Hamilton meat in the eco sandwich
In what should be the most euphoric phase of his life, Lewis Hamilton has never sounded so nihilistic.
Standing on the edge of Formula One world title No 6, he wrote this week, in a string of Instagram laments about ecological destruction, that he “felt like giving up completely” and that “honestly, up until now, my life has had no meaning”.
Even by his standards for psychodrama, it was a shocking jolt, as he switched in just 48 hours from celebrating a sixth straight constructors’ title with Mercedes to sharing these howls of despair.
It is seldom advisable to try to gauge someone’s mental health through the warped prism of social media. Not that this stopped Zoe Harcombe, a prominent dietary expert, who argued that Hamilton’s abrupt change of behaviour showed all the hallmarks of “vegan nutritional deficiency”.
Hers was a barb that burned, given it was the driver’s embrace of veganism that prompted his stark online messages in the first place.
The environmental damage inflicted by agriculture, he insisted, was such that only a plant-based diet could help save the planet.
To a degree, Hamilton was asking for trouble. It stretches credulity for a Formula One driver who burns fuel at a rate of roughly 2.5km per litre, who takes first-class flights more often than Phileas Fogg boarded steamers, and who serves as an ambassador for Petronas, one of the world’s largest oil and gas companies, to reinvent himself as any kind of environmental crusader.
But for all that it is fashionable to stick pitchforks in Hamilton, he is far from passive in promoting his environmental causes.
This year, he filmed himself clearing litter from a beach while on holiday, urging his followers not to buy plastic or polystyrene.
It is when people perceive him lapsing into preacher mode that the abuse rolls over him in waves.
Surely his eco-rhetoric can be viewed more constructively. A frequent criticism of Hamilton is that he is too self-absorbed, but at least he is demonstrating concern for issues outside the parameters of F1. Many of his peers don’t show the faintest curiosity for anything not involving four wheels, but Hamilton, conscious that he has a platform, is determined to use it.
There is, however, a more powerful gesture that is within Hamilton’s gift to make. Previously, it was taken as read that he would end his career in F1, at the summit of motorsport, but the accelerated growth of Formula E, the electric car series, makes it impossible to ignore as a potential alternative. Even his Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, has acknowledged as much.
If Formula E’s popularity continues to soar, Wolff says, then Hamilton would be open to the prospect of jumping ship.
An experiment in Formula E has the power not only to invigorate him but also to sit better alongside his eco credentials.