Lewis Hamilton Reacts To First Ferrari Win!

Lewis, huge congratulations to you. You've now had a bit of time to let it soak in. For a man who's achieved so much in his career, what does this first one with Ferrari mean to you? That was the longest TV pen I've ever had. I think it's going to definitely take me some days to really I'll look back at this for sure and be like, damn, I wish I had the right words. How do you find the right words to express an emotion that's beyond your wildest dreams? I truly believed in my decision and joining Ferrari. I truly believed what this team could achieve and what we could achieve together. I know it started out with lots of excitement and then lots of doubt and lots of negativity that followed through a whole year. I really feel like my fans really rescued me last year. My family also and friends that stuck with me through it all and started into a new season, a new year where lots and lots of changes in the background enabled me to get to this position I'm in today. I just feel a lot of gratitude, a lot of pride and very, very proud of the people that I work with. They're so passionate and have so much humility and so kind. Seeing them sing the national anthem today was an incredible feeling, man. Just the best. In all the victories that you've achieved, would you describe this as a uniquely special victory given the journey that you've been on recently? They're all special in their own way. There's different journeys to each of them. The last one, or not the last one, the one in Silverstone in 2024 was in its own way a monumental moment for me because it's a moment where I never thought maybe that I'd ever get to win again. Then after a year like last year, there was definitely moments that I was like, maybe it is true that when you get to a certain point you lose it, but I've proven that you don't. You always have it. It takes work, it takes perseverance, that constant believing in yourself to tap into your inner self and keep yourself alive, keep yourself fit. I feel great physically. I'm racing with 19-year-olds who are doing amazing. Yeah, I feel great. I think it's so early in the season to get to this point. These guys have really listened and really worked hard to add performance and be innovative. This year is all about innovations. We came out with the bid on the rear exhaust. We came out with the rear wing, the Macarena. This is what I was asking for last year. I was like, this team has to be the leaders in that. They've shown that they can and they will. We've got a lot of work ahead of us. By no means is this something that's just going to happen all the time. We've got heavy, heavy, steep mountains or climb up ahead of us to try to do this as Mercedes has all year so far. You mentioned about the negativity last year and also, I guess, in the end of your time at Mercedes as well. How hard is it? I know you all say that you don't listen to or don't read social media, you block it all out, but how hard is it when that's coming on so strong and how close were you to not giving up but starting to really doubt yourself enough that you felt you might leave? I'm only human. There's moments where I see the stuff. For sure, there's moments where I allowed it to get to me and penetrate deeply. Then I went through a sequence of unplugging from that matrix I mentioned last year. Spent lots of time with family, lots of time with friends, real people that know me that have never doubted me, have stuck to and by me my whole life. Then I just went on the mission from Christmas day. The training that I put in was harder than I've ever experienced. Keep myself in good shape because I think at the beginning of last year, I got injured here and carried that for months. Things that I know is to never second-guess yourself, never doubt yourself. You've got to continue to believe in yourself at the core. Those are the things that I've managed to re-implement into my mentality. I've rebuilt my mind to this point to get myself back to where I was. It's a great feeling to sit here right now, but to stand on that podium. As I was saying earlier on, I'm probably going to sleep in this red top tonight. It's a good feeling to have the horse on there at the top. You probably heard the mechanics were chanting your name when you were on the podium. You've talked a lot about remembering who you are this year. It's a thing you've said quite a lot. Do you feel that maybe you've reminded the team who you are as well and that you've maybe done something to cement the relationship between driver and team a little bit more? I don't really feel that I've had to remind the team. They've been so kind. You come back to the garage after a difficult race and they're just like, don't worry, next time. They're just so supportive through it all. But for sure, results like this change everything and for sure, if there is a lack of confidence, reinstates it all. I hope that this was a convincing gap and race. I think that it's been happening over the last few races. The changes that I've asked for and pushed for all last year have been made and I now have the right team around me. I now have the right car around me and now I can start doing what I do best. Lewis, you spoke