Lewis hamilton my story pdf download
E-Book Overview
Lewis Hamilton's explosive arrival on the Formula 1 scene has made front-page headlines. In My Story, for the first time Lewis opens up about his stunning debut season, including the gripping climax to the F1 World Championship, as well as his dad Anthony, his home life and his early years.The only book with the real story, as told by Lewis. In his first season in F1, Lewis Hamilton has thrilled the world of motor racing. With victories in Canada, America and Hungary and Japan he led the World Drivers' Championship, right up to the last race of the season. But bare statistics alone do scant justice to the amazing impact Lewis Hamilton has had on the sporting landscape this year.
My Story gives the real account from Lewis himself, as he sets the record straight about his colourful life on and off the track. Given a grounded upbringing by his dedicated father in unremarkable Stevenage, Lewis tells about how he first tried out go-karting while on a cut-price family holiday in Ibiza. In his book he gives the real version of events at a motor sport dinner where, as a nine-year-old wearing a borrowed suit, he approached McLaren team boss Ron Dennis with the immortal words that were to change his life forever.
He rose rapidly through the Junior and Formula ranks, dominating every series with his raw speed and canny race craft. Here Lewis candidly recalls those key moments that shaped his career and went some way towards compensating for the sacrifices made by his father Anthony in getting his son to the top. Lewis also charts how he got into the sport and was signed up by Ron Dennis, what motivates him, who are his closest friends, how he copes with the constant travelling, and the physical and mental challenges of driving a state-of-the-art Formula 1 car.
He looks back in detail at the World Championship -- his four race wins, the frightening crash in Germany, his rivalry with team-mate Fernando Alonso, his special relationship with Ron Dennis, and what it's like living under the spotlight of the paparazzi -- right up to the last race of the season in Brazil.
E-Book Content
To the people who made this all possible
To my family, to McLaren and to Mercedes-Benz
LEWIS HAMILTON MY STORY
HarperSport
An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
CONTENTS
Cover Dedication Title Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
RESOLVE INSPIRATIONS CONFIDENCE STARTING OUT CLIMBING DREAMS RUNNING UNBELIEVABLE!
FORMULA FAME WINNING SILVERSTONE ADVERSITY STRIFE FAME CONTROVERSY PRESSURE SAMBA Acknowledgements About the Author Career Statistics Index Picture Credits About the Publisher
CHAPTER
1
RESOLVE
‘That I led the championship from the third race of the season all the way to the last was an amazing feat in itself, even if it meant the though…’
nal outcome was tinged with some disappointment.
I soon got over that,
MY STORY IS NOT ABOUT LUCK OR A FAIRY TALE. It is about hard work, about my family’s sacri ces and determination, my dad’s huge support for me and many other people’s belief and kindness. I found I had a talent and I have worked as hard as possible to develop it so that I can be successful and in the process inspire others, if I can, to achieve a dream.
It has been an unbelievable year, easily the most exciting and challenging of my life. From the start in Melbourne, which seems so long ago now, to the nish in São Paulo, I travelled through a phenomenal Formula One year, winning four races, nishing as runner-up in ve, and battling for podium nishes in a few others, in my rookie season with the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team.
That I led the championship from the third race of the season all the way to the last was an amazing feat in itself, even if it meant the nal outcome was tinged with some disappointment. I soon got over that, though – thanks to my dad’s endless positive energy and example, and the McLaren team’s great spirit, not to mention a memorable team party organized by Vodafone on the Sunday night after that nal race at Interlagos.
It summed up our unity at the end of a very trying season and I admit I enjoyed the opportunity to let my hair down a bit with my friends and team-mates. Shoot, it was worth it! I ended the season with good vibes. I felt proud of the team for the way they had worked through to the end of a really di cult, troubled year.
The São Paulo party was good for us all. Ron Dennis made a speech and said some really good things and we had a great evening. It just rounded o the whole year and, when I was mentioned a couple of times, it made me feel proud to be part of that team. So much happened to me in such a short a space of time that, when the season ended, I felt like I needed to stop, look back and take stock of what had happened.
But in Formula One there is no time for that. The search for progress is relentless, the appetite for success, improvement and frontier-breaking unquenchable. Stand still for a moment and your rivals will pass you. Whoooosh! That is the competitive nature of the sport. It comes out in every aspect of all of the teams’ activities.
Nothing is left to chance, no stone left unturned, in pursuit of greater speed, e ciency and e ectiveness in all areas of a racing team. And that restlessness re ects the way I have always felt about my life
in racing. I always want to move on and on, to keep going forward to the next level and the next challenge. But I always want to succeed properly, fair and square, out on the track and not in any other way.
I had arrived in São Paulo leading the championship by four points, but I left in second place, just a single point behind the new champion Kimi Räikkönen. I may have been hit by mechanical problems, but I was beaten fair and square on the Interlagos track by Kimi and his Ferrari. It was no time for recriminations or complaints.
