He finished second in the 2007 Formula One Championship, behind Kimi Räikkönen. Hamilton has set numerous F1 rookie records and is the first black mixed race driver to compete in Formula One. After winning the British Formula Renault, European Formula Three and GP2 championship he became a McLaren F1 driver for 2007. When he was ten, he approached McLaren team principal, Ron Dennis at an awards ceremony and told him he would drive for McLaren one day; three years later, Hamilton was signed by McLaren and Mercedes-Benz to their Young Driver Support Programme, and ultimately, 12 years after this initial encounter, made his Formula One debut with the McLaren team. He has stated that he wants to stay in the McLaren team for the rest of his F1 career.
Personal and early life
Hamilton's paternal grandparents immigrated to the United Kingdom from Grenada in the 1950s. His grandfather worked on the London Underground.[3] His mother Carmen and father Anthony named him after the US Olympic gold medal winning athlete Carl Lewis. Hamilton's parents separated when he was two and, until he was ten, he lived with his mother and half-sisters Nicola and Samantha. After that he lived with his father, stepmother Linda and half-brother Nicholas who has cerebral palsy.
Hamilton's first taste of racing competition came at the controls of radio-controlled cars. Father Anthony bought him one in 1991, and Hamilton finished second in the national BRCA championship the following year. Hamilton said of the time: "I was racing these remote-controlled cars and winning club championships against adults". That led to Hamilton sampling kart racing for the first time. Aged six, his father bought him his first go-kart as a Christmas present, and would support his racing career as long as he worked hard at school. When supporting his son became problematic Anthony Hamilton took redundancy as an IT Manager and became a contractor - sometimes doing up to three jobs at a time to support his son's career - and still found enough time to attend all his races. He would later set up his own computer company, as well as working as a manager for Hamilton on a full time basis.
Hamilton attended The John Henry Newman School in Stevenage. He took up karate at an early age when his driving attracted the attention of local bullies. By the time he was twelve, he had gained his first black belt in the sport. He extended his skills to football, playing in his school team alongside current Aston Villa and England International midfielder Ashley Young.
On October 29, 2007, Hamilton announced his intent to live in Switzerland, to get away from the media scrutiny he has experienced living in the United Kingdom. Hamilton mentioned on the television show Parkinson (broadcast on 10th November 2007), that taxation was 'partly' responsible for his decision, in addition to wanting more privacy. Other Formula One drivers, including world champions Michael Schumacher, Kimi Räikkönen and Fernando Alonso, also live in Switzerland.
On November 1, 2007, presented the "Most Addictive" award on the MTV Europe Music Awards 2007, due to the fact the Formula One sport is more popular in Europe.
On December 2, 2007, Hamilton appeared on BBC show Top Gear. His lap in the Suzuki Liana recorded was 1 minute and 44.7 seconds on a wet and oily track, only 0.3 seconds slower than the fastest dry track time (set by The Stig) despite the fact that a wet track is generally regarded as several seconds slower.
On December 9 2007, Lewis Hamilton came second in the BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
On December 18 2007, Lewis Hamilton was suspended from driving in France for a month after being caught speeding at 122mph (196 kph) on a French motorway. His Mercedes car was also impounded.
Career
Karting
Hamilton began karting in 1993 at the age of eight, at the Rye House Kart Circuit and quickly began winning races and championships. At age ten, he approached McLaren F1 team boss Ron Dennis for an autograph, and told him, "Hi. I'm Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars." Dennis wrote in his autograph book, "Phone me in nine years, we'll sort something out then."
From the Cadet ranks (1993-7), he progressed through the Junior Yamaha (1998) and Junior Intercontinental A (1999) divisions. In 1998 Dennis delivered on his promise and signed Hamilton to the McLaren driver development program. This contract included an option of a future F1 seat, making Hamilton the youngest ever driver to secure a contract which later resulted in an F1 drive.
