MasterClass offers a plethora of online courses taught by leaders and titans of industry across the globe. For instance, you can learn the art of negotiation from the top former FBI hostage negotiator, Chris Voss, or strategy and leadership from former Disney CEO Bob Iger. And now, Lewis Hamilton, the most successful driver in the history of Formula 1 racing, teaches a winning mindset.
To learn from an icon of a sport that I follow closely – Formula 1 – seemed too good an opportunity to pass up. The duration seemed perfect and would fit well into my weekend as I watched Lewis and George duke it out at the 2023 Japanese Grand Prix held at Suzuka.
Yet, as I would learn, this course isn’t just for fans of Lewis of Formula 1. Let’s have a deeper look and see if you might also benefit from this course.
Table of Contents
What is the Lewis Hamilton MasterClass
“Lewis Hamilton teaches a Winning Mindset” is a course on MasterClass, a platform that hosts many other courses from noted figures in their respective fields. The course is taught by its namesake, Lewis Hamilton, arguably the greatest driver in Formula 1 history – a racing category held by the Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) that is considered to be the pinnacle of motorsport.
The course consists of 12 video lessons, all around or a little over 10 minutes in length, for a total of 2 hours and 12 minutes.
The class goes into depth on Lewis’ arduous rise to stardom and his sources of inspiration along the way, as well as practices and mindsets for staying at the top of his craft, learning from failures, building trust and teamwork, taking care of his body and mind, and his interests and initiatives outside of motorsport.
All in all, I found the course perfect for not just Formula 1 and motorsport fans who may already know who Lewis Hamilton is, but also for anyone looking to gain an edge in life and achieve their dreams in a hectic, competitive, and sometimes demanding, world – especially if you feel like you’re different in any way.
Who is Lewis Hamilton?
Lewis Hamilton is a British 7-time Formula 1 world champion with 196 podiums, 103 wins, and 104 pole positions (all of which are F1 records). He’s been breaking records since he entered F1, becoming the youngest champion in the series’ rich history in 2008 when he won with McLaren (which came a year after losing by only 1-point in his rookie season).
So how does an icon of motorsport like this get started?
It started at five years old when Lewis began racing remote-controlled cars (often against opponents 10-15 years older than him) and winning. Watching this, his father noticed his hand-eye coordination and put him in karting. His father worked multiple jobs and re-mortgaged the house while acting as Lewis’s mechanic on the go-kart in his off hours so that he could continue to race in what is an incredibly expensive and taxing sport to get into.
Through these tough early years, the long hours, the strained finances, and the verbal and racial abuse the received at karting events (being the only people of color there), Lewis grew a real love for the sport.
In his own words, no matter what was going on around him, he could put the helmet on and become whoever he wanted.
He also, under the tutelage of his father (who handed him the engineering manuals for his go-karts so he could understand the kart better and pushed him to break later than the other karters) started winning.
And winning. And… yeah, he kept winning. This earned him a young driver sponsorship deal with McLaren at the age of 13. Which helped propel him through the minor leagues of F1 and into a race seat by the time he was 22.
He dominated early on, beating two-time world champion teammate Fernando Alonso in his first season and securing the world title in his second.
Who is the target audience of this course?
In Hamilton’s own words, “This course is for anyone who is out there trying to discover what they’re great at or on the journey towards something but hitting hurdles and need some encouragement. This is for anyone from young to old who is dreaming of doing something and being great and finding their true potential.“
The target audience for this course is not limited to Formula 1 fans but anyone interested in developing a winning mindset and achieving their goals in life. It is also for anyone who might feel different and is looking to create positive change for diversity, equity, and inclusion in their lives and the lives of those around them.
The course is tailored to reach as many people as possible and uses Lewis’s background in Formula 1 to demonstrate the immense pressure and stakes that have helped him develop some of his tools and practices for developing and maintaining his mindset.
This is helpful as it doesn’t dredge up the minutia of Formula 1 that many might find complicated. Rather, it uses its stress and complexity to illuminate the many teachings of Lewis Hamilton. Teachings that may help anyone reach their dreams, regardless of an individual’s background, headed into the course.
All in all, if you’re looking to hone in your mindset, develop trust and teamwork in your workplace, and learn ways to prepare your body and mind for high performance – then this course is for you.
What is covered in the Lewis Hamilton MasterClass?
In his masterclass, Lewis Hamilton covers the following topics
- Igniting Your Passion
- The Power of Influences & Inspiration
- (Being) At One with the Machine
- How to Deal with Failure
- How to Build Trust & Promote Teamwork
- How to Exercise Self Discipline
- Mental Preparation
- The Power of Having Diverse Interests
- Influencing the World Beyond Your Own Area of Expertise
- Paving the Path for Others
Each topic is delivered as a video module that is broken up into short mini-lessons within each video.
Topics are easily digestible and take the awesome, real-life examples from Lewis and his journey towards becoming the best in his field. In reality, this is a solid self-development course broken into easy-to-understand topics by one of the greatest racers the world has ever seen.
My favorite lessons from the Lewis Hamilton MasterClass
My three favorite lessons from the masterclass were, by far, the modules on how to deal with failure, how to build trust and teamwork and influence the world beyond your own.
How to Deal with Failure
In Lewis’ first race weekend as a go-karter, he crashed and was sent into the wall by a rival during a practice session – smashing his kart and bloodying his nose as his helmet crashed against the steering wheel. The only thought on his mind was, ‘Dad, can you fix the car?’ and the next day, he came back and won the race. This steely determination in the face of adversity is critical for anyone who’s out there trying to be their best and actualize their dreams and ambitions.
