Sports
Lewis Hamilton parties with celebrities on yacht as he puts the…
It hasn’t been an easy F1 season for Lewis Hamilton, and he’s clearly spending his brief break taking his mind off the sport
Lewis Hamilton is enjoying his two weeks off from F1 by spending time on a yacht with some fellow celebrities. The seven-time champion was all smiles as he enjoyed some down time on the Spanish island of Ibiza.
The 38-year-old wore a maroon tracksuit as he entered the yacht alongside tennis star Jenny Stray Spetalen and Mexican actress Eiza Gonzalez, as well as film director Baz Luhrmann and his wife Catherine Martin. He then changed into his blue swimwear and took to a flyboard, and was photographed hovering over the waves with a friend who was on board a jet ski.
Hamilton spending time with Spetalen and Gonzalez comes days after he was spotted partying with pop star Shakira after the British Grand Prix. This came after the pair met up at the prior Spanish and Miami Grand Prix events, which fuelled dating rumors.
However, it seems they may now be put to rest following his holiday alongside Spetalen and Gonzalez. Hamilton has long been a fan of spending time in the ocean, which he elaborated on in a GQ interview.
“I would say I swim a lot more than I surf [laugh],” he said. “I’m so competitive so I paddle for pretty much every wave. I could be out there for hours and I might miss 100 waves but I get five good waves in the day.
What I really love about it is you don’t have your phone with you, it’s time on your own, you have time to think and just let the waves continue to go and appreciate just how powerful mother nature is. I also feel the ocean is very cleansing and I just like getting rid of negative energy.”
Hamilton’s last F1 result was a positive one, as he finished third at the British Grand Prix in front of his adoring home fans. He finished behind fellow British driver Lando Narros and race winner Max Verstappen, who claimed his sixth consecutive victory.
The sport now moves to the Hungarian GP, which will be held this Sunday, and it is one of Hamilton’s most successful races having won there eight times, more than any other driver.
Mercedes have improved their front wing for the British GP and Mercedes’ technical director James Allison Allison revealed it “should improve the balance and performance of the car through the slower range of the corners”. And with the Hungary track “made up almost entirely of slower stuff”, it should help Mercedes be more competitive with the front runners.
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Mick Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel are teaming up to represent Germany at the 2025 Race of Champions (ROC), taking place at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on March 7-8, 2025. First held in 1988, the event will see Schumacher and Vettel team up for the fourth time in their Race of Champions partnership.
They will face off against top competitors from across the motorsport spectrum, spanning single-seaters, rally, and endurance racing.
Vettel, who hasn’t ruled out an F1 return in the future, secured an outright victory at the Race of Champions in London back in 2015. He said in a statement:
“I’m delighted to be coming back to the Race Of Champions and teaming up with Mick again.
“It will be exciting to race in the former Olympic Stadium in Sydney that looks like it will be a great venue for the Race Of Champions. Sydney is one of the most beautiful cities in the world and I think Fredrik (Johnsson) and his team have selected an incredible venue for the next chapter of ROC.
“I am also supportive of ROC’s efforts taking steps towards becoming a sustainable motorsport event, which started at ROC Sweden.
“All the drivers who have the honour to participate in ROC fall in love with the event, because it reminds us about why we first started racing; pure competition and of course with the identical cars there are no excuses.
“I will do everything I can to help Germany win another ROC Nations Cup Title with Mick on the Friday evening, but I will not be doing him any favours when we are going for the outright win on the Saturday night, especially as he beat me in the Semifinals of the Individual ROC in Sweden in 2023!
“At ROC the racing is always intense on the track and everyone wants to win, but it’s also about putting on a great show for the fans.”
Schumacher, who recently revealed that securing a full-time seat with an F1 team was his ultimate goal, looks forward to the ROC at one of his favorite locations. He added:
“After finishing 2nd in the individual ROC in Sweden in 2023 and in the ROC Nations Cup in ROC Mexico with Seb, the goal this time has to be the overall winners trophy both in the ROC Nations Cup on Friday night and in the individual Race Of Champions on Saturday.
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Formula 1 CEO Stefano Domenicali has issued a warning to Ferrari as Lewis Hamilton prepares to join Charles Leclerc as a teammate next season. Hamilton will leave Mercedes after this season to team up with Leclerc, creating significant intrigue in the sport.
