In 2008, Lewis Hamilton fulfilled a lifetime’s ambition – and successfully carried the hopes of a nation – to win the Formula 1 drivers’ championship. Now, as he tells Sport, he can’t wait to begin his quest to retain it...

Fast Facts
Lewis Hamilton
Born January 7 1985
Birthplace Stevenage
Lives Geneva, Switzerland
Height 5ft 8ins
Team McLaren
F1 debut Australian GP, March 2007
Races 35
Wins 9
Podiums 22
Career points 207
World titles 1

It’s a cool, clear spring morning at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking, and Sport is sitting next to the MP4-23, Lewis Hamilton’s 2008 championship-winning car, nervously waiting for the man himself to arrive. The 24-year-old has been doing media work all morning and faces a schedule that runs well into the evening – so it’s somewhat of a surprise, and perhaps a measure of the man he is, that Hamilton arrives with an infectious smile and a strong handshake. With his people already glaring at their watches, though, Sport senses it might be time to get started...

You’ll be starting your third season with a third different pressure; no longer the rookie or champion in waiting, you now have to defend your title. How tough will that be?
“Just to win last year was unbelievably hard, so I don’t think the next one will be any easier. With the new regulations, it’s going to be tough to win the championship again. We’ve had less time in the car before Melbourne – only seven days of testing – but I think as a team we are in a position to pull together and make a difference in another way.”

Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve, two talented racers, only won one title each. After missing out on one championship and only just scraping home last year, do you worry that, well, that might be it?
“That’s never ever been a worry for me, because records are not something I focus on. I don’t particularly care about those things. I’m only in my third year in Formula 1. I’ve got a long way to go and I have no doubts in my mind that I’ll have more opportunities to win more titles. I’m in a great team, which is the best it’s ever been, so I have to make sure I make the best use of that – and work as hard as I can to ensure we win more championships.”

But, as reigning world champion, you have to feel some pressure going into the season – or don’t you?
“I don’t think so, no. I feel more relaxed going into the season simply because I’m coming into it off the back of a great season. It’s like when you go from race to race; when you win one race, it gives you extra confidence going into the next one. I feel I have reset my goals and my targets back to when I started in F1. I just want to be world champion. I don’t sit here saying I am world champion; I sit here saying I want to be world champion.”

Lewis Hamilton's super circuit

After years of dreaming about becoming champion, you finally achieved your goal last year. Do you wake up thinking about exactly that every morning?
“I haven’t really thought about the last race that much. I did as much analysing then as I did after the first race of the season – thinking about where we could improve – and then I just put it behind me and started preparing myself for this season. Over the winter I relaxed and completely put racing out of my mind – yeah, I was able to live life normally.”

You mentioned that you want to cut out some of the mistakes you made in the 2008 season – can you tell us how do actually go about doing that?
“Not really, no! I really can’t! I analysed the mistakes I made last year and... take Montreal last year, for example, with the pit lane light. Every time I go down the pit lane now, I am always looking out for the light. You just have to learn from your previous experiences. I am sure the oldest man in the world is still learning today. You just have to make sure you try to prepare yourself in advance, and try and avoid any mistakes.”

What impact do you think the new regulations will have on your role as a Formula 1 driver?
“The role we play is still important. You’ve got to go out there and extract the most that you can from the car, and bring back all this information, but now it’s just squeezed down into a much smaller space of time. We only had seven days in the car before the first Grand Prix. We had to do a lot of simulations, sit in the office and go over a lot more data, and try and extract the most from that. It might be that some people gain a bigger advantage from that than others.”

From what you’ve seen in testing, are you confident the car will be competitive?
“Every lap we do, we are learning more about the car and bringing out more performance. But, until we all get on the track in Melbourne on Friday, it’s impossible to say how everyone else is doing.”

The season starts quite late this year. Is that a good thing, taking into account the new regulations, or a bad thing because you’re so eager to get going?
“To be honest, it’s only a couple of weeks later than last year, so it isn’t something I’ve really thought about. We are working to a target rather than thinking about when that target is, if you see what I mean. However, I am always eager to go racing. I seriously have what I consider to be the best job in the world – every time I get in the car, I’m sitting there under my helmet with a grin on my face!