Lewis Hamilton continued his progress in the Intercontinental A (1999), Formula A (2000) and Formula Super A (2001) ranks, and became European Champion in 2000 with maximum points. In Formula A and Formula Super A, racing for TeamMBM.com, his team mate was Nico Rosberg, who would later drive for the Williams team in Formula One. Following his karting successes, the British Racing Drivers' Club made him a ‘Rising Star’ Member in 2000.
In 2001 Michael Schumacher made a one-off return to karts and competed against Hamilton along with other future F1 drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi and Nico Rosberg. Hamilton ended the final seventh, four places behind Schumacher, and although the two saw little of each other on the track Schumacher praised the young Briton (see quote box).
Formula Renault and Formula Three
Hamilton began his car racing career in the 2001 British Formula Renault Winter Series. Despite crashing on his third lap in the car in testing, he finished fifth overall in the winter series. and in the second he crashed out and was taken to hospital after a collision with his team-mate Tor Graves. He did show his speed at both the Macau and Korean Grands Prix. In the latter he qualified on pole position in his first visit to the track and in only his fourth F3 race.
Hamilton and Manor then made their début in the 2004 Formula Three Euroseries. They won one race and Hamilton ended the year fifth in the championship. He also won the Bahrain F3 Superprix and raced one of the Macau F3 Grand Prix. Hamilton first tested for McLaren in late 2004, at Silverstone.
He moved to reigning Euroseries champions ASM for the 2005 season and dominated the championship, winning 15 of the 20 rounds after being disqualified from one win at Spa-Francorchamps on a technical infringement that caught out several other drivers.
GP2
After the season, British magazine Autosport featured him in their “Top 50 Drivers of 2005” issue, ranking Hamilton 24th. After his success in Formula Three, he moved to ASM's sister GP2 team ART Grand Prix for 2006. Just like their sister team in F3, ART were the class of the field and reigning champions having taken the 2005 GP2 crown with Nico Rosberg. Hamilton won the GP2 championship at his first attempt, beating Nelson Piquet, Jr.
His notable performances included a dominant win at the Nürburgring, despite serving a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. At his home race at Silverstone, supporting the British Grand Prix, Hamilton impressed by overtaking two rivals at Becketts, a series of high-speed (up to 150 mph in a GP2 car) bends where overtaking is rare. He demonstrated his overtaking prowess again in Istanbul, when he recovered from a spin that left him 18th to take second place in the final corners. He won the title in unusual circumstances, inheriting the final point he needed after Giorgio Pantano was stripped of fastest lap in the Monza feature race.
His 2006 GP2 championship coincided with a vacancy at McLaren following the departure of Juan Pablo Montoya to NASCAR and Kimi Räikkönen to Ferrari. After months of speculation on whether Hamilton, Pedro de la Rosa, Gary Paffett or former World Champion Mika Häkkinen would be paired with defending champion Fernando Alonso in 2007, Hamilton was confirmed as the team's second driver. He was told of McLaren’s decision on September 30, but the news was not made public until November 24, for fear that it would be overshadowed by Michael Schumacher’s retirement announcement.
Formula One
2007: McLaren
On his début at the Australian Grand Prix, he qualified fourth and finished third in the race, becoming the 14th driver to finish on the podium in their first F1 race (excluding those in the first ever World Championship round).[25] In Bahrain, Hamilton got his first front-row start, qualifying and finishing second behind Felipe Massa. Hamilton again finished second behind Massa in the Spanish Grand Prix, to take the lead in the drivers championship. With that achievement, Hamilton surpassed Bruce McLaren to become the youngest driver to ever lead the world championship.
Hamilton finished second behind Alonso at Monaco and afterwards suggested he was prevented from racing his team mate. But the FIA cleared McLaren following an investigation (see below).
Hamilton scored the first pole position and victory of his F1 career in the Canadian Grand Prix at Montreal. He led most of the race despite the safety car being deployed four times. The win strengthened his championship challenge. A week later, Hamilton won the United States Grand Prix also from pole position, becoming the first Briton since John Watson in 1983 to win an F1 race in the US, and only the second person, after Jacques Villeneuve, to win more than one race in his rookie F1 season since the first year of the Championship.
