IMOLA, Italy :Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton spoke of his anxiety on Thursday – not about how he might fare in his first Formula One race in Italy as a Ferrari driver but the health of his elderly bulldog Roscoe.
The pet has accompanied the Briton through six of his title seasons with Mercedes, even attending races with his own paddock pass and travelling by private jet, and has 1.2 million followers on Instagram.
“He’s 12-and-a-half years old so he’s an old boy,” Hamilton told reporters ahead of the weekend’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at Imola circuit.
“He had pneumonia, but he’s fine now. But definitely this is a time where every time I get a text message from the lady who’s looking after him, my heart stops for a second. You know, what’s next?
“I really want to try and bring him to Silverstone (in July) and take him to Monza (in September) and cheer him up,” added the winner of a record 105 races.
“I was with him before Miami (the race before Imola). He still wants to play. He still has that kind of spirit but he sleeps a lot.”
Hamilton’s season so far has seen the high of winning the Shanghai sprint race but the lows of failing to finish better than fifth in six regular starts.
His last race in Miami was tinged with sarcasm as he suggested Ferrari should take a tea-break in a tetchy radio exchange over team orders.
Ferrari, the sport’s oldest and most successful team, are fourth in the championship and 152 points behind champions McLaren.
“There’s a lot of hype out there, a lot of expectation of course,” he said of the atmosphere at Imola, the nearest F1 circuit on the calendar to Ferrari’s Maranello factory. “But that comes with greatness and we have got a great team.
“I don’t approach it any different… I’m definitely excited to see more red.
“You know that Italians are passionate, you know that there’s passion around Ferrari. It’s a lot more than you expect when you’re actually in it and it’s beautiful.”
