Ex-McLaren mechanic shares how Lewis Hamilton’s relationship with Nicole Scherzinger affected F1 performances

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Lewis Hamilton enjoyed perhaps the greatest rookie season in the history of Formula 1 with McLaren. He came within a point of winning the title.

Hamilton scored 12 podiums as a rookie, more than any other driver in history. And that record is unlikely to be broken.

It’s rare for frontrunning teams to take a chance on a junior racer without testing them in the midfield first, even if Hamilton’s Mercedes successor Andrea Kimi Antonelli is an exception. But the Briton justified Ron Dennis’ faith by instantly matching two-time world champion Fernando Alonso.

Hamilton arguably should have won the title, having entered the last two races with a 12-point lead over Alonso in an era where only 20 more were available. But his error at the Chinese GP, where he beached his car in the gravel on pit entry, opened the door for Kimi Raikkonen to mount an all-time great comeback.

Fortunately, Hamilton made amends a year later. Again there was late drama, with Raikkonen’s Ferrari teammate Felipe Massa convinced he was about to become world champion as he crossed the line to win the Brazil finale.

But his rival passed Timo Glock at the last meaningful corner to snatch glory. His celebrity girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger led the wild celebrations in the pitlane.

Lewis Hamilton would struggle when Nicole Scherzinger relationship was ‘off’

Speaking on the BBC’s Chequered Flag podcast in November 2024, former McLaren mechanic Marc Priestley reflected on Hamilton’s early years. He says the youngster struggled to separate his life on and off the track.

McLaren quickly noticed that there was a link between his love life and his sporting performance. As such, the tumultuous nature of his relationship with Scherzinger was problematic for the Woking outfit.

The mechanics even joked that the match benefitted them at times, unleashing the fastest possible version of Hamilton. The musician was also present in Abu Dhabi when he won his second F1 title, and first with Mercedes, in 2014.

Hamilton enjoyed a run of dominance with the Silver Arrows, bagging six championships in seven years. But he split with Scherzinger for good in 2015.

“When I worked with Lewis way back at the start of his career, he was going out with Nicole Scherzinger at the time,” Priestley recalled. “Their relationship was always a bit up and down. We could very clearly track the on-track performance to their relationship. When it was off, so was his performance in the car.

“When he moved onto Mercedes, we used to joke with the guys at Mercedes and we’d say ‘there was more lap time in trying to keep those two together than there was in anything they could do with the car’, because he was so linked to his emotions in terms of how it plays out in his performance.”

Lewis Hamilton won’t want to revisit his 2019 comments as he joins Ferrari

In 2024, Hamilton’s focus was questioned for a different reason. He’d announced before the season started that he was leaving Mercedes to join Ferrari.

What followed was statistically his poorest campaign yet, even if there were two race wins in Great Britain and Belgium. He must prove this year that he hasn’t entered an inescapable decline – or if he has, he’s still good enough to win a championship.

He may be re-energised by the famed support of the Tifosi. Hamilton faced intense booing from Ferrari fans during his dominance, even calling Monza ‘the worst podium for me’.

He won’t want to look back on those comments, but they’ll quickly be forgotten anyway if he starts winning races. Hamilton is learning Italian phrases, which may also go down well with his new fanbase.