The deal between Hamilton and Ferrari marks a historic move in Formula 1. Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, is set to bring his wealth of experience and competitive spirit to the Maranello-based team. This partnership aims to revitalize Ferrari’s performance, which has seen mixed results in recent years. Hamilton’s unmatched drive and Leclerc’s emerging talent promise a powerful dynamic. Both drivers are motivated by the same goal: to secure championships for Ferrari, a team rich in history but seeking to return to its former glory. Their collaboration is anticipated to be a challenge for the competition and an opportunity to push each other to new heights.
Domenicali emphasized the challenge Hamilton will pose for Leclerc, given Hamilton’s talent, experience, and popularity. The seven-time world champion aims to secure an eighth title with Ferrari, and Domenicali noted the importance of clear team rules to prevent any potential conflicts.
“As a Ferrari enthusiast, it’s an extraordinary opportunity because Lewis is a centraliser. He wants to bring home the eighth title and become the best ever. There will have to be respect with Charles, but it’s clear that when you lower your visor… in any case, the team rules and management must be clear,” Domenicali told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
Replacing Hamilton at Mercedes will be 18-year-old Italian prodigy Kimi Antonelli. There’s considerable buzz around Antonelli, alongside other rookies like Oliver Bearman and Jack Doohan who will also debut in F1 next season.
Domenicali expressed his excitement about the influx of young talent and the diverse personalities they bring to the grid. “The young drivers? There are many and what I like is that each one has his own personality,” he added. “We are in a fortunate phase, the drivers are not a problem. The lifeblood of young people is fundamental for us, what F1 must do is to get out of its self-referentiality. I want to see different faces and professionalism.”
This new era in F1 promises to be thrilling as veteran talent and young drivers collide on the track.
The leader of wins in the 2024 Cup Series season achieved his feats without much noise. Kyle Larson currently owns 6 race victories, double the stats held by Cup rivals closest to his heels. Despite numerous instances of on-track scuffles in Cup this year – from the Stenhouse-Busch fistfight to Hocevar spinning Burton – you would not find Kyle Larson on that list. And that is what earned him the respect of a veteran who used to be NASCAR’s Ironman.
Ricky Rudd, a NASCAR Hall of Famer, was a golden phenomenon in his time. The 23-time Cup Series winner was known for his tremendous grit and iron capacity to continue driving even amidst extreme health risks. So recognition from this former HMS driver is no mean feat – but we are talking about Kyle Larson the overachiever.
Making his Cup debut in 1975 at Rockingham Speedway, 18-year-old Ricky Rudd soon developed his signature style of racing. Among his competitors, Rudd earned a name for being a formidable racer. Although he was a clean racer, he taught rivals who messed with him a lesson, as they fell on the wrong side of his bumper. The scrappy driver, the 1997 Brickyard 400 winner, received a fitting nickname for his on-track personality – “Rooster.” His rowdiness was experienced firsthand by veterans like Richard Petty, Bobby Allison, Cale Yarborough, and Dale Earnhardt.
But even the “Rooster” tipped his hat to Kyle Larson’s indomitable calmness of spirit. In a recent interview, the NASCAR Hall of Famer detailed his mindset when he went to race. He did not snuggle with his rivals so much: “You gotta dig down deep when you kind of go out against the competition. Especially when these guys are the best, you know, the best there is…These guys on the racetrack, they were my enemy. I didn’t treat them unkindly, but those were the guys that I purposely wasn’t super close friends with any of them…We were, you know, friends, but just more acquaintances than it was friendship.
Yet Rudd chose to salute Kyle Larson‘s starkly opposite attitude on the racetrack. The Charlotte Roval race winner rarely harbors ill will towards his rivals, and that is what sets his unique driving style, as Rudd said. “I don’t think everybody’s programmed that way. Some guys win and they find a different way to do it. You look at Kyle Larson today. I don’t think he gets mad at anybody, you know. I don’t think he could get mad. But he wins. He’s a heck of a driver and he wins races. Everybody’s got their own way of competing and doing what you have to do to be competitive.” Larson tied Rudd on the wins list when he clinched his 23rd career win last year in Las Vegas.