I do not believe in doing that; I do not blame my team when things happen. We all win and lose together. Kimi drove superbly and won six races in all, including three out of the nal four Grands Prix. He deserved his success. That is why I was quick to congratulate him at the end of the race in the parc fermé.
I felt sore for myself, but I felt happy for Kimi – he is a cool guy and he has been a great competitor this year. I had just nished my rookie year at the age of I knew I had a future in Formula One and, with reasonable luck, plenty more opportunities to win the World Championship. I had no doubt about that. It had been a fantastic season and instead of feeling down, or in any kind of pain, I felt we had a lot to celebrate and enjoy.
I felt proud of the way the team had come through a sometimes stormy, controversial year and I felt proud, too, of my family and all my friends and supporters who had helped me to get where I was, so close to the title in my rst season. It was a day to be happy. In the end, the year was not decided by that one race in Brazil, but a whole championship season.
It was also one of the most exciting Formula One seasons ever, at least on the track. If somebody had told me a year ago that I would be ghting for the World Championship at the end of the season, I would have said they were dreaming. But that is what happened. In the end, I lost by just one point, but I proved I had the potential to be involved in more and more championship ghts in the future.
Nobody would have predicted that I would nish second in my rst season, so there was no reason for anything but celebrations. I did my best, the team did their best and there was nothing any of us could do to change things. In all honesty, at the end, I just felt it had been a really intense, crazy year and, truly, I did not feel gutted by the outcome.
It was cool. I believed and still believe in the team and the car, and I am looking ahead with real optimism. Who would have thought I would be leading the World Championship going into the last race? Who could have imagined the crowds we had at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix? Who would have dreamt that I would go to North America and win back-toback Grands Prix in Canada and the United States?
Or win four races and start from pole position six times in 17 races? I know it was all against me in the end, and that the nal two races were bad results for me, but I plan to learn from that and to go into next year and try to improve all round. I am going to come back tter, more relaxed and more experienced – and I will have a better car and I will push harder for the championship.
To think I came straight
from GP2 to be ranked number two in the world is a positive thing and I know we will be strong next year. We will do a better job, for sure, the team will keep pushing and I have got the experience now and I will bank that. I cannot wait for the next race! Of course, I felt emotional afterwards in Brazil, at least a little bit.
I try not to show emotions, but I cannot deny that I felt it a little when the season ended. When I think back, there are so many great memories: my GP2 Championship, then the opportunity to test for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team and those early tests at Silver-stone and at Jerez in September and October They were just a year before the title-decider in Brazil.
I remember that rst week of testing at Silverstone when I wore some other dude’s race suit to start with, and it smelt. When I got my own, I thought it was so cool, I wanted to sleep in it! The whole journey for me, from my earliest days as part of the McLaren and Mercedes-Benz family to Formula One, has been quite emotional. And this last year has been a rollercoaster.
The test at Silverstone – only a year before I ew to Japan and China for the two Grands Prix that lifted me within reach of the title and then dashed my hopes – was the best week of my life at the time. I enjoyed it so much. I felt the pressure, because it was my rst test, but it was so cool. I worked my way through it. The thing that really struck me, after GP2, was the downforce in the high-speed corners.
I was like, ‘Wow, this is Formula One! I want this!’ And then I went to Jerez to test again, and gradually, after not such a fast start, I was into it and doing the laps. I just loved that testing and it went well and, looking back now, I have only good memories. It seems so long ago. So, too, does the day I was con rmed as Fernando’s team-mate, as a race driver in the team, and all the other testing.
And the launch in Valencia on 15 January earlier in the year, when we did all the razzmatazz and had those huge crowds and did the ‘doughnuts’ in the streets…So much has happened since – and luckily for me, nearly all of it has been good. One of the few bad days came when I had a big accident testing the new MP at Valencia in January before the season.
Fortunately for me I was unhurt, but the car was quite badly damaged and it set us back in our test programme. That accident was a shaker for me, a reminder of what these cars can do and it was a big part of my early learning experience with the team. In fact I have learned something every day in this last year. I am so competitive that I always want to achieve more and more.
It is a positive force for me. I want to win. You have to be realistic and remember this was my rst season and that it was something special for me. I was bound to make some mistakes. I started out just hoping to learn a lot, to challenge Fernando and to prove I was worth my seat in the team. The level of expectation was a measure of how far I had gone in that space of time.
After Brazil, I was asked if there was anything di erent I would do for next season given my experiences this year. A lot of things, really. Now after one season in Formula One, I have the experience to know how to plan my year di erently so I can be more structured and have more time for myself and for my family.
