'He’s better at losing than most' – Veteran Mercedes engineer praises Hamilton
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Shovlin has worked alongside Hamilton since the British driver’s arrival in 2013.Michael Schumacher vs Lewis Hamilton: The never-ending debate?Video of Michael Schumacher vs Lewis Hamilton: The never-ending debate?While they have enjoyed a vast amount of success together, winning six drivers’ titles, Hamilton has suffered two emotional defeats.He lost out to teammate Nico Rosberg in 2016, but more controversially, Max Verstappen beat him to the 2021 title in Abu Dhabi.Shovlin believes Hamilton is the best at learning from his mistakes and ensuring they don’t happen again.“You can’t ask Lewis to be happy when he’s lost a race; that’s not how he works,” Shovlin told the BBC. “But he loses really well if you want someone to come back and win the next one.“He’s actually better at losing than most I’ve seen because of how diligently he goes through the block of work of understanding what he needs to be better, where did he miss the opportunities. “He doesn’t enjoy it, but it’s about the result at the next race, not whether he’s smiling or giving a nice interview.”Hamilton has enjoyed incredible consistency throughout his F1 career, winning a grand prix in all but one season that he raced in, while he’s never finished outside of the top six in the championship standings.Related F1 2023 launches: When will Mercedes and Ferrari reveal their new cars? Bottas took five “exhausting” years to accept Hamilton was the better driver Besides his incredible natural talent, Shovlin explained how his work ethic makes him a “moving target” for his competitors to beat.“Lewis has natural talent in abundance, but his work ethic and ability to continually develop and improve means that, for drivers trying to beat him, he’s a bit of a moving target,” Shovlin added.”The thing with Lewis now is his bad days are so few and far between and even on his bad days he’s as good as the others. That’s what’s brought him to the level he is. It’s the consistency. And when he’s at his best, the level is just phenomenal.”
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