Secret of Hamilton’s success? It’s all in his little black book . . .

DESPITE walking around the paddock with a little black book in which he records his jottings, Lewis Hamilton’s commitment to long, pained debriefs had never been seen as key to his racing brilliance.

But ahead of tomorrow’s Russian Grand Prix, and in the form of his life, the world champion said he is now working harder in backroom meetings and in cultivating good working relationships across his Mercedes team — undertakings that his boss Toto Wolff described as part of the Briton’s ‘constant drive for perfection’.

‘It’s about doing extra stuff that is not visible,’ said Hamilton (below). ‘ I have improved relationships and communications with the team. I have improved my time management and my health. Relationships can always get better. But if you fix any part of a problem, it can only benefit the whole team.

‘You have to change. I’m a pain in the a*** to my engineers: challenging, challenging, challenging. Even if there is nothing wrong, I am asking, asking, asking, trying to spark an idea.’ The result of this hands-on approach has been seven wins this year and a 40-point advantage over Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel going into the final six races of the season. Since Singapore a fortnight ago — and a fourth Hamilton victory in five rounds — Vettel has the advantage of an extensive Ferrari upgrade here, including a radically changed front wing. But Hamilton was still quickest in practice yesterday, half a second ahead of the German. Although Hamilton came only fourth in Russia last year, Mercedes have won all four editions of this race by the Black Sea.

The championship leader is, therefore, favourite to be celebrating in front of Vladimir Putin, if, as expected, the Russian president makes it from Tajikistan to Sochi for tomorrow’s race. Some 3,000 personnel have been deployed to guard the Autodrom.

Wolff said of Hamilton: ‘What is impressive is the constant development and search for the optimum performance. He’s the only driver I’ve ever heard saying, “I haven’t driven well, so we have to look at that before we look at the data”.’

Russian Grand Prix, Sky Sports F1, tomorrow 12.05pm.