Hamilton: F1 lifestyle makes it hard to maintain relationships with people

Lewis Hamilton admits it's difficult to maintain relationships with people while working in Formula 1 due to the lengthy amounts of time that are spent away from home. 

Next year, F1 will contain 22 races in the calendar, the most that there has ever been in the 70 years of the world championship.

Liberty Media, the commercial rights holders of F1, has made it clear multiple times that it wishes to expand the schedule to 25 races going forward.

With the new sporting regulations for 2021 being confirmed earlier this year, it also pushed through the change that would allow the calendar to host a maximum of 21 races per year.

Hamilton says the most of the sacrifices that F1 drivers have to make compared to other sportspeople is similar - but admits there are challenges involved with all the travelling. 

"It's probably similar to most sportsmen and women," Hamilton said. "It might be slightly different that we're travelling as much as we are, and we're away for crazy amounts of time.

"That's probably an additional weight load that makes it really, really tough to hold down good relationships if things aren't quite perfect."

Hamilton affirmed that it is important to manage the obstacles that F1 drivers face with the logistics of the sport, which is something he finds difficult.

"But I think in general as athletes, having the right mindset, trying to find the right balance of how dedicated you are as opposed to resting back and enjoying quality time," he said.

"It's different for everyone, but having spoken and read about other athletes in other sports, it's quite similar for all of us. There are those who manage it, there are many athletes who have many lives in the background. 

"But I for one find that incredibly difficult, with your goal and to be as competitive as you can be, ultimately you want to be 100% committed. You never want to be less committed than the person next to you.

"There are certain things that are added on, other load-bearing things that can take away from that. There's only a certain amount of you as a whole that you can give. But it depends on how much of a sacrifice you want to make."