Driven to Defy Limits: Nicolas Hamilton on resilience, racing and redefining high performance

Now recognised as one of the UK’s most in-demand sports speakers, Nicolas is celebrated not just for his motorsport achievements, but for the mindset that fuels them.

As a high performance speaker, he shares hard-won insights on resilience, adversity and mental strength—drawing from a career that continues to break barriers and redefine what’s possible.

In this exclusive interview with The Champions Speakers Agency, Nicolas opens up about the personal attributes that shaped his success, the importance of disability inclusion in sport, and the mindset strategies that drive his performance on and off the track.

Q: Defying expectations after being told you’d never walk is extraordinary. What personal strengths do you believe enabled you to achieve this?

Nicolas Hamilton: “Oh wow, what personal qualities do I credit to this achievement? Firstly, I would say I’m a very resilient person. I never take no as an answer, and I believe that the only person that can tell me I can’t do things is me.

“And so, regardless of what people say, I make my own decisions, and I thrive off of negative criticism. So if someone told me I couldn’t do something, I do my utmost to prove them wrong.

“I would say with my condition I’ve been a great problem solver over the years. I’m always trying to find ways of getting out of situations or overcoming certain obstacles. It could be the most difficult of obstacles to the most simplest of obstacles—such as, you know, maybe carrying a bowl of cereal to your desk and not spilling it.

“And so, I don’t know, I think I have many qualities. I don’t like talking about myself, believe it or not, even though I am a speaker and I have to talk about myself. But no, I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved, what I’ve overcome. I’m a very solid human.

“It’s not always been that easy. I’ve had a lot of ups and downs, but I think generally—yeah, generally—I would say resilience is everything for me. And I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, as I said, and hopefully there’s more to come from me in the future.”

Q: In what ways has your experience with cerebral palsy shaped your resilience and given you an edge in motorsport and business?

Nicolas Hamilton: “It’s given me, I would say, more of an understanding in terms of dealing with pressure, dealing with failure as well.

“And, you know, when it comes to sport, you can’t always triumph. There are also very difficult down days. But with my condition, not everything’s been a bed of roses for me, so I’m sort of used to having tougher days than others and overcoming those days—and being able to tell people about them and be able to live to tell the tale, as such.

“So I wouldn’t say it’s given me any type of benefit in terms of motorsport, but I always feel that my condition has made me who I am. It doesn’t define me, but it makes me the strong person that I am today.

“I went through a period of my life where I hated life. I hated my condition. I didn’t understand why I was the way I was, and why I was given my condition, and why I couldn’t be like my friends who were all able-bodied.

“But now I wouldn’t change it for the world, and I’m so grateful to have it. I try—and as I say always—to just play with the cards I’ve been dealt in the best way possible.

“And so I strive every day to overcome any barrier that comes in front of me. It could be, as I said, the smallest or the biggest of barriers, but I tackle them each the same.”

Q: You launched the world’s first racing academy for people with disabilities. What impact do you hope this has on inclusion and representation in motorsport?

Nicolas Hamilton: “I think it’s vital. I think disability in sport is super, super important. Sport can bring a lot of people together.

“It can also show disabled people what is possible. And having the opportunity to get involved in any type of sport is, I think, a key opportunity for everybody to have.

“With this initiative that I helped with, it was to give disabled people an equal opportunity—an opportunity that they feel that maybe they would never be able to have normally.

“And I’m glad that I was able to at least help with that. Because I feel that every person who has a dream or a desire has the right and the opportunity to succeed.

“If I can help by giving them a platform to achieve that goal, or that target, or that dream, then I’ve done my job.”

Q: Motorsport is an intensely high-pressure career. How do you prioritise and protect your mental health while competing?

Nicolas Hamilton: “With great difficulty, if I’m honest. Mental health, I believe, is everything.

“The way I like to think about it is life is 90% mental and 10% physical. It doesn’t really matter how physically fit you are and strong you are—if you’re not there mentally, if you don’t believe in yourself mentally, then I personally believe that you’re never going to achieve your full potential.

“Now I would say mental health is a trial-and-error situation. It’s all about working out what works for you. Sometimes what people tell you would work sometimes doesn’t, and what works for others doesn’t necessarily work for you personally.

“So how I go about trying to build myself mentally is trying to find ways that I know help me and stay true to my vision, to my desire.

“And also, I think, what is key to overcoming a bit of mental toughness and struggles is going through failure as well. I think failure is also very key—you’ve got to learn how to fail before you can succeed, almost, is how I feel.

“And so with every failure I have, I feel like I only get stronger and stronger. And have I had a lot of failures? Yes, and I think that’s sort of what’s made me the person I am today.

“But it’s a never-ending journey. And with every day that goes past, you learn something new about yourself. So I love mental health. I think it’s super, super important.

“There’s a lot of people that shy away from it. And I’m trying, in my sessions as well, to be open about it and tell people it’s okay to not be okay sometimes. It’s okay to talk to people, ask for help—because you never know where they can help you.”

This exclusive interview with Nicolas Hamilton was conducted by Chris Tompkins of The Motivational Speakers Agency.