“I definitely needed the win but I didn’t feel that if I didn’t get the win
‘that’s it’,” Hamilton said. “Every time we have a win or have a good result
the same question is asked. I don’t feel this is a turning point in my life,
to be honest. I just feel it was a weekend where things went right. We could
arrive at the next race and it could be a disaster again.” This, to repeat,
just two hours after Sunday’s victory.
“That is just how I have dealt with it,” Hamilton continued. “Maybe in the
future I will try to be less [self-] critical. The truth is, winning
definitely does put a smile on your face but it is temporary. It lasts for a
short amount of time. Championships last forever.”
Hamilton similarly batted away suggestions that being beaten by his team-mate Jenson
Button this year was important in the grand scheme of things,
describing it as “irrelevant”.
It was not irrelevant to Button, who, following a third place in Abu Dhabi,
said he felt proud to have become the first of Hamilton’s team-mates to have
done so. But the 31 year-old added that he, too, was focused on the bigger
picture of securing second place in the championship.
“It’s great to get more points than a team-mate who is so competitive,” Button
said. “But Lewis and myself have had bad grands prix this year — I’ve had
reliability issues, he’s had different types of issues — so it’s very
difficult to judge whether I should be happy with [beating Hamilton]. The
important thing is to look at it and say there are not many races where I’ve
put a foot wrong.”
That is certainly the case. It may surprise some to learn – given that
Sebastian Vettel has won 11 races this year, including five of the last
seven — that if Button finishes ahead of the German in Brazil on Nov 27, he
will finish as F1’s top-scoring driver in the second half of the season.
McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh believes Hamilton’s much-needed win
has set the scene for one final team showdown in Brazil. Hamilton and Button
are both tied on three wins apiece, and Whitmarsh is expecting a battle
royal at Interlagos in Sao Paulo.
“I know them both well enough that they will want to be the driver who comes
out of the year with four wins. They’ll both fancy their chances of winning
in Brazil,” he said.