Lewis’s keys to dealing with failure, as covered in this module, are recognizing the necessity and value of failure along the path of becoming great at anything, confronting your challenges, setting yourself impossible goals, evolving your relationship with failure by accepting the negative emotions that come along with it and not letting them eat at you, and reviewing your mistakes to improve your preparedness.
He further draws on his experience of transitioning from karts to cars, which saw him struggle early on – crashing and finishing near the back of the pack. This is when real self-doubt started to creep in, and he began to wonder if he was good enough to make it. Then, one day on a run, he pushed himself to go beyond his usual limits and found a renewed strength and level of intensity to bring to his pursuit of becoming a Formula 1 driver.
How to Build Trust and Teamwork
This is a perfect module for anyone interested in workplace culture and teamwork. As Lewis points out, getting a dream team together isn’t easy – but you can start by working to see the potential in others around you and how you might be able to get the best out of yourself and your teammates. Do this by building personal relationships by finding out what you have in common with people, building trust to strengthen the team and letting go of expectations and the need to control situations, learning to be a team player and asking for critical feedback, and empowering your teammates with positive emotions, while saying what you need to say (rather than holding back when you get the gut feeling to speak up).
Influencing the World Beyond Your Own
Another big part of Lewis Hamilton’s career for the past few years has been to expand his voice and sphere of influence to create change, such as diversity in motorsport and education (see The Hamilton Commission and Mission 44, respectively) and even a sustainable clothing line with Tommy Hilfiger.
He also convinced Mercedes (the team he races for) to change their car from silver (which had been the case for many years) to black to signify their comment to change and action moving forward.
How much does the Lewis Hamilton MasterClass cost?
Since MasterClass operates based on a subscription model, and does not sell courses individually, you must purchase their $120 a year membership. Sometimes however, you might be able to snag the occasional college student discount or other promotion – so be on the lookout.
In my mind, it’s worth it. You can glean some wonderful insights from some of the worlds’ best across a variety of topics from gardening to cooking and business. It’s a wonderful idea, especially perhaps as a productive alternative to Netflix or other modalities of content consumption. However, if you’re only in it for a course or two it’s probably better just to YouTube the people you want to learn from as there’s tons of videos, talks, podcasts, et cetera that you can glean a lot from.
Purchasing the subscription will also give you access to the Masterclass community; which is a good addition to any learning delivered in an online format.
Lastly, for those who want to try it out, there is also a 30-day money-back guarantee available, which, if you’re just in it for one course, would allow you to try it out and see if it would be worth keeping for any other courses that you might be interested in.
What I liked about the Lewis Hamilton MasterClass
General takeaways
In all, the tools, practices, and principles covered by Lewis – if applied consistently – can take anyone from where they are now to the life of their dreams.
I like that. I like that anyone, regardless of interest in Lewis Hamilton or motorsport, can come into this course and come away having a blueprint for success in their own life.
Along the way, there are plenty of examples from Lewis’ life that anyone can relate to and learn from. All of this culminates in the easy-to-digest and apply format of the topics covered in this MasterClass.
Will you become a Formula 1 great? Probably not, but you can become great in any field that you are already in or looking to get into.
Diversity and inclusion
I also enjoyed listening to Lewis’s perspective on diversity, equity, and inclusion. Being one of the very few people of color in his given industry, it’s hard to imagine what it must’ve been like coming up through the intense and demanding ranks of motorsport to make it to F1.
Yet despite this, despite facing unimaginable amounts of negativity and people telling him ‘he needed to be more like x, y, z’ as a driver (or at least, what people thought a driver should traditionally be and act like), he found a path to be wildly successful in multiple areas of his life, in a way as he saw fit and found enjoyable.
His current mission to increase diversity and address inequity in STEM and motorsport across the UK is inspiring (covered above), and to see someone who owns who they are, different or not, and goes out to dominate regardless of what anyone else says or thinks is definitely something that anyone, from any walk of life, can learn from.
Format and quality
The format of the course and the quality of its production is world-class (much like the rest of the MasterClass courses).
Furthermore, the pdf that is available to download and be used as a reference as you go throughout the course proved to be a valuable refresher after taking the course and writing this review. It even has several exercises that you could do to apply the lessons taught by Lewis in the course.
What I didn't like about the Lewis Hamilton MasterClass
There wasn’t much to pick at here (thus the rating). However, it would have been nice if there was more in-depth information available here and there throughout the course.
For instance, I would’ve loved to have learned more about the exact routine he uses on race weekends to get in the zone as well as how he manages all of the (sometimes incredibly negative) press during them. A breakdown of the 2021 championship and how he managed to handle it would’ve also been a great addition to the how to deal with failure section.
However, as with most Masterclass courses, there just isn’t much in the way of detailed and advanced coverage of these topics. The courses rather are designed to be digested and watched in an easy-to-understand way. I also imagine the schedule of someone like Lewis Hamilton limited the time that he could put into the course and recording content for it.
Conclusion: Is the Lewis Hamilton MasterClass worth it?
100%, this class is worth it, if not just for the basics of self-development taught by someone utilizing them at a high level in one of the most intense, high-stakes fields out there.
I consider myself a bit of a self-development junky as well as a Formula 1 fan, and I have to say, every minute of this course was packed with lessons and gems from Lewis that could help anyone in their pursuit of achievement. It was enthralling to learn about how he came up and became great and what he’s looking to do with Mission 44 and the Hamilton Commission moving forward.
In sum, the Lewis Hamilton MasterClass might prove to be a bit basic for some and a bit focused on Formula 1 for others, but all in all, Lewis’ does an excellent job of relaying his life experience and self-development principles in a helpful, digestible way.
I, for one, will definitely take away the lessons I learned from his perspectives on failure, teamwork, and inclusion – as I embark on my own personal journey toward success.
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