Is he any happier now?

Oh, 100%, Rick.

Oh, my God.

He's a completely different man this year.

I mean, the reason...

There are so many reasons that they signed Lewis Hamilton.

A, for his experience.

greatest

Is he any happier now?

Oh, 100%, Rick.

Oh my God, he's a completely different man this year.

Um, I mean, the reason, there are so many reasons that they, they signed Lewis Hamilton.

Um, A, for his experience, B, because of his popular appeal.

Uh, you know, the share price of, of Ferrari went up a, a huge amount when they announced his signature at the start of the previous year, 2024.

But look, fast-forward to now, uh, I see a completely different Lewis Hamilton.

Yeah.

The obvious question, uh, from this part of the world to you is what do you make of Liam?

Liam?I am loving the 2026 bet, [laughs] Liam Lawson.

I mean, he's been absolutely awesome this year.

What is he now? He's, uh, the leading driver in the points outside the top four teams.

He's ninth, w- ironically, just one place behind Hajo, who's the, who's the, who's the second driver at Red Bull Racing.

There's a, there's an assuredness to Liam this year.

You know, he's a steely.

Is it a song and dance? It's-

The obvious question, uh, from this part of the world to you is, what do you make of Liam?

I am loving the 2026 spec Liam Lawson.

I mean, he's been absolutely awesome this year.

What is he now? He's, uh, the leading driver in the points outside the top four teams.

He's ninth, but ironically, just one place behind Hajjar who's a, who's a, who's the second driver at Red Bull Racing.

There's a, there's an assuredness to Liam this year.

You know, he's a steely.

Is it a song and dance? It's...

Yeah.

Get him, and you can win world championships.

Imagine living with that pressure year after year after year, and yet he still loves it, still puts himself through it, and still comes up with innovation.

That Aston, okay, the power unit from Honda isn't where it needs to be at the minute, both battery and the internal combustion, but that car has got some really innovative features on it, and that's Adrian's pen.

Funnily enough, I was at a meeting in Aston Martin, um, deep into last year, maybe October time, and the meeting room I was in was, um, right next door to the design office, and I spent most of the time just watching Adrian rather than listening to the meeting, but that's on the side because Adrian, Adrian has an officeIn the middle of the design office with glass walls, so you c-- everyone can watch him at work.

I reckon he's gonna do a sharp Tom.

So I said, "Do you know what?" How, how we got onto this is I was doing a Beyond the Grid podcast with him in Brazil last year, and I just said to him, I said, "You're looking really slim." And he said, "Yeah, I'm the same weight as when I was racing." I said, "Well, how, how do you...

how are you keeping...

Yeah

... actually.

Um, he, I mean, you know, he didn't know anything about publishing.

Um, he felt obliged to do a magazine.

Um, I think he wanted to put it in the Paddock Club, which is this sort of VIP section of, of the spectator area at the racetrack.

Um, and we'd always go off on a tangent.

So he'd say...

He's left the medical center.

Yeah.

It's a book about...

It's set in the 1930s, and it's, um, it's just about a guy who, um, works for the foreign office in Moscow and just explores into sort of Central Asia.

He goes to Tashkent and all those sorts of areas, and then I think late, then later on in the book, he becomes one of the sort of founding members of the SAS.

Damon Hill.

I find him an incredibly inspiring person.

I think, uh, I really like him.

Um, yes, he's a Formula One World Champion, and this is the thirtieth anniversary of, uh, of that championship.