There is a cabinet stuffed full of glittering trophies from the four corners of the Formula One world along one wall of the austere foyer. On the other side of the room, a familiar silver racing car glints under the halogen lights with its number — 44 — in red. It is the number carried last season to the world championship by Lewis Hamilton.
Hamilton passed the car and the cabinet on his way into the Mercedes factory, but the trophies were probably barely worth a look. For all the glitter, it is a paltry line-up compared with the collection being carefully assembled by the Englishman.
He is a few days from starting his quest for greatness. He has two world titles to his name already and the hat-trick awaits. Another trophy is there for the taking in Melbourne if he keeps up his winning ways to take victory at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix on Sunday. Why not? He bagged 11 last season on his way to becoming the British driver with the most victories in F1 history.
Hamilton understands the numbers game of greatness; during this off- season, he started to tally how many trophies he had collected since he first sat in a go-kart at the age of eight. He thinks he is near to the 500-mark.
“I have collated all of my trophies and there is now a folder from every year, what everything is, where they are and they have all been boxed nicely,” he said. “It is quite a few. Just out of go-karting, there were three or four hundred.”
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We are sitting in a conference room in the Mercedes factory on a cold, windy day before Hamilton flew to Australia — in his candy red private jet, naturally. Hamilton is more relaxed having captured that second world title after six years of frustration. His confidence is high and the betting is that he will romp away with this season. Hamilton hopes not because he worries it will turn off fans from a sport already haemorrhaging television viewers.
“A year of dominance is a great thing for a team but, as a racing driver, I am sure the fans want to see close competition,” he said. “I would get bored.”
The chances are that Hamilton will have to work just as hard as he did throughout last season’s turbulent events. The key is to eliminate distractions and that includes his break-up with Nicole Scherzinger, his pop singer companion of the past six years. The last time they called off their romance, Hamilton fell apart. Not this time, though.
The other key relationship is with Nico Rosberg, the team-mate, who stalked him — sometimes ruthlessly — to the final race of the season. It may be Rosberg who is distracted this year with his wife, Vivian, expecting their first child. With Rosberg’s usual attention to detail, the birth is timed for August, during the F1 summer break and Hamilton believes that his team-mate will remain his biggest threat.
“I am sure Nico is training harder,” Hamilton said. “I am sure he’s studying more and trying everything under the sun to make sure that he finishes ahead of me.”
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The spats between the team-mates verged on the spectacular last season and, although Hamilton says their relationship is on an even keel, he is braced for trouble.
“You have to assume there are going to be moments during the year where there is tension but that’s because we are fierce competitors within the same team,” he said. “You are team-mates trying to get the team to win but you also want to win yourself.
“We are in a different place now, but you learn things and we are going into another year where we should be battling each other. In terms of respect, I would hope that it is greater than it was before, or at least we know each other a lot more now.”
The final distraction could be his future. Hamilton is in the final stages of negotiating what will probably be a three-year extension to his contract, which will take him to the end of 2018 and still at the height of his career.
There are conflicting estimates over how much he will be paid, although there is little doubt that he will emerge as F1’s highest-paid driver.
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Hamilton says that the negotiations are not simply about money, but brokering a future as he looks beyond F1 to what comes afterwards.
“Everyone, whatever business they are in, wants to progress gradually and you obviously want to feel your worth,” Hamilton said.
“Naturally, the target for every driver is to try to work towards being the best. I am conscious that I am maybe past halfway in my career, so whatever steps I take now that will determine what I do when I finish.”
For now, though, there is only one focus, starting on Sunday in Melbourne — winning more trophies for that vast collection. “I have got to focus on that because I have the opportunity to [win],” he said. “At the moment, it is about winning championships.”