Lewis Hamilton now shares a ‘very suspicious’ trait with Michael Schumacher in the F1 paddock

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The Formula 1 paddock hasn’t been the most comfortable place for Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton this season.

In his 19th season as a Formula 1 driver, Lewis Hamilton finally went through an entire campaign without visiting the podium.

He did record two top-three finishes, but the quirk of F1’s Sprint Races is that the drivers don’t visit the rostrum, instead receiving their awards in parc ferme.

Ferrari built a car that was way below both Hamilton’s and Charles Leclerc’s expectations.

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That didn’t fully explain Hamilton’s issues in qualifying after falling to three successive Q1 exits at the end of the campaign.

The seven-time world champion has become a fashion icon in the paddock, but doesn’t necessarily enjoy the attention that gives him.

Hamilton has been described as the ‘trickiest’ driver to photograph in Formula 1, and photographer Darren Heath has admitted that he shares that trait with fellow champion, Michael Schumacher.

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Lewis Hamilton and Michael Schumacher shared ‘very suspicious’ stance on paddock photos

Heath was speaking about photographing the sport’s biggest drivers on the James Allen on F1 Podcast.

He said: “I’ve always been fascinated by the different characters of drivers and how they have that kind of comfort zone. Certain drivers, like Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel, wouldn’t mind if you were within inches of their face.

“They basically wouldn’t even know you were there because they’re so concentrated. They’re just so in the now, and it didn’t seem to matter.

“Carlos Sainz is fantastic like that now. Charles Leclerc, wonderful. You can be right in their faces, and they don’t mind.

“Obviously, you respect a certain area, and I never photographed drivers eating, for instance, those kinds of things, but they’re generally not doing that on the grid.

“But then you’ve got people like Michael Schumacher who had a much further away sense of space. And of course, he was always, it seemed, very suspicious of what you were up to.

“Lewis Hamilton, he’s not great to photograph close up. I’ve had some fantastic shoots with Lewis in private where he’s great, and we talked about photography, we talked about cameras, and just chewing the fat as you know you do with these guys, but then they kind of change when they get their race face on and get their head in the game.”

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Darren Heath shares his experience of first photographing Michael Schumacher

The world of social media was evolving during the final years of Schumacher’s time in Formula 1, but it was nothing like it is today.

No driver, or any figure in the paddock, can avoid the constant threat of being photographed on a smartphone and their actions immediately shared only with millions of fans.

Heath was writing on his blog about his first F1 race outside the UK, the 1998 German Grand Prix.

The race was won by Mika Hakkinen as he extended his lead over Schumacher on his way to his first championship.

Describing what happened after the Ferrari legend broke down in practice, he said: “Schumacher had nowhere to go. No access road back to the pits, only a small area in which to stand, and a confident photographer close by. It must have been his idea of hell.

“Walking as far away from me as possible, Michael hoped to escape the scrutiny of my lens, but, try as he might, he had no chance. Stalking through the trees as if hunting a wild animal, I crept silently past, so as to see Schumacher’s face.

“A lull in the on-track action, and all was quiet in the forest. Taking care with every footfall, I didn’t want to spook my prey. CRACK! The silence [was] shattered as my foot came down on a fallen branch, and my quarry peered into the darkness. But I remained unseen.”

He described Schumacher as ‘a camera-shy F1 legend’, which sums up Schumacher nicely and aptly applies to Hamilton when he’s in the paddock.

On his own terms, as Heath describes, Hamilton knows how to control the limelight, but when he’s preparing to race, his focus is fully on what’s happening on track.