The British racer not only possesses outstanding talent, but his endurance and nerves of steel are hard to match.
At the 1995 racing awards ceremony, a 10-year-old boy approached McLaren boss Ron Dennis for an autograph, and said: “Hello. I’m Lewis Hamilton. I won the British championship and one day I want to uncle’s driver”. Dennis replied in Hamilton’s notebook: “In nine years, call me. See if you can afford it.” But after only three years, the boy from England signed the McLaren Driver Development program, becoming the youngest person to have a contract with an F1 racing team.
Hamilton was born in a house rented from Stevenage town council – where his mother worked, 50 km north of London. When young Lewis was only two years old, his parents separated even though they both loved him completely.
Lewis Hamilton’s father, Anthony, used to work many jobs at the same time to help his son pursue his dream of becoming a professional driver. Also because of Hamilton’s potential, his mother, Carmen Lockhart, agreed to let her son live with his father when he was 12 years old.
“Anthony understood Hamilton’s abilities and helped him pursue his dream. The boy’s father worked hard to promote Hamilton’s career. That was something I could not do. Even though it hurt, I had to let go of the boy. Let him live with his father and become a star,” Ms. Lockhart confided in Hamilton’s first F1 season in 2007.
Hamilton first experienced racing when he was 6 years old, with a remote control car his father bought as a gift. In less than a year, the boy finished second in the national championship organized by the British Remote Controlled Car Association (BRCA). “I competed against adults and won,” Hamilton recalled. Witnessing his son’s potential, Mr. Anthony came up with the idea for Hamilton to race professionally. Hamilton used to have a black belt in karate and practiced soccer in high school with Ashley Young – a current Man Utd member, but racing is the subject in which he excels compared to his peers.
At the age of 8, Hamilton started learning to drive karting and it only took him two years to win the British junior championship. The driver born in 1985 won almost every karting tournament he participated in. Hamilton’s talent is so outstanding that bookmaker Ladbrokes offers unusual odds – Hamilton will win an F1 race before the age of 23, with odds of 1 to 40, or win the F1 season before the age of 25, with odds of 1 to 150. Both odds This all became a reality later.
Hamilton’s Formula racing career was not as smooth as his karting career. Starting to drive cars at the age of 16, he was introduced to test racing at Renault by Dennis. Hamilton’s first Formula car race was not a dream. “He has never driven a car, even just a regular car. He crashed in our Renault after just three laps,” the McLaren boss recounted. “But the boy quickly returned to the track at high speed, unaffected by the collision.”
Hamilton’s nerves of steel and stability were tempered from the first day he arrived at McLaren. He was invited to the team’s headquarters, meeting with neuroscientist Dr. Kerry Spackman. Here, Hamilton was put into a simulation machine, helping him experience every turn of the F1 stages.
NASA has done the same thing with astronauts, but neuropsychology has no precedent in F1. As a result, McLaren has nurtured the most durable driver in the speed industry.
Despite his outstanding talent, Hamilton still had to patiently wait for the opportunity to debut on the F1 racetrack. During the first six years, he only participated in tournaments smaller than F1 to gain experience.
In a strong and multiple-time champion team with legends like Niki Lauda, Alain Frost and Ayrton Senna, young drivers are often not given a chance. Before Hamilton, the last time McLaren let a “novice” behind the wheel of their F1 was Michael Andretti in 1993. Even though boss Dennis predicted that he could win the world championship, Andretti only brought home seven points. through 16 stages.
But with the retirement of Kimi Raikkonen and Juan Pablo Montoya at the end of 2006, McLaren took another risk – letting Hamilton team up with defending champion Fernando Alonso. Not betraying the team’s trust, Hamilton stood on the podium in the first stage, lasting until the ninth stage. He even finished first twice in Canada and the US, monopolizing the top of the table. However, the conflict between Hamilton and Alonso left the two McLaren drivers out of breath compared to Ferrari’s Raikkonen at the moment of life and death.
Conflict began at the Hungarian GP, when Hamilton refused to let Alonso pass in the qualifying round, according to the team’s instructions. The Spanish driver decided to overtake, then retaliated by blocking Hamilton in the pit, not allowing him to race in the final lap. The angry action caused Alonso to be pushed to sixth in the main stage, and McLaren had overall points deducted. Hamilton said he did not care about his senior’s punishment. The relationship between the two drivers broke down and they ended the season with one point less than “snowman” Raikkonen. Hamilton’s debut in F1 contained all sorts of events and emotions, creating the most attractive F1 tournament.
Unable to write history about the driver who won the F1 championship in his first season, Hamilton was still signed by McLaren to a five-year contract, becoming the team’s main force since the 2008 season. Not disappointing the British racing team’s expectations, Hamilton won the championship. F1 in its second season, an achievement previously achieved only by the legendary Jacques Villeneuve. He got sweet revenge on Ferrari when he stood one point above Felipe Massa.
Switching to Mercedes from the 2013 season was the right decision to save Hamilton’s career, when McLaren was no longer interested in F1. By the end of this season, in five years with the German racing team, with a luxury engine, he won three championships and finished second once (behind teammate Nico Rosberg). Michael Schumacher also won his fourth title at the age of 32 like Hamilton. The British racer is therefore expected to be able to catch up to his predecessor’s “seventh heaven” record.
Unable to write history about the driver who won the F1 championship in his first season, Hamilton was still signed by McLaren to a five-year contract, becoming the team’s main force since the 2008 season. Not disappointing the British racing team’s expectations, Hamilton won the championship. F1 in its second season, an achievement previously achieved only by the legendary Jacques Villeneuve. He got sweet revenge on Ferrari when he stood one point above Felipe Massa.
Switching to Mercedes from the 2013 season was the right decision to save Hamilton’s career, when McLaren was no longer interested in F1. By the end of this season, in five years with the German racing team, with a luxury engine, he won three championships and finished second once (behind teammate Nico Rosberg). Michael Schumacher also won his fourth title at the age of 32 like Hamilton. The British racer is therefore expected to be able to catch up to his predecessor’s “seventh heaven” record.
Hamilton marked his fourth F1 crown at the Mexican GP two weeks ago by being overtaken by Max Verstappen. But that doesn’t matter when the championship has been decided. Hamilton celebrated his victory in Mexico by wearing the British flag and running around the audience.
In Mexico that day, the crowd was engrossed in chasing Hamilton for a selfie, during which the two tripped over each other and fell. They stood up and continued to cling to him. Hamilton has a catchphrase: “The audience here is the best” no matter what stage, because he was once such a 10-year-old boy crazy about F1.
