You’ve probably been asked every single question in the last hour and a half, but
How do you begin to comprehend the enormity of what you have done today?
Urm… I think it’s really going to take some time to really digest
everything that’s happened today. But, I’m just really, really proud.
Like, I was just now with my engineers, so we did the debrief, and then
we did a toast all together and we all had a drink together, and
James said some of the nicest things about me.
But, it was just so great to see everyone, everyone just so united, everyone has
worked so hard this year and everyone has raised their game.
And, I just want to be the best me I can be for them. I truly believe
I am a chink in the chain, because there are so many of us and without me,
it doesn’t happen but without every single individual, it doesn’t happen,
the chain doesn’t roll, it doesn’t move. So, I am just proud that I have been able
to deliver in my space, but it’s been a long, long journey with them.
You know, six years with this team. And from day one, from the day that
I decided to join this team, I truly believed that something great
was possible with them and look what we have achieved together.
Has this year been then, one of the most difficult, would you say?
Yeah, well I think ultimately people watching only ever see the tip of the iceberg.
So, when we watch, and I say we in general including myself, when you see TV and
you see someone successful, obviously without a full description of what they
have done to get to where they are, you just see the success they are having.
For me to be where I am today, to have performed this way this year,
trust me it has been the hardest year for me.
Just raising the bar is something… racing against a four-time World Champion,
a really incredible team who were so fast this year and most of the time faster than
us. So, to have pulled together as a team and
turned it around and overhauled them, even if they had a better performance, has been
a real collective effort from everyone so
I am really proud of everyone.
People have been asking you for months
now about the Championship and your thoughts on when it was going to be decided.
When was the moment that you thought ‘actually, yeah, this could be my year,
this could be the fifth’?
Well, honestly, I never stop believing.
That’s just how I am wired. I truly believed from the beginning of the
year that we could, even when we had the difficult
races like… a difficult race would’ve been China,
a difficult race would’ve been Montreal… and there have been several.
I remember there was a difficult race Baku for example which ultimately I ended up winning,
but it was a really, really tough race and I remember there thinking ‘jeez,
I am struggling in this car, I don’t know if…
I hope I can finally find the synergy between us
so we can go out and deliver great results’. Soon after that, good things started to happen.
But, I never for a moment lost doubt or lost belief within this team, in my guys,
or in myself. But, of course, there was a point
in the year where took a breather after Hungary, came back strong, you know, came back with
the… whatever we want to say… with the right
hook, whatever it is. Just pounding away, great
results from that weekend, with strengths from
all of us and I’m just so happy that… you could definitely come away from that
break and not perform well and make mistakes. But, I didn’t lose vision, didn’t lose
sight of what I was trying to achieve.
You have done so much this year, be it your fashion, your music, your racing,
what have you not done? What have you had to sacrifice to get to this point?
Urm, naturally I think this year I have been
the busiest that I have ever been. There is no driver doing the mileage and
the input that I am having to do. You know, if you look at, just for example,
the last two weeks. I did Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday,
Sunday of Austin, and I did a Monday appearance as well in the next state. Then, I had a day
off. And then I had this week Wednesday,
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. So, I am massively committed to just working
a lot and I am sleeping in any moment that I get.
Otherwise, it’s you know, naturally when you are trying to reach your goal, yeah,
it’s the times where I could be spending with
my family, times I could be spending with my dogs,
time that I will be missing from my niece and
nephew growing up. They are growing so quick, and I am missing things. Same with Darth Steve,
he is growing so fast, but we are on this mission of
things we have got to get done. I don’t look at it that
I have missed things. I think everyone has to sacrifice things,
things that… but I am doing everything I want to do.
So, am I sacrificing? There are for sure sacrifices in
which you make to make sure you arrive and deliver, but they are not
sacrifices that you wish you didn’t have to make.
They are sacrifices you know that will help you get to where
you want to be. So, yeah, if at the beginning of
the year you said ‘hey, you have got to leave this out,
leave that out, stay in, do this, do these different
things and you’ll get your fifth’ damn right I’ll do it.
You know, so. Yeah.
What about today’s race then,
and those last few laps, where were you, where did you let your mind wander to?
This race?
Yeah
I slept really good last night, I was gaming all night last night…
which was… I gamed for like three hours last night,
which was awesome, after my appearance, just in my hotel room, I had room service and...
