
It’s can’t be:Lewis Hamilton has been suspended due to misunderstanding between him and ……
his stepbrother, who suffers from cerebral palsy, inspirational. “I only have to think of Nic to feel motivated and put a smile on my face.” His steely ambition and iron resolve come from the head of the family. “Even though he always told me to be courteous and polite, my focus and determination comes from, and has always been driven by, my dad.”
Anthony Hamilton, his mentor and manager, worked day and night for years (at one time he held three different jobs) to further his son’s racing career, which effectively began when eight-year-old Lewis was given a well-used go-kart that cost nearly as much as the family’s modest monthly income. Soon the Hamiltons – Anthony, Linda, Nic and Lewis – were a fixture at karting events and the boy racer, wearing the familiar yellow helmet chosen by an anxious Anthony to better keep track of his speedy progress in crowded kart fields, began winning races and championships.
In 1995, a 10-year-old kart champion, wearing a borrowed suit and shoes, picked up two trophies at a motorsport awards ceremony in London. Brandishing an autograph book prepared by his father, he approached Ron Dennis, boss of the McLaren Mercedes Formula One team. “I said ‘Hello Mr. Dennis, I’m Lewis Hamilton and one day I’d like to race for your team.’ I asked him for his autograph and his phone number. He put them in my book and also wrote ‘Call me in nine years.'”
The call was made just three years later and it was the Hamilton household’s telephone that rang. It was Ron Dennis who presented Anthony with an offer to financially support his son’s career for the forseeable future, with the proviso that Lewis should keep working hard at school. Lewis: “I just went upstairs to my room and got on with my homework. It was so unbelievable. I struggled to take it in.”
While the family’s financial struggle was over it put extra pressure on McLaren’s teenage protege to meet ever higher expectations. As well as having to respond to envious critics who claimed he should be winning all the time, given his funding, it was imperative that Lewis continually prove himself worthy of his benefactor’s investment. The need to achieve undoubtedly accelerated his progress through motorsport’s ranks. After winning eight championships in six years of kart racing, he went on to win three major single seater titles, the most prestigious of which was the GP2 championship, where in 2006 he took five victories from 21 starts. But it was the young British charger’s several spirited comeback performances, from the back of the pack to the podium, that particularly prompted McLaren to promote him to the Formula One team.
Certainly he was well prepared, though no one was prepared for the astonishing ease with which the precocious youngster stormed through the 2007 season. Consistently out-performing his celebrated team mate Fernando Alonso (who had won the first of his two driving titles, with Renault, when he was just 24), Lewis Hamilton barged onto the podium a dozen times, won four races, led the championship for five months and lost it by merely a single point in the final race to Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen.
Their new recruit’s dazzling debut was the only bright spot in a turbulent year for McLaren, whose two drivers became bitter adversaries. Their feud, exacerbated by Alonso’s resentment of the British-based team’s apparent focus an English upstart he had presumed would be his understudy, culminated in the slighted Spaniard’s angry departure from a team already troubled by a notorious ‘spy scandal.’ Found guilty of possessing Ferrari technical secrets, McLaren was fined $100 million and stripped of all its points in a Constructors’ Championship it would otherwise have won.
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Lewis Hamilton (GBR), Manor Motorsport, Dallara F3-02 Mercedes. F3 Euro Series 2004, Rd 19&20, Hockenheimring. 02 October 2004. World © Sutton
On assuming the role of team leader in 2008 (when Alonso returned to Renault) the boy wonder became even more of a marked man. En route to carving out five victories and scything his way to the podium on six other occasions, he incurred the wrath of several overtaken rivals who accused him of arrogance and dangerous driving. Hamilton insisted his hard-earned self-belief was wrongly interpreted and that his driving was firm but fair. But it wasn’t without flaw and a combination of miscues and mishaps meant the championship was far from a foregone conclusion prior to the final Grand Prix, in Brazil. There, if Hamilton failed to finish at least fifth, Ferrari’s Felipe Massa could take the title by winning his home race.
The grand finale, on a serpentine Interlagos circuit made more treacherous by rain, produced arguably the most thrilling climax in the annals of any sport. Local hero Massa mastered the chaotic conditions perfectly, crossing the finish line first and scoring the points necessary to become champion – which he was for the 38.907 seconds that passed before his title rival took the chequered flag in the fifth place he needed to finish on top of the world. With this final flourish, having overtaken another car with about 300 meters to go, Lewis Hamilton, aged 23 years and 300 days, became the youngest World Champion.
“Shoot!”, he exclaimed while celebrating tearfully with his nearest and dearest, among them his glamorous pop singer girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger. “I’m ecstatic, very emotional, very thankful for my family, my team and everyone who has supported me in this fairy-tale story.”
In the following seasons, though he continued to be one of the most aggressive drivers and a race winner, Hamilton failed to regain his championship form. His McLaren was not always a world-beater but in 2011 Hamilton blamed distractions in his private life (mainly a breakup with his girlfriend) for a loss of focus that he vowed to regain. In 2012, with his private life running smoothly, he drove hard and well and finished fourth in the standings with four wins. Before that campaign was over he announced he was leaving McLaren, the team that had been so much a part of his racing life for so long, and would in 2013 replace the retiring Michael Schumacher at Mercedes. In his new environment he was a regular frontrunner, securing several poles and podiums (including a race win) and finished a respectable fourth in the 2013 championship.
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Lewis Hamilton (GBR) McLaren Mercedes MP4/22 celebrates his win in Parc ferme Formula One World Championship, Rd15, Japanese Grand Prix, Race Day, Fuji Speedway, Fuji, Japan, Sunday, 30 September 2007 © Sutton Images
In 2014, when major regulation changes featured new hybrid power units in chassis with reduced downforce, Mercedes dominated the season, winning 16 of the 19 races and easily securing the Constructors’ Championship. Mercedes’ policy of letting its drivers race each other enabled team mates Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg to engage in an enthralling season-long duel for the driving title. Adding extra human interest to the drama was the fact that Hamilton (champion in 2008) and Rosberg (whose father Keke was champion in 1982) had been friends and rivals since their karting days as teenagers. Now, as 29-year-old protagonists competing for honours at the pinnacle of motorsport, the intensity of their rivalry strained their friendship and tested their strength of character.
The championship, with Hamilton leading in points and Rosberg still in contention, was finally settled in the last race of the season, at Abu Dhabi, where double points were awarded, though the race winner and new champion didn’t need them. Rosberg, who started from pole (and won the inaugural Pole Position trophy) but finished out of the points with a car problem, was gracious in defeat, acknowledging that his team mate’s tally of 11 wins to Rosberg’s five meant Hamilton deserved to be the 2014 champion.
Clinching his second driving title (as well as becoming the most successful British Formula One driver, with 33 victories) was an emotional occasion for Lewis Hamilton, whose family and girlfriend shared his tearful triumph at Abu Dhabi. Struggling to put his feelings into words, he summed it up
succinctly: “This is the greatest day of my life.”
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