With the end of the 2021 Formula One season going right to the wire, with Max Verstappen controversially snatching the title away from 7-time champion Sir Lewis Hamilton, the racing legend was close to ending his time on the track. If not for the intervention of Mellody Hobson and George Lucas, he may well have stepped away. A co-owner alongside Hobson of the Denver Broncos, Hamilton was invited by Mellody and George to spend Christmas with them in the Caribbean, an offer he initially turned down but eventually accepted.
“He was in a dark place,” said Hobson.
Speaking about what happened in the closing laps of the season finale was a banned topic.
Hobson explained, though, that they did most of their talking at dawn, with his future being a major talking point.
“And that’s when we spent a lot of time sort of going in and debriefing,” said the 53-year-old.
“And I just kept telling him things like: We make no decisions in times of great anguish or pain. You have to just sit with this, and it’s going to be hard and uncomfortable. But there’s nothing to be done at this moment. So do nothing.
“This is what you do, and you’re not done.”
Hobson first met Hamilton at the 2007 Monaco Grand Prix; after being taken by Lucas; it was of course Hamilton’s first F1 race at the principality.
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