Lewis Hamilton has revealed he used the memory of Ayrton Senna’s infamous crash during the 1988 Monaco Grand Prix to help stay focused as he eased to victory in Singapore on Sunday.
The current championship leader was largely untroubled after taking the lead on Lap 1, following a strong start and the crash involving Max Verstappen and the two Ferrari’s at the first corner.
However, as Marina Bay saw its first ever wet race, the Mercedes driver admitted that recollection helped him maintain focus while ahead, as second-placed Daniel Ricciardo had gearbox trouble.
“It was the first time for all of us driving here in the rain, so it was a massive, massive challenge,” he said. “I could have easily just binned it.
“Generally, through the whole race, I kept… every now and then, Senna pops into my mind… his Monaco Grand Prix where he was in the lead and hit the wall. That always comes in and reminds me not to do that.
“It’s almost like he talks to me: ‘just stay focused, keep it together’.”
Hamilton’s performance also came as quite a surprise after Mercedes had struggled for pace against their rivals around what is arguably their weakest circuit on the calendar despite three wins in four years.
“It couldn’t be a more perfect scenario really for us, being that we are at a circuit where they [Ferrari and Red Bull] were in another world in hotter, drier conditions and we really had not a lot of hope,” he said of the change in weather on Sunday.
“We really had to just bank on potentially a good start and maybe a bit of strategy, just to get us one or two places. It was going to be one place maybe, or hope for [bad] reliability for another car, but for the rain to fall, I was so happy – you can’t imagine how happy I was.”
The triple world champion also believes his well-known skills in the wet played a key part, putting that skill down to how he approaches the challenge of a wet track.
“Normally when it rains, you’re a little bit apprehensive, it’s a little bit nerve-wracking, because it makes it so much trickier for us and here we’ve never even driven in the rain,” he commented.
“But for me, I’m kind of like… ‘yes!’. I think there’s a couple of us that particularly love those conditions more than maybe others.
“It’s very much an opportunity to really make a difference with your driving, and I was really able to. I just know that when those conditions happen it’s more of a lottery, there’s more opportunity, it levels the playing field, and then there’s a real race and that’s what I was excited to have.”
