Hamilton compares F1 to NASA: ‘There are only a small group of us’

Lars Liftnik and Ioan Gill

Wednesday, October 26, 2022 3:34 PM – last update: 4:04 PM

Lewis Hamilton He believes Formula 1 is “as close to NASA as possible” due to the limited number of drivers who have managed to reach the elite level of the sport. The mercedesThe driver discussed the change in appreciation for Formula 1 in the US during press conferences after finishing second at the Circuit of the Americas.

The track saw record attendance for the second year in a row, with 440,000 spectators visiting Austin Stadium throughout the weekend. Turnout is underpinning a rise in voting rates in the US since Liberty Media took over the sport in 2017, with increased social media engagement and Drive to Survive Netflix documentaries helping drive viewership. Max Verstappen He won the Grand Prix in Austin, his thirteenth victory of the season.

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America

With so much interest in attending the COTA race weekend and adding two more races in the US (Miami and Las Vegas) starting next season, Hamilton was asked what he thinks has made a difference for American fans. “I really don’t know. Aside from the Netflix show, which really gave people a much deeper understanding. If you turn on the TV and start watching it, it’s going to be very, very difficult to understand what’s going on. When you go to see it for the first time, it’s hard because you don’t know the details of what’s going on. It happens within the teams.Obviously over a couple of racing holidays it becomes a lot more clear.It opens the doors and then I think once the people who have seen come in, they’ve just walked into a real knowledge gap to learn more about technology, for example, there’s a lot of math It’s used in the background and there’s a huge amount of data, it’s the most advanced technology out there, and that helps to develop and transition to road cars.”

NASA

Referring to the exclusive nature of being a Formula 1 driver, Hamilton added that he sees similarities between Formula 1 and NASA. Few drivers like Verstappen, Hamilton and Charles Leclerc In Formula 1 it corresponds to some extent with the exclusive group who becomes an astronaut and is allowed to go into space. “At the end of the day, there are 20 sports drivers who put their lives on the line, weekend, weekend. Unlike other exciting sports as well. There are a lot of athletes out there. In terms of athletes, we are in this sport only at number 20. So it is A very small group of us can drive these ‘rockets’, so we’re as close as we can get to NASA in that regard. I think.”

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