Next year I will know the circuits, apart from the new ones – and they are street circuits so I love them anyway. It
is not so much about doing things di erently but doing them better. I want to be tter, work harder and be a better driver all round. I know all of this is not something that can be achieved in one year, as it takes time to evolve – especially if you are striving to become the best in the world.
My dream is still there and it is still in front of me. So in one way, maybe it is a good thing that I have not been crowned number one this year, because there is a long time to come in my life and I am sure I will have a lot more opportunities. I nd it easy to overcome disappointments and negativity. Life goes on and every new day is a new positive.
Sometimes, you just have to say to yourself, ‘Get on with it.’ I am my own biggest critic and often want to say, ‘Lewis, kick it!’ I push myself. It is the same for us all in the team and we work for each other, helping one another as much as we can. A racing team is not just about the person who is driving the car. It is much, much bigger than that.
I have been very lucky this year to have learned a lot from the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team. I have gained so much from driving and handling the car, set-up, tyre selection, strategy and the whole range of factors that can make a driver successful. I have also learned a lot about the politics of Formula One…
CHAPTER
2
INSPIRATIONS
‘Dad is my biggest supporter, and a fantastic father, without whom I may not have even discovered I had any talent for racing.’
TO BE A FORMULA ONE RACING DRIVER you need to be extremely t and prepared – both physically and mentally for the whole challenge.
It is far more exhausting than you can ever imagine if you have never raced in a car. And it is not easy. Sometimes, if you are not feeling right, if you do not have the right energy levels, it can be impossible. It is important to nd your own way, then keep your mind clear and maintain the right level of motivation.
Just the ordinary things – like travelling all the time; packing bags, grabbing them and taking them with you; going to functions, meeting people; the crowds, the heavy schedule – all take their toll on your energy and strength after a while. So it is important to stay calm when you can and not to waste energy. I have a special source of extra motivation.
For me, even when I am feeling pretty stretched, rushing around in the middle of a Formula One weekend and surrounded by people who want a bit of my time – and with what feels like a thousand things to do – I only have to think of one person to keep me feeling motivated and to put a smile on my face: my brother Nicolas.
I remember Linda, my step-mum, being pregnant with Nic. I remember him being born and that I would just go and sit next to him and watch him. I had prayed to have a brother and was so happy when he came into the world. It really meant a lot to me, in my childhood, to have a brother. And it still does. Nic was born two months early and it was a long time after his birth – I think nearly eighteen months – before he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
He was still the same Nic to us and we loved him whatever. Nic has trouble walking, and this a ects his whole body to a point, but he never complains. He always has a smile on his face whatever the situation. I remember when Nic was four he had to have an operation on his legs to extend the tendons so as to increase his mobility.
The operation was a major one and very distressing. Nic had to have cuts in his groin, behind his knees, and in his ankles. He was in plaster for about eight weeks. I was only eleven and heavily into my karting by then, going to race tracks at weekends and having a great time. We always went to every race as a family – Linda, Nic, my dad and me.
Nic was let out of hospital after about a week and they gave him this little wheelchair. As soon as he was released, Nic was back on the racing circuit with us, his legs stretched out straight in front of him and plastered
up to the groin. The whole operation period was a very traumatic time for us all, in particular Nic, who, when the time came to take o his plaster casts, thought the doctors were going to cut his legs o .
I remember he cried his eyes out but it wasn’t long before that smile came back to his face. That smile – it is infectious and inspirational. It taught me a lot about life. Nic has always been my number one fan and I am his. I just hope that by writing about him, he doesn’t get too big-headed because, if he does, I will have to make sure he soon forgets it!
He is such a character, so grounded too, and he is always cheerful and happy. He has big respect from me and all who know him. Nic is seven years younger than me and because of that, I sometimes feel like I have to teach him things, like my dad did for me. But most of the time, I am learning stuff from him. Nic is now fteen and, if anything, we are even closer.
I love spending time with him. We enjoy the same sort of things, the same sort of music. As he gets older, it’s good to be able to talk about girls with him! It won’t be long before we can go partying together – and I am dying for the time when he is old enough so we can go out to a club or just do our own thing. That is going to be so cool.
It is rare for me during the season to get a decent period of time at my parents’ home to spend with Nic but we did have a few this year. After the Turkish Grand Prix, for example, and before I had to travel to Italy, I went home to my parents’ house in Hertfordshire. The weather was great, Nic was there and we had fun doing all kinds of things together.
We played golf one day, for example. Nic nds it extremely di cult to stand still and balance in one place; add to that the fact that he is also left-handed, which does not help his swing. Even though he shouldn’t be able to, Nic still attempts to play football, basketball, almost everything. He just never gives up and always puts per cent e ort into trying something even if he knows it’s too much for him.
