Hamilton says karate shaped his F1 mindset

Lewis Hamilton said at the Hungarian Grand Prix that the karate he took up as a six-year-old to cope with bullying became the foundation for the discipline, confidence and self-control that still define his Formula 1 career.

The Ferrari driver said martial arts arrived at a crucial point in his childhood. Hamilton explained that he had asked to start karate because he was being bullied at school, and that the problem did not pass quickly. Instead, he said, it lasted "for a long, long time," continuing "all the way into junior school, into high school," before the sport gave him "that confidence to be able to handle myself and handle those bullies."

Hamilton said karate mattered for more than self-defense. Speaking to reporters at the Hungaroring, he described it as the place where he first learned discipline. "Karate, it was a really important part of my life," he said. "Actually, it's where I learned a lot of discipline, I was just a normal kid with lots of energy, bouncing off walls, climbing trees. I needed that energy directed into something and otherwise I would have probably gone off the rails with where I grew up."

That idea of control, rather than aggression, sat at the center of his explanation. Hamilton presented karate as the thing that helped him redirect the energy of a difficult childhood into something constructive, and as an early lesson in restraint that later became useful in elite competition.

What made his account especially striking was the way he connected those school experiences directly to motorsport. Hamilton said the intimidation he dealt with as a child did not disappear when he reached racing. "And then when I got to the racetrack, the same thing. Bullies are there," he said, framing the paddock not as a complete break from the past but as another environment where confidence and composure had to be defended.

That link helps explain why Hamilton described karate as a lasting competitive tool rather than a childhood anecdote. In his telling, the sport gave him a way to stay composed under pressure and to respond to confrontation without losing control, qualities that are as relevant in a Formula 1 career as they were in the schoolyard.

Hamilton, now racing for Ferrari and running second in the 2026 world championship behind Andrea Kimi Antonelli, said those lessons still shape the way he thinks and competes. He said karate ultimately taught him to "understand myself, understand the power that I have within, and how to utilise it for good rather than negative," putting self-mastery at the heart of both the driver and the person he became.