Lewis Hamilton’s ‘extreme diet’ revealed following summer break weight gain

Jamie Woodhouse 30 Aug 2023 3:15 PM

Lewis Hamilton speaking to the media. Austria June 2023.

Lewis Hamilton fell into a trap that plenty of us will have been guilty of in the past by enjoying some calories over his summer break.

After an intense part one to the F1 2023 season, personnel then headed off into the traditional one-month break from Formula 1 activities, providing a period for the drivers to recoup energy before racing to the F1 2023 finish line in Abu Dhabi.

For Hamilton anyway, the first part of his summer break was an energetic affair.

Lewis Hamilton forced into “extreme diet”

Speaking on stage, Hamilton would lift the lid on how he spent his time off over the F1 2023 summer break.

Lewis on his summer break, not him saying he gained too much weight and had to go on a strict diet afterpic.twitter.com/LYNkuWlrXg

— Marina (@xxoMarina)August 26, 2023

“我做了第一周和我的侄女和ne在洛杉矶phew, it was really sunny and it was beautiful and I was mostly working whilst I was out there,” said the seven-time World Champion.

“And then I did some hiking in the mountains and then I had like a real unplug rest in the sun, so I got a really good tan!”

Then came the not so fun part though, as Hamilton set about getting down to his optimum driving weight, with every ounce counting in the world of Formula 1 performance.

Hamilton revealed that on the Saturday prior to the F1 2023 season-resuming Dutch Grand Prix, he was three kilos over the top of his weight range, meaning that this time he had to lay off the food to get that figure back down in time for the race weekend.

“I ate so much food,” he added. “On Saturday…my weight has to be around 73, 74 kilos, and I was almost 77 kilos on Saturday.

“So I had to go on an extreme diet these past days.”

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It proved to be a difficult Dutch GP race weekend for Hamilton and his Mercedes team, the Brit crossing the line P6 while team-mate George Russell retired late on with a puncture, following a minor collision with McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Both Hamilton and Russell were critical of Mercedes’ delayed reaction to switch them from slick to intermediate tyres when the rain fell hard at the start of the Dutch Grand Prix.

Mercedes remain P2 in theConstructors’ Championship, but with Fernando Alonso scoring a P2 finish for Aston Martin, Mercedes’ buffer over the Silverstone-based squad has been cut to 40 points.