Nic gets out of life what he puts into life and that must give him a huge amount of satisfaction. I know that he cannot do things as well as me but he has a real good go at it and makes me work even harder to make sure I beat him. ‘Never let him have it easy,’ is what my dad always said, just so that he would try harder. I am lucky in that I am good at most sports, but for Nic it must be really di cult.
Either way, he always puts a smile on my face – although occasionally he can be quite argumentative. He reminds me of myself! I often try to imagine myself in Nic’s position. I do not think I would be anywhere near as strong as him. There’s just so much to admire in him. So, whatever I am doing, I say to myself, ‘If you think it’s hard to do this, then think again.’ I think about Nic’s strength of character and that gives me added strength.
So Nic is my inspiration – and that helps me a lot. But, in fact, my whole family are very close. We do everything we can together, and we always have done, but as I grow older and become more independent each year, I know that is probably going to change a bit – but not all that much. We have an intense bond and are a strong family. It helps us remain as normal as possible, to stay focused on the right things and not be distracted by all the stu going
on around us.
We are a team, my family. We always have been. I like to think of my parents’ home as my power station, the place where I can go to seek support, rest and reassurance in the good things in life. Thanks to my family, I know it is important not to lose perspective – though at times in the past year, that has not been easy. Formula One is such a demanding and fastmoving business that it is easy to lose your own sense of direction sometimes.
It can be very, very tough so you have to concentrate fully on the job in hand, prepare well and stay as level-headed and consistent as you can. If you stick to your beliefs and your true values in life, I believe things work out right in the end. My mum Carmen and dad Anthony divorced when I was about two and I lived with my mum until I was ten.
After that I moved to live with my dad and step-mum Linda. My mum is a huge and important part of my life and has always been there in the background wishing me success from afar. My step-mum Linda has been amazing and I think she is the best step-mum in the world. I was very emotionally attached to my dad, and it was di cult only seeing him at the weekends.
They were the greatest weekends – I would not have missed them for anything – but I remember when I was ten that I liked living with my mum because she was the ‘easier’ parent. You know with parents when you have the easy one and the demanding one? Well, she was the easier one. I’ve been extremely lucky: both my mum and Linda are incredibly considerate, very caring and generous, and fun-loving.
A huge part of my personality – the emotional side, I would say – comes from both my mums. Even though my dad always told me, ‘You have to be polite,’ that was already in my nature. I would say my stronger, more competitive side comes from my dad. My sel shness, my focus, my determination, my ability to put things out of my mind, the way I say things and express myself, present myself well, and everything that gives people their perception of you – that all comes from, and has been driven by, my dad.
For example, my approach to things is: do not waver, do not give up. My dad reminds me of that nearly every single day and I am always aware of how much work we have put in to get where we are today – and how much more work he expects me to do in the future! He is as relentless in his own way as I am in mine and I am sure that is a part of our characters that has contributed to our achievements.
We are both hard workers and we believe in the same things – honesty, loyalty and trust – and we both have a neversay-die attitude. Anyone who knows him will tell you that. He is my biggest supporter, and a fantastic father, without whom I may not have even discovered I had any talent for racing! And he is a big reason – really the absolute reason – that I have been able to develop myself as a racing driver, and, probably more importantly, as a human being.
I am very close to my roots – to my father’s family in Grenada, West Indies, where my real home is, and to the Grenadian people. My granddad lives in Grenada and drives a private minibus. His passengers are predominantly school children but my granddad will give just about anyone a lift. He is supposed to charge per ride but he just loves his job so much that sometimes he allows some passengers to ride for free.
All the kids love
him and out of respect they call him ‘Uncle Dave’, although his real name is Davidson. Nearly everyone in Grenada knows Uncle Dave. Wherever he goes people always acknowledge him and call out ‘Uncle Dave!’ He is everyone’s uncle! My dad bought my granddad a new seater minibus about a year ago because the old one was over twenty- ve years old and my dad feared for the safety of my granddad and the passengers.
I think my granddad’s friends couldn’t believe it. Some people didn’t want to ride in Uncle Dave’s old minibus because it was too slow but now everyone wants to ride in his new one. I feel close to all of that. I love Grenada; it is a beautiful country and a place where I have learned a lot. Living in multicultural Europe, it is easy to take things for granted, while in Grenada some people still live in buildings that resemble sheds.
We visit Grenada every year, sometimes twice a year, and during our visits I get a real perspective on things, a better understanding of life altogether – and I realize how blessed I am. My family, my roots, and our values are primarily Grenadian although we are British, having been born in the UK. My granddad came to England in the s and then returned to Grenada in the seventies following the death of my grandmother.
My dad has always expressed a wish to return and I plan to do the same at some stage in my life but not now. To see the kids in Grenada with smiles on their faces – even if they’ve got very, very little in comparison with European kids – helps me to understand and manage my way in life. So my principles are always to listen to my dad, cherish my family, compete hard and never give up.