By finishing third at Magny-Cours behind Ferrari drivers Kimi Räikkönen and Felipe Massa, Hamilton extended his lead in the Driver's Championship to 14 points. This was the first time in his F1 career he finished a race in a lower position than he started, and the first time he had been passed on the racetrack in Formula One. He took pole at his home Grand Prix at Silverstone and led the first 16 laps, but slipped to third, 40 seconds behind Räikkönen and Alonso.
During qualifying for the European Grand Prix, Hamilton crashed at the Schumacher chicane after a problem with the wheel nut air gun used on his car. He was taken to the circuit's medical centre on a stretcher with an oxygen mask and drip, but was conscious throughout. His Q3 time was surpassed by all other competitors, and thus he qualified in tenth position. After a final medical check on Sunday morning, Hamilton was cleared to race. During a heavy rainstorm which caused the race to be red-flagged, Hamilton slid off into a gravel trap. However as he kept his engine running he was lifted back on to the circuit and able rejoin the race after the restart. His ninth place finish in this race was his first non-podium and non-points finish, enabling title contenders Alonso and Massa to reduce Hamilton's championship lead.
Hamilton won the Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position following a controversy in qualifying. Alonso had set the fastest time, but was relegated to fifth on the grid for preventing Hamilton from leaving the pit lane in time to complete his final qualifying lap. Kimi Räikkönen stayed within five seconds of Hamilton for the entire race (excluding pit stop periods). McLaren were docked any constructor's points earned during the race due to the incident in qualifying.
After declaring he had restored his relationship with Alonso, Hamilton qualified second in Turkey. After dropping to third at the first corner, Hamilton looked set for a podium finish with 15 laps remaining, but a right-front tyre puncture forced him to crawl back to the pits, leaving him to finish fifth meaning his championship lead was cut once more.
Alonso beat Hamilton in the Italian and Belgian Grands Prix, leaving the Briton with a two-point lead in the title race. However he extended his lead to 12 points after winning the Japanese Grand Prix in heavy rain, after Alonso crashed. Following the race Hamilton was investigated by the race stewards over his involvement in an incident behind the safety car, which saw both Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber crash out of the race while following the McLaren. The trio were cleared on the Friday of the Chinese Grand Prix weekend.
After securing pole position in China, Hamilton retired from the race which saw changeable weather conditions. He experienced considerable tyre wear, notably his right rear, and he ran wide into the gravel trap in the pitlane, where his car beached. This was Hamilton's first retirement of his Formula One career. It was later revealed that Bridgestone became unnerved at the glaringly worn tyres and advised McLaren to order him to make a pit stop which McLaren refused to do, believing it would be counterproductive. Hamilton himself couldn't tell the full extent of the tyre problem as raindrops were in his wing mirrors. Hamilton thus went into the final race of the season four and seven points ahead of Alonso and Räikkönen respectively.
In the Brazilian Grand Prix, he failed to finish in a championship-winning position, finishing the race in 7th overall after being in 18th place at his worst point of the race. This occurred due to two major incidents; first, he was passed by Räikkönen away from the line, before being boxed in by Massa and Räikkönen in the first corner and 'wrong-footed' by Räikkönen mid-corner. As a result, Hamilton was passed by Alonso at Turn 3. Hamilton attempted to re-pass Alonso in turn four, but ran wide, dropping four places to eighth.
On lap 9, Hamilton encountered a gearbox problem, which meant that he was stuck in neutral and could not select any gears. The gearbox became operational again after Hamilton switched settings on his steering wheel, but he lost 40 seconds while his car was coasting. For most of the race, Massa was leading the race with Räikkönen in second. If this was the case come the chequered flag and with Hamilton in 7th place, this would have meant that Hamilton would become world champion, but after their second round of pit stops, Räikkönen stayed out a couple of laps longer than Massa and took the lead. Once in front, Räikkönen made no mistakes in the remaining laps to win the race and become Formula One world champion.
