MB: When you are on form you are unbeatable in terms of raw speed. But sometime you turn up on a Thursday and you don't look happy. And sometimes you say I'm not happy. What's all that about? LH: "You have different people who are able to hold in their emotions - I have a Finnish trainer, for example, who doesn't show any emotion and they are always able to control it. Me, I wear my heart on my sleeve and that gets me in trouble a lot of the time and I generally find it very, very hard to fight my emotions. I'm going through...I'm trying my hardest to be positive but I'm going through a really, really tough time at the moment with the loss of someone really, really special in my life. My world's turned upside down, but I have a job...
MB: And it's Nicole you are talking about?LH: "Yup...but I have a job to motivate my team and if I come in with my head down and negative energy then that goes around to all my mechanics who work day and night, and I don't ever want that. So I'm really trying to pull myself together and keep my head up but it's so hard to do."
But you manage to park all that when it matters?
LH: "When I get in the car I generally switch off and I feel at home and I feel in control and I'm in my own world. It's just me in the car on the track and nothing else. So that's when I feel my best and I feel most comfortable in my life."
MB: Do you think you're still improving? Do you think your best is still ahead of you with your skill and your speed?
LH: "I think I'm still improving. This year I've don't feel like I've been able to always drive my best because there's almost like a smaller operating window with this car - if you don't have it in that window the car's nowhere and you just have poor performances. From weekend to weekend I wish I could have always had it in the window but some weekends it's not been right. Last weekend [at Silverstone] it was there or thereabouts and I feel like today we got it there as well. But I guess that will just take time with his new team.
"I'm driving a car that's been built and designed around another driver, Michael [Schumacher] and Nico [Rosberg], so I'm trying to adapt all the skills and driving methods that I have to work with this one."
MB: But you must feel very satisfied with your decision to leave for Mercedes-Benz. It now looks incredibly smart. A lot of people, including myself, thought that wasn't necessarily the right thing to do. But you must now feel very satisfied?LH: "It feels great. I just feel proud because I've made mistakes, as we all do, but I've made a lot of bad decisions throughout my life and a lot of my decisions when I was younger were controlled on my dad, or heavily influenced by my dad. I've really wanted to be my own man and make my own decisions and make the right decisions because my dad is always right and I want to be like him in that sense.
"I really, really worked hard to analyse what I wanted and got myself in the right headspace to make that decision. One day I was just so clear and I did it and I feel I did it for all the right reasons even if we were going to struggle at the beginning. I remember sitting in Colorado overlooking the mountains thinking 'jeez, what have I got myself into? This is going to be such a hard challenge' - and also thinking that I've just come from an incredible car last year which is going to be better this year and everything I've worked towards Perez is going to have."
MB: And Mercedes were looking pretty ordinary at that time...
Yeah, I never could have imagined [where they would be now]. I remember when I met with Ross [Brawn] and he showed me the plans and I really believed in them and they were really going in the right direction with the car and everything. And when I got there it was even better than what I expected. Look at us - I could never have dreamed of it being so good."