Most of all, I try to keep a smile on my face. Alongside the great experiences in my life I’ve also had some very bad, really challenging times – which you will read about later – but even those have made me stronger. And, with the help of my family, I’ve bounced back twice as strong as before. I think that is why I am probably such a strong character in racing.
Every mistake and every good thing that has happened to me has counted. And there is not a day gone by that I wished I had done more of this or that. The way I see it, you have to rise above things and move on. You just cannot wait around. You have to do it yourself and just get on with it if you want things to happen. That is why I feel like I have got such a responsibility to make people happy, make younger kids more determined or ambitious and all that sort of thing.
For me that is a pleasure: it is not just about the racing; it is all those other things that come into it that I really, really enjoy. I do occasionally pray – my granddad is very religious, he goes to church every day and he is always on my case, asking, ‘Are you praying?’ or telling me, ‘Not to worry, Lewis, the Lord will provide, just ask for His help.’ Every now and then I will say a prayer and show my appreciation.
I try to make sure it is not only when I am in trouble and I need help; even when I have had a great day, I try to thank God for it. That is why religion is not an issue for me – any more than race is an issue. I am Roman Catholic; I was baptized when I was two and for a lot of my life I always thought there was something there.
Sometimes, if I was in trouble I would pray, but I was never hardcore into it – but then neither was the family, although we all believe. I have always felt very much that I have been gifted and very much blessed – I have a
great family, a talent which many people don’t either get to discover or experience, and I really do feel like there is a higher power and that He has given me something.
Whether it is to send a message out, or to use, or just to have fun, I do not know. I think everyone has got talent and gifts, but not everyone discovers them, and people can occasionally be misled. I am fortunate that I have not been. I feel everyone is put here for a purpose and all the individuals that do discover things in their life are able to make a change and make a difference.
Some people think race, or skin colour, is an issue; some think religion is. Putting it simply, I do not like to see anyone treated badly. I do not like people who do not behave well, who are not polite or who do not show respect when they should. I guess it comes from my own younger days when I had to do things and I didn’t nd it easy. I had a bad time at school because there were some bullies around who were probably jealous of me going karting at weekends; either that or they just didn’t like me.
I tried to deal with that by defending myself, so I learned karate. That is my way of sorting out my problems. I try not to get entangled, I prefer to rise above them, but sometimes you need to be able to stand your ground, don’t you? I believe in doing things right and doing them properly. I had a lot of other experiences when I was young, some good, some bad, but from each of them I learned something.
In , when I was thirteen, I went to my rst Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium. My dad and I were having a great day as guests of McLaren Mercedes. I remember walking around with my dad and we saw Eddie Irvine and decided to go and ask him for his autograph. I stood there in admiration of him, waiting for him to sign my book, but he looked at me and just walked on.
It may well have been that Eddie was incredibly busy and did not have the time to be distracted or that he was just having a bad day. There are numerous reasons why this episode could have happened. At my age at that time, however, I didn’t think of any of that but know what it’s like now. I have never forgotten how that made me feel.
Someone else showed me how di erent it can be. That was David Coulthard. I also met him at Spa. I was standing at the front of the McLaren garage when David came in and walked straight past me and my dad. I called out, ‘Alright, David?’ and he turned round and, two seconds later, he said, ‘Alright, Lewis?’ He knew me…what a feeling that was!
He had come to see me karting and he remembered me. I really appreciated it. So, always, I have huge respect for David. He is a real gent and he taught me something good – that it costs nothing to say ‘Hello’. I can say now that these two experiences certainly made me determined that if, or when, I reached the top and anyone ever asked me for an autograph, or a piece of my time, I will try to give them my time with good grace and respect.
That is why I work hard to look after my many fans. I appreciate that’s not always going to be easy or possible, but that’s what I aim to achieve. Actually, it was not until Formula Three that I realized that I had fans, people that
admired me for what I did. When they wanted to come over and talk to me, it was just a pleasure for me. All of them were polite to me, and I was no one as far as I was concerned, but they were always there supporting me.
I was not used to that, but I learned from it. I have got some great fans all over the world, including those who come all the way from Japan, just for a weekend, to watch me race! I always try to make time for them because from past experiences I know how important it is to make time for others. When I got to GP2, I noticed that my time was getting more precious – but I made sure I had enough of it to go around and say thank you to everyone.
When I reached Formula One, it got more and more di cult, but I knew to expect this, so when I went to my rst Grand Prix, in Australia, I said to myself that I must make time for the fans. I worked out that if I planned to get to the track at eight, and that I had a meeting starting at half past eight, then there was not enough time, in that half an hour, to start signing autographs.
