By David Tremayne, F1 Hall of Fame journalist
If you were watching this season hoping to spot the Lewis Hamilton we saw in Hungary last year — the man in the red Ferrari suit with hollow eyes and a hangdog expression — you can stop looking. As Hamilton put it bluntly in Australia, “that person’s gone, so you won’t see that person again.”
Across the opening races he has looked and sounded like a different driver: sharper, more positive, and more like the familiar Hamilton fans remember. The difficult year that left him drained appears to have been put behind him. He has found his smile again, rebooted mentally, and returned to the paddock as a refreshed competitor.