MY F1 TAKE

Mercedes is my team. Lewis Hamilton is my driver.

Which makes the current situation slightly awkward because my favourite driver now drives for Ferrari. I have decided to call this loyalty with a data-quality issue.

2021the year that refuses to leave the group chat
The Abu Dhabi finale

In my book, Lewis is an 8-time World Champion.

The official record currently recognises seven championships. My personal scorecard says eight — because I still have not emotionally processed the final lap of Abu Dhabi 2021. That last-lap safety-car restart and the race-control decisions turned one of the biggest sporting finishes into an argument that somehow lasted for years. At this point, I do not need another opinion; I need a replay, a whiteboard and about three hours.

Two cars. One very complicated fan.

Favourite · current
Lewis Hamilton driving the Mercedes W11 in 2020
Favourite car

Mercedes-AMG F1 W11

The W11 is my favourite F1 car: aggressive, clean-looking and brutally effective. It also happens to be the car in which Lewis won his seventh championship.

Image: Alberto-g-rovi / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0
Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari SF-26 in 2026
Current car

Ferrari SF-26

And this is the current chapter: Lewis Hamilton's Ferrari SF-26. I am still processing the Mercedes-to-Ferrari transition, but the car itself is undeniably interesting — especially with the 2026 regulations changing the technical game.

Image: Yu Chu Chin / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0

Why I actually like F1.

The data underneath
Telemetry

Thousands of signals, one decision.

Speed, throttle, braking, tyre behaviour, temperatures, energy use and more create a constantly changing picture of the car.

Strategy

Data becomes action under pressure.

The interesting part is not collecting data. It is turning it into a decision quickly enough to change the outcome.

Engineering

Every lap is a feedback loop.

Driver input, car behaviour, tyre state and track conditions feed back into setup, strategy and the next decision.

“I am choosing to call it analytical rather than conflicted.”

My current solution to being a Mercedes fan and a Hamilton fan in the Ferrari era