The King of Adaptation

How do you deal with change? Do you enjoy the challenge, or crumple under the threat of an uncertain outcome? Yesterday's Formula 1 Tuscan GP had three restarts. Three! It was a spectacular race to say the least. What fascinates me from a behavioral perspective is how each driver dealt with having to restart the race under varying conditions. The car is obviously going to feel different. The clutch bite point changes, it has less fuel, it's on a different compound, all things they really cannot prepare for and so are forced to deal with in the moment.

Being able to adapt to these changing conditions is what separates the boys from the men. Daniel Ricciardo certainly made the most of it and got very close to a podium (and Cyril Abiteboul to a tattoo), but the absolute king of adaptation was Lewis Hamilton. Of course he drives the fastest, most reliable car (thanks to the amazing work of his team at Mercedes), but that means nothing if you cannot adapt to the context in which the car has to be driven.

Creativity, flexibility, ownership, courage, the skills needed to thrive under pressure, Hamilton has them all. He wasn’t as unexpected a winner as Pierre Gasly was last week, but he was the rightful one. Legend!