So I said to myself, ‘I’ll get there at and use that extra time to sign autographs.’ What a great feeling it was to make others happy; that’s a bit more energy in my energy bank. But I remember one day at Albert Park when I was just trying to juggle all the di erent events that were going on – I had a tyres brie ng, an engineering meeting, and several other meetings and then I had to rush back to the hotel to do a HUGO BOSS and a Mercedes-Benz event, or something – and I was panicking.
It all got to me. I didn’t know how to judge it. I didn’t have time to do autographs at the exit gate, where everyone was waiting outside the paddock, and I just walked on, and I kept walking. It was not a good feeling ignoring the fans, doing the one thing I promised I would never do. That was one of the single most distressing experiences I have ever had and it played on my mind all night.
So, next day, I made sure that I got a load of photos and posters and I signed about a hundred posters or more. I put ‘Sorry’ or ‘Thank you’ or something like that on them, and then the following day I went in early and signed a load of autographs as well and gave each person a poster. It felt good – I got all my energy back.
A lot of fans who get the opportunity to come up close are sometimes physically shaking with nerves and I remember feeling it was incredible that I could make anyone feel that way. I’m only human. I’m not this big superstar that you see on TV. I am nothing special. I might be a Formula One racing driver, but that does not make me any di erent.
Lewis hamilton my story pdf download free So much of it is in the preparation. I love watching those kind of old-school things when you try to understand what was going on back then. I always wanted to be like Phil Collins — he can play everything: guitar, drums, piano, bass guitar…Music was something I enjoyed and wanted to do at college, but in the end I listened to my dad. It taught me a lot about life.As far as I am concerned we are all on the same level. I want to take time out of my schedule to sign an autograph if it is going to make someone’s day. Making people happy is what makes me happy. I do not believe in doing anything wrong to succeed.
Never. In my family we are all competitive and nobody likes to lose. I would say my dad’s the worst. He taught me how to win and lose but even he would admit that losing is not a nice experience to deal with – it does make your desire to succeed even stronger, though I can see how di cult he nds it sometimes. It shows in his face, of course, even after a game of pool at home.
And I can see it sometimes after races. We are alike, too, in that we stick to the same way of doing things. As I said earlier, we believe in the basics – honesty, loyalty and
trust – and that is why we all found the politics in Formula One this year so hard to handle. As I said at the time, politics sucks.
Everyone knows about the controversy with Ferrari and, well, the last thing any of us wanted was to be landed in something like that in the middle of my rookie season. I suppose it is to do with honesty that I want to do things properly…in an open way. I compete to win, but I always do my best and try to do things the right way.
Maybe I am sometimes very highly charged and very determined, but I would never ever cheat to win. Never at all. That is why we all felt so much emotion when there were so many allegations being made against the team, against Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, this year. It was wrong. I never once believed any of the rumours or stories and I had complete belief in Ron Dennis and the team and the values they stand by.
In my own way, the only thing to do was to rise above it all, concentrate on the racing, continue to do my best and, most important of all, keep a smile on my face which, with everything kicking o , had been di cult. All my lessons in life, my dad’s and my family’s advice and encouragement and examples of how to live and how to behave, have stood me in good stead.
When you have been through some of the stu I went through as a kid, and when you have seen life through a really normal pair of eyes in Stevenage, in London, in Grenada and other places – all of that on top of my racing career gave me the right kind of grounding to cope with it. So I just did my thing. Being able to control yourself, redeem yourself, is important.
When I play computer games with Nic I always try my best to beat him. I never let him win. I never let anyone win at anything, at home or anywhere. I am always the same. I am just that competitive. I have to win at everything, but I would never cheat. I just love knowing that I won fair and square or that I tried my best. Mental strength is so important.
On the surface, it may look like I am pretty cool most of the time, but underneath I am a very emotional person. That is why these things matter. I love being at home with my family and the equilibrium that gives me. We are all emotional people in my family – that is part of our nature – but in this business, in Formula One, you have to be a bit cold and a bit sel sh.
I suppose we are all a bit sel sh in our own lives and that comes out sometimes in all of us. But I nd I can balance it all if I am around my family. Racing takes up most of my weekends, so any weekends I do have o are so important and valuable to me, and, going back to square one, returning to my own home and occasionally going to my parents’ house, the power station – that is important, too.
It is where I do all my mental preparation and feel good. My strength is in the family, wherever we all are, as long as we are together. There are loads of places where you can get mental strength and energy, but again there are loads of places you can lose energy! For me, the problems are energy-wasters. And it is my dad’s job to make sure that he helps me with that – he absorbs all of the negative energy when it happens.
It is too easy to be sucked into things and just nd you are drained by it all.
This whole thing about changing negative energy into positive energy is not rocket science. It is just about trying to look on the positive side and turn this or that mistake, or whatever, into something positive. I cannot do it with everything. Sometimes it is just too big to put through my small generator.