about the National Anthem song Below You. What was the feeling with your new Italian Bono beside you? It was great to have him up there. Him substituting this year, jumping in and diving in deep with me. We didn't know each other. We'd never spoken and I didn't really know much. I didn't know anything about him and we met and I think got on straight away. But it's great to be able to connect with an engineer other than what I used to have. I had it for such a long time and then you kind of lose that feeling because Bono is now doing it with Kimi. It's really great to be able to share that experience with him on that stage. He's very, very quiet. You can tell it's hard for him to express his emotions. He's just smiley and giving him these big hugs and pulling him in and saying thank you. I like to think that this has probably reignited the love that he has as being an engineer, as he has done for me as a driver. You said this is now a chance for you to do what you do best. Toto has just spoken and was very complimentary about the win and said that when you smell blood in a title race he knows how good you are so he doesn't want to really fight you this year. Is the dream of the eighth World Championship alive and well after this? Honestly, with the way that the year started out, I've not really been thinking about it like that. I've not been thinking about an eighth. Of course, what we had worked towards is being able to win but I've always been conscious of the fact that it takes time. Mercedes have come out the gates with a blistering car and blistering pace. Both drivers are doing such a great job. We know we have this power deficit. There's going to be tracks where we go to with long straights where that makes it even harder. As I said, we've got a great car at the core. If we keep adding performance and we can go through the corners quicker, maybe we can narrow that deficit down a little bit until we close the gap on power. Very, very hard to think long term at the moment. I think it's just about taking it one race at a time, one week at a time. I'll be at the factory next week. We'll do a download. I'll speak to the aerodynamicists looking at all the different things that are in the pipeline, when they're coming, what effect that they'll have, re-steer if I need to in whatever direction I feel that car needs to go. We just keep pushing and enjoying it. We have to just have fun with it as well. Maybe it's one of the best days of the Formula One history because a legend driver won with the most iconic team ever in Formula One here, where 30 years ago, another legend as Michael won his first race in red. How do you feel about it? Is this the first step of a legendary story? I think this is the first step of our story. I just learnt just now, I've just been reminded that it was 30 years ago that Michael won. I was at home on my couch watching that race, probably like many of you, with a plate on my lap eating a sandwich. Or maybe it was chicken noodle soup or something like that. On a Sunday, I was 12, if I wasn't racing. Just looking at that red car and thinking, I wonder what it's like to sit in the red cockpit. My cockpit happens to be white. I wasn't happy about it. I want it to be red, like Michael's. Hopefully I'll get it back red at some stage. What it would be like to sit in that red car, which I got to experience last year. But then be in that red suit standing in first place in front of that amazing crew who sing the national anthem. I think the time the sound was off today because they were out of sync with the song. But it was really amazing to witness and to see the joy in their eyes and to feel it with them. I nearly passed out after I hugged them. My heart was exploding with joy. Fred just very modestly said he can't take any credit for the turnaround you've had over the last year and a half. But I wondered what role he's actually played through this journey with you, especially through some of the worst moments last year. I know that you guys go back a long way. How much credit would you give Fred for just keeping the faith and keeping you focused on this prize and whatever's to come? Thanks. Firstly, I wouldn't be in this team without Fred. Fred is the one that made it happen, of which I'm incredibly grateful to him for. I think last year was really, really, really tough for him. To deal with me coming was a big shock to the system because I am very, very vocal. If I see something that I don't think is right or I push very, very hard, that's at the core of who I am and I'm relentless with it. I think it's not easy to be on the receiving end of that when you're also juggling a whole organization and a culture that in its own is set in a certain way. Also, he's French in an Italian culture. It was a lot for him to juggle and I think very, very tough because also he would do media as well. But he continued to believe, continued to be a good friend, continued to be a great teammate and an ally and really supportive. Ultimately, he really listened at the end and I had to really ask, really, really ask for some of the changes and he enabled them to happen, which I'm forever grateful for because this wouldn't have happened without those changes. Big, big thank you to him.