Karen, who was a key member of Hamilton’s support team as physiotherapist and assistant, left her role early in the season.
Her role is now split between two new physiotherapists, although much of Hamilton’s support network remains the same behind the scenes.
Hamilton and Karen are in touch to plan “the next fun adventure”, the seven-time world champion added, adding that he hoped they could climb Everest together in the future.
“My setup was slightly different, with (Angela’s old) role being split between two people,” he explained.
“The rest of my team is the same. Ange and I were talking the other day and we’ve been in touch.
“We’ll always be in each other’s lives, always looking forward to the next fun adventure, whether it’s skydiving, or climbing Mount Everest together at some stage, maybe – who knows. Keep supporting each other on our journey.
“I have a great setup now. One of the guys – Steve-O – has been with me since my first race at McLaren, when I moved here from McLaren to be my transmission technician. , he’s been here too. Then he moved on a couple of different roles, and he’s helping me now.
“Otherwise I’m training with someone, and she’s here, Kylie. And then I also have Sandy here, and I have Penny. I have a great support structure.”
Mercedes-AMG’s Lewis Hamilton on track with Mercedes-AMG physiotherapist Angela Cullen
Asked about his longevity in F1, Hamilton explained that while his continued performance in the championship was largely down to training and diet, he felt the continued willingness to make sacrifices also worked in his favor.
He added that he feels better at prioritizing recovery between bouts than he did in his first year at the tournament — especially with the support of the fitness staff around him.
“My recovery is better because I’m more focused than ever on my recovery,” he said.
“When I was 22, I wasn’t focused on recovery. I didn’t even know anything about recovery. I just went home and was probably eating pizza and didn’t know what I needed to do the next day.
“For recovery, I don’t have any experts around me to help me with that.
“I have a physical therapist, but we don’t do much. We train together, we swim together, but other than that I don’t know all the details of how you want to eat, how to replenish fluids you lose, stretching, all these different thing.
“I didn’t do that back then. But I mean, I don’t know if those riders were fit at the time, so they probably fell more than us because we trained a lot more than they did.”
Russell also had bounce problems in the high-speed corners of Barcelona, which made it harder to drive his Mercedes W14 to the limit, with the Briton reporting he believed he had problems with his tires early in the first quarter.
“The car didn’t feel good every lap of the race,” Russell said when asked by Autosport about the car’s behavior.
“We made some small changes from FP3 to quali, and the car bounced a lot in high-speed corners.
“In the corners that were easy to get flat in practice, I couldn’t get it flat. I couldn’t get the tires to work, everything went wrong. From the first lap in Q1, I knew we weren’t going to have a good day. It was weird .
“We should take advantage of conditions like that, which we usually do. As a team we usually do well when it’s challenging, but today, especially with me, it was different.”
Russell was knocked out in the second period after contact with team-mate Lewis Hamilton and was six-tenths off Max Verstappen’s benchmark time for the stage.
Russell mentioned that Q1 leader Nico Hulkenberg was 1.5 seconds behind to underscore his struggles, adding: “I’ve tried all kinds of outer circles, all kinds of pressure. Probably just getting ourselves a little bit lost and confused.
“For those cold, wet, oily conditions, the set-up changes we made in qualifying were definitely going in the wrong direction, which is a shame, especially because I think we have a very fast car. I think in FP2 In , we probably have the second fastest car after the Max, ahead of the Ferraris.
“So not all is lost. Tomorrow we just have to be patient and try to bounce back.”
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Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff backed Russell’s downbeat assessment of his weekend, admitting the team had gone the wrong way with his car.
“It was clear from the start that the set direction we were going with George made the car worse,” he said. “I think from the very beginning he was complaining that he didn’t have any grip, he had bounce and the car was understeering before it was oversteering.
“That’s something we need to unwind now to see exactly what we could have done differently.”
Charles Leclerc was disappointed to qualify for the Spanish Grand Prix for the 19th time. The Monaco native is looking forward to what will be a tricky game for him. Leclerc expects tire management and pit stops to play a big role in the race. He told this in a press conference with GPblog and others.
Lewis Hamilton finished fifth in Spain. Due to Pierre Gasly’s penalty, the Briton could start from fourth. The Mercedes driver suffered a lot from a bouncing car, the Mercedes driver told GPblog and others at a press conference during free practice.