Later on October 21, it was announced that the FIA were investigating BMW Sauber and Williams for fuel irregularities, the BMW drivers finished 5th and 6th, if they were to be excluded Hamilton would be promoted to 5th and would win the 2007 Drivers World Championship by one point over Räikkönen. A precedent had been set in 1995, Michael Schumacher, then of Benetton-Renault, and David Coulthard, then of Williams-Renault, were both found guilty of possessing illegal fuel in their cars. In that situation both drivers were initially docked drivers points, but for unspecified reasons it would transpire - over a week later - that constructor points would be docked. Ultimately, no penalty whatsoever was given to any team and it was said that there was "sufficient doubt as to render it inappropriate to impose a penalty", though McLaren have officially appealed this decision. Hamilton subsequently told the BBC he does not want to win an F1 title through the disqualifications of other drivers.
Hamilton has reportedly signed a multi-million pound contract with HarperCollins for his autobiography.
Ahead of the world championship finale, Hamilton answered a question about what it would mean to him to become the first black champion, saying: "It will show that not only white people can do it, but also black people, Indians, Japanese and Chinese. It will be good to mean something."
Having made few public remarks about his ethnicity since becoming an F1 driver, Hamilton added: "Outside of Formula One my heroes are foremost my father, then Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King. Being black is not a negative. It’s a positive, if anything, because I’m different. In the future it can open doors to different cultures and that is what motor sport is trying to do anyway."
Team tensions
Hamilton's relationship with McLaren team boss Ron Dennis dates back to 1995. The first indication that Hamilton was unhappy with his team appeared after he finished second at Monaco. After post-race comments made by Hamilton which suggested he had been forced into a supporting role, the FIA initiated an inquiry to determine whether McLaren had broken rules by enforcing team orders. McLaren denied favouring double world champion Fernando Alonso, and the FIA subsequently vindicated the team, stating that: "McLaren were able to pursue an optimum team strategy because they had a substantial advantage over all other cars. They did nothing which could be described as interfering with the race result."
However, rivalry with team mate Alonso led to speculation that one of the pair would leave McLaren at the end of the 2007 season. Alonso and McLaren subsequently terminated their contract by mutual consent on November 2, 2007.
The tensions within the team surfaced at the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix. During final qualifying for the race, Hamilton was involved in a controversy that saw McLaren and Alonso penalised after Hamilton was delayed in the pits and thus unable to set a final lap before the end of the session. McLaren pointed out that Hamilton had disobeyed an earlier instruction to let Alonso past in qualifying. Alonso was relegated to 6th place on the grid, thus elevating Hamilton (who had originally qualified second) to first. Hamilton said he thought Alonso's penalty was "quite light if anything" and only regretted the loss of constructors' points. Hamilton was reported to have sworn at Dennis on the team radio following the incident. British motorsport journal Autosport claimed that this "[lead] Dennis to throw his headphones on the pit wall in disgust (a gesture that was misinterpreted by many to be in reaction to Alonso's pole)". However McLaren later issued a statement on behalf of Hamilton which denied the use of any profanity. As a result of these events, the relationship between Hamilton and Alonso temporarily collapsed, with the pair not on speaking terms for a short period. In the aftermath it was reported that Hamilton had been targeted by Luca di Montezemolo regarding a Ferrari drive for 2008.
Following the stewards' investigation into the incident at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, Alonso insinuated that the verdict had settled the championship in Hamilton's favour, saying: "I’m not thinking of this championship anymore, it’s been decided off the track. The drivers’ briefing has no purpose. You go there to hear what Charlie Whiting and the other officials say. Twenty one drivers have an opinion, Charlie and the officials another, and so it’s like talking to a wall."
2008 Season
On December 14, 2007, it was confirmed that Heikki Kovalainen will drive the second car for McLaren-Mercedes for the 2008 Formula One season alongside Hamilton.
In mid January 2008, he signed a new 5-year multi-million pound contract to stay with McLaren-Mercedes until at least the end of the 2012 season.
Some pictures of Lewis Hamilton:
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