So, that is when my dad absorbs it; or I put it onto someone else – I might call my mum, or a best friend, telling him about the problem – and then it’s their problem! As long as I keep the same set of principles, I will be fine. I have been racing since I was eight years old and I have learned what works for me. I always try to remember to appreciate the opportunity I’ve been given and I always give per cent.
I always say, ‘Keep your family as close as possible.’ These are the things I believe in and they have done me well. In my career, it is the same. McLaren and Mercedes-Benz have been incredibly loyal to us and, hopefully, we will be loyal to them and I’ll see out most of my career with them. For me, loyalty matters. In terms of friendship, it means being someone others can trust.
And that works both ways. I am the sort of person who tells it all and can be quite blunt. Sometimes I do not realize that I may have a ected someone, for worse or better, but it is just me being honest. I know I am a lucky person. I have a good life, I have been given a talent and I have enjoyed myself very much, for most of the time, in my twenty-two years.
It is never easy though. No way. Not for me, not for my dad and not for my family. We have had some extremely hard times and some extremely good times. But – and I think this is the most important thing – we have learned from them all.
CHAPTER
3
CONFIDENCE
‘My racing career may not have started properly until I was eight, but it had in fact been part of my life much earlier.
As a teenager, sadly my enthusiasm was not shared by all and my career nearly ended before it had started because of a case of mistaken identity by my school.’
MY START IN LIFE WAS PRETTY NORMAL. I was born at the Lister Hospital in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, on 7 January I was named Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton. My dad’s middle name is Carl and Nic also has Carl as a middle name.
The name Lewis was just a name that my parents liked at the time. The name Davidson is taken from my granddad. Stevenage was one of the ‘new towns’ built after the Second World War and is a typical commuter town with both local and international business facilities and good rail and road links to London, in the south, and to the north of England.
Thousands of people travel from Stevenage to London and back every day on the train and my dad was one of them. He worked for British Rail while my mum worked in the local council o ces. My mum and dad lived in a council house in Peartree Way, on the Shephall Estate, in Stevenage. My mum had two daughters Samantha and Nicola – from a previous relationship before she met my dad.
Sammy and Nicky were about two and three when my dad came into their lives. It was not a luxurious or a privileged neighbourhood, but it was also not as bad as some. My rst school was just down the end of our road, the Peartree Spring Nursery School. My second primary school, Peartree Infant and Junior School, was a ve-minute walk around the corner.
For my secondary school I chose the John Henry Newman School, a Roman Catholic secondary, before completing my education at the Cambridge Arts and Sciences College. I have to say it was not as straightforward as it sounds, and there were a few ups and downs along the way. My interest in karting and motor racing, which took me away a lot at weekends as I grew older, did not always t in with the strict thinking of some people.
At school, I used to keep my interest in racing to myself. My racing career may not have started properly until I was eight, but it had in fact been part of my life much earlier. As a teenager, sadly my enthusiasm was not shared by all and my career nearly ended before it had started because of a case of mistaken identity by my school.
To this day, I nd it di cult to talk about this because it nearly destroyed my faith in the education system. But I think it’s important to set the record straight on a few things in my life that have been reported inaccurately in the last year or so. I wish it could be
forgotten forever but some things just need to be said. It was , I was sixteen and a few important months away from sitting my GCSEs at John Henry Newman School.
In January of that year there was a serious incident at the school involving a pupil who was attacked in the school toilets by a gang of about six boys. I was accused of kicking the pupil. This was not true. I, like many others, had been hanging around waiting for the next lesson to start and had entered the toilets around the time that the attack was taking place.
I was not involved in the attack but knew the boys involved. The headteacher thought di erently and wrote a letter to my parents advising them that I was excluded from school along with six other pupils and stating the reasons why. I couldn’t believe it. I was so upset. I didn’t know how I was going to explain it to my parents. I walked around in a daze, not really knowing where I was going for a while, I even considered running away and then eventually I went home.
When I gave the letter to my dad and step-mum Linda they were obviously extremely disappointed and really mad – not so much with me but with the headteacher – although I remember my dad said to me, ‘Congratulations, you’ve done something that I never managed to do!’ I knew that I had done nothing wrong so this made it all the worse. We decided to go back to the school.
I went with Linda and my mum to speak to the headteacher. When they arrived at the school, the headteacher was not sympathetic to anything they said to him and he maintained that I had kicked the pupil and that I was correctly excluded. I knew I was innocent but he did not appear to be interested.
Subsequent letters to the local education authority, our local MP, the Education Secretary and even the Prime Minister, were of no help. No one appeared to listen – no one either wanted to or had the time. We were on our own and I was out of school. I found it very frustrating and upsetting, with everyone seemingly against me except my family, some true friends, and McLaren and Mercedes-Benz.
