitment to raise the proportion of their workforce who come from black and minority ethnic backgrounds would quite simply not have happened had Hamilton not used his platform to communicate effectively and emotionally about the social issues he feels F1 should lead on.
Ferrari will be gaining one of the sport's most impactful drivers
His leadership goes far beyond that shown by other key figures at the top of motorsport, including the likes of FIA president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, whom Hamilton recently called out for using “stereotypical” languagewith a “racial element” when the head of F1's governing body compared swearing F1 drivers to “rappers”.
But it will be the leadership he has undertaken on social issues, and the emotional vulnerability he has chosen to demonstrate from one of the most powerful platforms in the world, that will have made the real substantial impact on people and causes around the world.
In this regard, his off-the-track projects - which in the past have been used as a weapon of weakness against him due to not being 100 per cent F1 focused - look like being a huge gain for Ferrari and an unexpected big loss for Mercedes as he switches to the Scuderia ahead of the 2025 season.
“What might have angered me in the past doesn’t anger me today,” Hamilton added in the Sunday Times interview. “I am so much more refined.”
That refinement is clear to see – the 39-year-old Hamilton of 2024 is a very different man to the 22-year-old who entered F1 in 2007.
But what fans should always remember is that Hamilton has not just refined himself, but F1 as a whole. There is, then, real power in being able and willing to communicate so honestly.
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