“Coming into the last four races in 2021, I got invited to a WhatsApp group that was just called, ‘We will do this’,” said Shovlin. “Lewis had put a few people in it, and we had to win the next four races.
“When I saw it, he was the one who created the group. I got this sense of, ‘Yeah, actually, we will do it’, because if he believes he’s going to do it, we’re there to support him… He’s got this sense of belief that’s so strong it could almost make things happen.
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“The turnaround at that point, the dedication, the commitment, the level of detail he was going into to make sure we could go and win four races on the bounce, was incredible.”
While Hamilton won three of those last four races, defeat to Verstappen at the Yas Marina Circuit – having been overtaken following a late Safety Car – meant the Dutchman secured the crown by the slender margin of eight points.
“We all know what happened in the final laps of Abu Dhabi and it’s difficult to take any satisfaction from the way that year concluded, other than we did what we needed, we achieved those targets that we had to achieve,” added Shovlin.
