A relaxed Lewis Hamilton walked into the paddock at Montreal’s Gilles Villeneuve Circuit to attend today’s FIA press conference.

“This is one of the races closest to my heart,” he said. “I had my first win on the Île Notre-Dame. I remember how amazing it felt to be first across the finish line, and since then, Montreal has always been a special place for me.”

Close to the fans. Among the things the English champion loves about this track is, of course, its layout, but also how close the fans are to the action.

“The track is exciting with the walls all around, but it’s incredibly fast for what is really a street circuit, and the braking points are really hard, which gets the adrenalin pumping,” he said. “But what I really love are the grandstands, as here they are closer to the track than anywhere else. At Turn 10 or Turn 2, you feel like you’re braking into the arms of the fans and that’s a beautiful feeling. I’ve always had a lot of support here and now I’m a Scuderia Ferrari HP driver, I think I’ll have even more fans, especially as there’s a large Italian-speaking community here. We are working hard to give ourselves and all of them a great result this weekend.”

Similarities and differences. From the perspective of his 19 years in the sport, Lewis was asked what he thought Formula 1 must be like now for the young drivers.

“That’s a very interesting question,” he began. “I think there are similarities and differences between when I started and the present. I believe that today’s cars are just as hard to drive for a rookie as my 2007 car was for me. But I’m also sure that life outside the car was much easier back then. The media were less reactive, social media didn’t exist, so neither did the abuse that often comes with it, so there was probably more time to grow up calmly. Basically, I think today’s youngsters are very mature, but these days they also have to grow up very quickly.”