But going around that track,
knowing that essentially you finish you are World Champion
Going back to the race. No, I really wanted to win today,
so I approached the weekend the same as I always do. I delivered like I always
try to do and during the race, it was like a
domino effect, it got worse and worse and worse.
It felt horrible, I was sliding around with this car,
nothing in my ability… none of my skills could help get the
car to go faster. It was just doomed in the sense of the tyres not working.
So, I saw the guys, we got to second, it was looking good and we just fell back. But,
I just had to think to myself, ‘OK, it’s OK, you have still got to finish,
keep going, keep pushing, because anything can happen.
Safety Car could come out, you’d be back in the game maybe
even though they were so much faster’. I knew that the win was lost of the race,
but I was being sensible in my decisions. For example, I was ahead into Turn 1,
but I didn’t want to be t-boned by Max, who was desperate to win.
I don’t need that win as much as he might feel that he needs it.
So, for me, it was just really making compromises and the last few laps,
I was just really hoping the car would hold together because it was loose,
it was moving around, the engine had had a tough time,
it was the last race, last of the engine’s life.
So, I was just hoping it would come home.
And for you personally I know this
has been a tough week in your private life. How important then is it to match a
record like Fangio, I know sometimes records don’t
mean a lot sometimes, but just try and create how…
tell me a bit about the emotion you are feeling to have got that?
Yeah, well, as I said at the moment it’s really difficult because it’s not…
it’s all happened… it’s not that it’s happened fast because
it has been a long year but it’s now here, it’s in front of me and it’s happened,
and time is going quickly and before you know it it’ll be tomorrow and
obviously I’ll still be five-time Champion tomorrow but this moment goes by quickly.
But this week has definitely been difficult. I woke up Thursday morning and my
grandad was in hospital, and I woke up and it was the first
thing in my mind. I was like ‘I haven’t heard from my dad,
I don’t know how he is doing’ so I messaged my dad and my dad is like ‘call me'
called my dad and find out he had died
like an hour before I’d called him. So, that was really hard. I was in touch
with all my cousins on that side of the family. And, in one sense I am just so happy
for him that he’s… in one sense I am so sad but another sense I am really happy
for him because he was fighting dementia and he couldn’t even recognise his son.
And that’s… you know... I never want to have that with my dad and it brought me
closer to my dad because I was like ‘I really want to continue to nurture that
relationship’ because we only have a certain amount of time
together on this earth. But, also just my dad always tried to make his dad proud
and I always try to make my dad proud, so to get this fifth I think is… yeah…
just a testament to my family. Because, they believed in me from day one and
you see all these karting families who do believe in their kids and it doesn’t work
out. But, for us, it did, and still today the way
I drive, I drive… it’s not like a blasé ‘I’m
a Formula One driver, I’ve got this chance, it’s easy’,
I grab it with both hands. My parents had… my dad had four jobs,
my step mum sacrificed all of her money, they never had new clothes, they never
went out and lived their life like we do today. You know, they gave everything to help me
do something special. So, I will continue to drive with them at
my core and my grandad, and I think hopefully
today my grandad is looking down, proud of what we have achieved as a family.
What does a five-time World Champion do tonight, then.
How do you spend the next week?
You know, it is really weird because everyone
is like ‘ey, you should be going out partying’, I’m actually going to fly out now,
I’m going to go back to LA, my dogs are there.
So, you know, I work non-stop, so tomorrow I have got meetings all day.
But, I think I am sure tonight I will get to go to
dinner with a bunch of friends and I am sure we will celebrate to some extent.
But, I just feel content. I don’t need anything. Just want to enjoy, harness the feeling and
try to realise what it is that I have just done.
Because, for me, it’s just another… for me,
it’s been another day of racing, which I am really grateful for.
But, when you think of Fangio, who is for me the Godfather of the racing
drivers, you know, he had five and now I have five.
It doesn’t connect at the moment. You know, it doesn’t feel real, but I am
very humbled and just mega, mega, incredibly grateful as I said for all the
people around me who have helped me, because there have been a lot of people along
the journey.
Well, I think you’ll start to believe it
when you read the history books in many years’ time.
Thank you so much Lewis.
Thank you.