Lewis Hamilton: Preview to Turkey Grand Prix

He’s one of the most naturally gifted drivers in the world, but Lewis Hamilton still has to swat up before each grand prix. His preparations for this weekend’s Turkish Grand Prix will include a revision session, when he’ll pore over data from previous races at the Istanbul Park circuit in the hope of gaining an advantage.

“I like to prepare for each race,” says Lewis. “I ask the team for a briefing document, which tells me everything I need to know about the track. It includes details of car set-up from the previous year, my speed through each corner relative to that of my team-mate and my gears. I can already visualise the lap in my head, but this information helps me to piece it together before I get there.”

Such has been the changeable weather at half of this year’s opening six races that Lewis has also asked McLaren to give him a weather forecast for the weekend ahead in Istanbul and some information about how the ambient and track temperatures will affect tyre wear. But not everything can be learnt from a bit of paper. Lines through corners and braking points come naturally to Lewis and he’ll only be reminded of them when he takes to the track on Friday morning for the first time.

“Braking is something that you feel when you arrive at a corner,” says Lewis. “When you’re driving on the road you know when to brake for a corner and it’s the same on the track, even though we’re pushing a lot harder and going a lot faster.

“The telemetry tells me whether I’m braking earlier or later than my team-mate, but I’m the only one who can pick my braking point and I do that by listening to what the car’s telling me. A lot depends on the track conditions; as the surface increases in grip over the weekend, I’ll brake later and later.”

Lewis can brake later than most of the other drivers because he’s able to apply so much force on the brake pedal. He weighs 67 kilos, yet he can generate more than 100 kilos of pressure with his left foot. The number of out-braking manoeuvres he’s done in 2010 has demonstrated the effectiveness of his technique: he’s made 32 on-track passes, which is significantly more than anyone else.

“I love racing the other guys,” he says, “and the best chance to overtake is nearly always in the braking zone. When you pull off a good move, it’s really satisfying. I had one of my best-ever races at Istanbul Park in 2006, when I was racing in GP2. I dropped to the back of the field on the opening lap after a spin, but carved through the field and ended up finishing second. It was great fun and Michael [Schumacher] even congratulated me after that, which was nice of him.”

After the procession of Monaco two weeks ago, where Lewis started and finished the race in fifth place, Turkey’s long straights and acres of run-off will encourage the drivers to fight wheel-to-wheel, as Lewis did in GP2.

“Hopefully, I’ll have a much better car this weekend than I’ve had in Istanbul for the past couple of years,” says Lewis. “We have some upgraded aerodynamic parts coming, which should improve the car’s performance through the high speed corners, and we’ve always been quick in a straight line. The long straights mean the track is a very different technical challenge to Barcelona, where Red Bull dominated a couple of race ago, so I hope we’ll be competitive.”

Lewis has yet to win a race in 2010 and he’s never won in Turkey. You sense he’s hungry to change both of those statistics this weekend.