Lewis Hamilton's Emotional Arsenal Moment at Canadian Grand Prix
Lewis Hamilton arrived in Montreal to talk about apexes and upgrades. He ended up talking about Arsenal, childhood, and a long wait finally over.
On Thursday, ahead of the Canadian Grand Prix, the Ferrari driver admitted the Gunners’ Premier League title win had moved him to tears. Not a figure of speech. A real one.
“I shed a tear, to be honest,” Hamilton said, as Arsenal’s first league crown in 22 years inevitably found its way into the Montreal paddock chatter.
The title was sealed on Tuesday, not by an Arsenal kick, but by Manchester City’s 1-1 draw with Bournemouth. One slip in Manchester, one roar in north London, and a global fanbase erupted. Among them, a seven-time world champion who still carries the memories of a kid with a ball on a street corner in Stevenage.
“I remember being five years old, playing football around the corner in Stevenage. I was the only Black kid in the area, and everyone supported West Ham, Tottenham, or Manchester United,” Hamilton recalled.
The allegiance that now runs so deep started with a nudge.
“She gave me a little dig in the arm and said, ‘You have to support Arsenal.’ We had a laugh about that the other day,” he said of his sister, the one who made him pick red and white over claret, navy or anything else.
From the outside, it’s easy to see Hamilton only as the polished global star. On weeks like this, he sounds more like any other fan who has waited, hoped, and finally watched the years of frustration snap in a single confirmation graphic on a TV screen.
Gasly brings PSG pride into Arsenal’s big week
Not everyone in the paddock is swept up in Arsenal’s moment.
A few garages down, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly made sure of that. The Frenchman, smiling as the conversation drifted from downforce to football, nailed his colours to a very different mast: Paris St Germain.
“I’m glad we started talking about real stuff,” Gasly joked, before switching into full PSG mode ahead of next week’s Champions League clash with Arsenal.
PSG arrive at that tie as freshly crowned Ligue 1 champions again, having wrapped up a fifth successive title with a 2-0 win away at nearest challenger Lens last week. It is routine dominance at home; the obsession, as always, lies in Europe.
Gasly expects the meeting with Arsenal to live up to the billing. A heavyweight domestic champion from England, another from France, and a fanbase on each side convinced this is finally their year.
He was clear where his heart sits.
“I’ll obviously be rooting for PSG, and hopefully they can bring in a second Champions League,” he said. No hesitation, no diplomatic fence-sitting. Just a driver who wants his club to finally add another European star.
Perez plots a World Cup dash
If Gasly’s mind is on the Champions League, Sergio Perez is thinking bigger. World Cup big.
The Cadillac driver has his own football mission mapped out, one that cuts straight through the middle of a packed F1 calendar. Mexico will host games at the upcoming World Cup, with matches scheduled in his home city of Guadalajara, and Perez has no intention of missing it.
“I literally have to come just for the game and then go back to Europe. We will make it happen,” he said.
For a driver used to brutal travel schedules, this one will still stand out: a mid-season transatlantic dash purely to sit in the stands and watch his country play at home on the biggest stage of all.
“It’s a World Cup at home. Anything can happen,” he added, hopeful but realistic about Mexico’s chances. No wild promises, just the knowledge that a tournament on your own soil has a way of bending logic, if only for a night.
Antonelli’s divided loyalties without Italy
At the other end of the standings, championship leader Kimi Antonelli faces a very different World Cup problem: his nation will not be there.
The Mercedes driver admitted he still does not know who to back with Italy absent, the familiar blue missing from the tournament’s mosaic.
“I do really like Brazil, for example, the way they play the game,” he said. The attraction is obvious: flair, rhythm, the kind of football that feels like a show as much as a sport.
But his admiration stretches beyond one shirt.
“I’m also cheering for Messi, one of my favourite players when I was little, and also I got to meet him in Miami,” Antonelli added. The boyhood hero now a living opponent in the bracket, and yet still the player he gravitates toward.
Italy’s absence still stings.
“Italy is not in it, unfortunately. So we’re going to wait another four years, maybe,” he said. “It’s a disaster, but it’s okay.”
In the Montreal paddock, the themes are familiar: loyalty, disappointment, hope. The badges change — Arsenal, PSG, Mexico, Brazil, Messi — but the tone is the same. Even among the fastest drivers on earth, football still has the power to make them cry, joke, plan mad dashes across continents, and stare four years into the future.
