Hamilton wished he was on holiday in final races

By Alan Baldwin

LONDON (Reuters) – Lewis Hamilton wished he was on holiday once he had won a third Formula One title and the champion has also revealed he stayed up late working on music projects during race weekends.

Speaking to BBC Radio on Thursday, the Mercedes driver offered a fresh insight into his ‘work hard, play hard’ attitude.

“You still have to commit and work super-hard but, for sure you’re kind of like ‘My job’s done, I wish the season was over, wish I could go on holiday’,” the Briton said of his feelings after winning the title in Texas with three races to spare.

“But you still arrive at the next races, there’s a lot of people in this team that continue to work so you’ve got to match them. It wasn’t as successful as the rest of the year but still second in those races was not too bad.”

Hamilton’s team mate Nico Rosberg won the last three races of the year after racking up six pole positions in a row.

Asked about his musical interests and what he was working on in recording studios, Hamilton described it as hip-hop/R&B and said it was coming along.

“I’ve worked on it a lot this year, I have a lot of music stuff that’s actually ready…someone’s going to hear something soon,” he said.

“I have a team of people, my music people travel around with me and so on the race weekends we finish at the track like six or seven PM, I go straight to the hotel and I’ll be in my room writing and recording.

“We’ll be recording until one AM in the morning, then I get up and I’ll be driving the next day. It’s crazy,” added Hamilton, who said he rarely slept more than five or six hours.

Hamilton also responded to Mercedes motorsport head Toto Wolff who said that driver discord was a major weakness in the team and that they wanted ‘nice guys’.

The Austrian had also suggested driver changes could be made if bad blood continued.

“It’s always blown so much out of proportion,” said Hamilton. “You know we’ve had like 16 one-twos (actually, 12 this season), so our relationship isn’t really causing any problems. It’s not like he’s been distracted and not finished high up or vice-versa.

“I think we’ve both done a great job and not caused any problems. The energy within the team is as high as it’s ever going to be and that’s because we do what we do and how we do it,” he said.

“We’re never going to be best friends but we somehow make it work.”

(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Ian Chadband)