For years, Lewis Hamilton and his physiotherapist, Angela Cullen, were inseparable, but early in the 2023 Formula 1 season, the two suddenly ended their collaboration. Meanwhile, Cullen has found a new ‘job’: she has been working with IndyCar driver Marcus Armstrong for several months and, in her own words, has “fallen in love” with the American motorsport class.
Cullen has been working as a personal trainer for Armstrong since this year, who, like her, is from New Zealand. Armstrong competes for the Chip Ganassi Racing team, for which he also drove 12 races in the US racing class in 2023. Armstrong previously competed in Formula 2, among others.
Cullen, who celebrates her 50th birthday on 5 August, talks about her switch in an interview on IndyCar’s YouTube channel. “I worked for Lewis Hamilton with Mercedes for seven years, which was a huge learning curve for me. Not only was I learning about the sport, but obviously the demans of motorsport on the drivers,” she says.
Angela Cullen considered retirement after parting F1
When her years-long association with Hamilton came to an abrupt end in early 2023, the 49-year-old New Zealander did not assume she would return to the world of motorsport. “When I left F1, I thought I was moving away from motorsport. I was retired actually. I took a year off and then I connected with Marcus Armstrong, and I started working with him on mental skills and things in the background,” Cullen continued.
That collaboration initially consisted mainly of mental support and behind-the-scenes work, as she describes it. Through a joint sponsor, she was offered the chance to come to a race and she did not hesitate for a moment. “I said oh yes, I’d love to come out, like oh my God, IndyCar just hit me. It’s so much fun,” says the physiotherapist. “I just fell in love with it. The energy, the racing’s incredible, the drivers are incredible, I was overwhelmed be the expertise of everyone in the paddock,” Cullen said.
