Vegan Lewis Hamilton Wins His First Race in Ferrari Red at the Shanghai Sprint

Vegan Formula 1 legend Lewis Hamilton has won his first race for Ferrari, leading from start to finish in the sprint at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai to finish 6.889 seconds clear of the field.

Hamilton took a surprise pole in sprint qualifying and then controlled the 19-lap race from the front, ahead of McLaren's Oscar Piastri and world champion Max Verstappen. It was also the first time Ferrari had won a sprint since the format was introduced in 2021.

Just six days earlier he had finished 10th in Melbourne on his Ferrari debut, and the doubters were out in force. At 40, the seven-time world champion answered them the only way he knows how. Shanghai has always been kind to him: he has won six grands prix there.

Speaking after the race, Hamilton said:

I woke up feeling great today. I really do feel a lot of people underestimated the really steep climb it is to get into a new team, to become acclimatised within a team, understanding and communication, all sorts of things. From Lap 1 here this weekend, really feeling on it. We've done a great job, the engineers have done a great job, mechanics have done a great job to really finetune the car and it felt great today.

He added that it was “hard to put into words”, calling the sprint “a good stepping stone” before Sunday's main race.

Hamilton has been vegan since 2017, and he has never been shy about why it works for him. When critics claimed he would lose muscle without animal protein, he called it “absolute rubbish” and, back in 2020, said:

I'm able to lift more weight than I've ever done before and I [have] been able to run further than I've ever been able to run before.

The science backs him up. Research has shown that plant protein builds muscle just as well as animal protein, and F1 is one of the most physically brutal sports there is, with drivers enduring huge g-forces lap after lap. Leading every lap of a race at 40 on plants is about as good an advert as a diet can get.

Hamilton is the latest in a long line of plant-powered winners. In 2019 he won his sixth world title and opened a plant-based burger chain, the same year The Game Changers became the best-selling documentary in iTunes history. Plant-based Novak Djokovic won his 24th Grand Slam at 36 and then Olympic gold at 37.

No meat, no problem.