Lewis Hamilton, agile tester?

Lewis Hamilton became the youngest Formula One racing car champion last year, in spectacular circumstances with a last gasp fifth place in the last race. This year, as tabloid headlines screamed “hero to zero”, his success has been measured by trying to avoid being lapped by the leaders and ending a five race drought without winning a point.

In June, he spoke about his season , “As racing drivers and people we all have some good years and some bad. I’ve had a run of four good years and I have finally come to a year that is pretty disastrous to say the least. We continue to push and work as a team to try and improve things and there will be a better day. It’s just a long, long struggle for us at the moment. Hopefully we’ll get back there one day.”

“I’m devoting all my time to help the team move in the right direction and learn from mistakes. I’m not an engineer or an aerodynamicist, but I’m always asking them questions trying to get them thinking and it’s the same for me. It’s tough in the sport right now and I can only hope I’m racing next year because I want a shot at winning the world title again next year. I’m in the simulator every week. Sometimes two days a week. Me and Heikki (Kovalainen) are flat out and we’re busy every day. There’s little more we can do as drivers, we go to all the meetings and we talk with the engineers and we push for different development parts and generally we try to make sure that whatever we request is in the right direction for the team.”

Last weekend, Lewis had his first podium finish since last October, winning the Hungarian Grand Prix. Hamilton roared “Woohoohoo. Great job, guys, great job, guys” to his team over his radio as he crossed the finishing line. He said later, “It’s an incredible feeling to be back here after what feels such a long time away and given the struggles for my team. But I’m so proud of them. They’ve never given up, which is so rare to see in a large group of people. We didn’t expect to win this weekend. Naturally we’ve caught up, but we didn’t think we had the pace, so it’s very special to win this one.”

Pushing for improvement, learning from mistakes, asking thought provoking questions, and working as a team are all key “testing” attributes for everyone on an agile team. One major difference: I’ve still to hear of any agile teams having a water fight with expensive champagne after a successful project!