I could not understand how I found myself in such an awful situation. We launched an appeal to the Governors’ Discipline Committee of the school, but the appeal failed. We then appealed to the Local Education Authority where the matter was considered by the Exclusion Appeal Panel. From the very beginning I told my dad that I was innocent and he did everything he could to prove this.
English story pdf download Formula One is such a demanding and fastmoving business that it is easy to lose your own sense of direction sometimes. I was bound to make some mistakes. We were on our own and I was out of school. Who would have thought I would be leading the World Championship going into the last race?It was just typical of my dad: when something is wrong he will go to the ends of the earth to find out the truth. Anyway, it took weeks to resolve (although it seemed so much longer at the time) with documents going backwards and forwards. I was still out of school and having private tuition paid for by my family until our appeal could be heard.
My dad had gone through the evidence and meticulously studied all the documents and witness statements and he thought he had a pretty good case prepared. At the hearing, the Exclusion Appeal Panel concluded (after a thorough investigation including hearing oral evidence from witnesses) that my appeal should be upheld and that I should be fully reinstated to school.
The panel concluded that I was not guilty of
kicking the pupil. They also found that in fact there had been a serious case of mistaken identity, or, as they put it, ‘unfortunate confusion’ with another pupil who was said to be one of the individuals involved. While the matter should have been resolved at that stage (the beginning of April ), the battle was not over as the school refused to reinstate me back to my class.
It was the same for some other pupils who had successfully appealed. Instead, I was o ered segregated tuition. All this was going on just before I took my GCSEs, so it was really bad timing. My dad arranged for alternative private tuition and exams. In the end I sat the GCSEs in di erent locations. It was not ideal as I had missed crucial weeks of education but I did my best given the circumstances.
Some exams I sat back at the school, but they wouldn’t let me go back to my class so I had to sit on my own. The rest I sat at other local schools. I didn’t enjoy school that much anyway before the incident, except for my friends and the sports, of course, but when this happened I thought that everything I had worked for was going down the drain.
I was worried, too, that I would lose my racing career and opportunity with McLaren because Ron Dennis, just like my dad, had always told me, ‘Lewis, you’ve got to work hard at school.’ Well, I wasn’t the perfect student, but I did the best I could and did what I had to in order to get by. Following this bad experience, and the unnecessary stresses and strains brought upon my whole family, my dad decided it was time that we moved away from Stevenage.
We relocated fteen minutes away to a lovely quiet village where no one knew us at the time. When I look back, I think what a shame it was that the end of my Stevenage school years was spoiled for me. Although the Local Education Authority has admitted it was all a mistake, neither I nor my family have received an apology, private or public.
It is much too late for me now but it would be good for me to know that something like this could never happen to another pupil. One thing is for sure: without my dad’s attention to detail I would have been lost. It has given me a completely di erent perspective on school life. After that I was glad to eventually leave John Henry Newman School.
I moved to the Cambridge Arts and Sciences College. CATS, as it is known, was a fantastic place. The teachers were professional and the pupils too. I got the train most times until I passed my driving test and then I would drive there. It was a really good experience. I had the opportunity to stay at the College, but I did not want to share dorms with people who I did not even know and I thought I would miss my family.
To be honest, looking back now, I should have boarded because it would have been good to live on my own and to spend time with people of my own age who were not from the motor racing world. There were people of all backgrounds: wealthy kids and not-so-wealthy ones. It was a real mixed bunch. It was a pleasurable experience for me. The sta were really nice: they spoke to you on the level and not as if they were above you.
I also felt more ful lled and began to value myself di erently. I was happier. I liked design, technology and music, but my dad wasn’t keen on me taking music and recommended that I do
business studies. He thought that it would be more useful and relevant in motor racing and that it would give me a better chance at a decent job should I ever need it to fall back on.
I didn’t think business studies was right for me – which is probably the reason I didn’t do so well in the exam. I was not even slightly interested and if you’re forced to do something you don’t like, you’re not going to do as well in it. I was into music. I played the guitar and I also wanted to learn the drums. I always wanted to be like Phil Collins – he can play everything: guitar, drums, piano, bass guitar…Music was something I enjoyed and wanted to do at college, but in the end I listened to my dad.
I still didn’t like business studies and, for that matter, some other subjects as well. But I really enjoyed CATS and the city of Cambridge itself. Before I went there, I just thought, ‘I’m going to be a bum!’ I never said to myself, ‘I’m going to be a professional racing driver’ or anything like that. It did not cross my mind. Once I went to college, I realized that I could enjoy more things and I bucked up my ideas a lot.
I felt like I really wanted to do well. Something clicked for me. It was a much smaller class and I got on well with my teachers. Bar a couple of really smart girls and maybe one smart lad, I was one of the top students in my class. I was even learning and understanding my science studies! But I am the kind of person who wants to be able to do everything.
Aside from music, I particularly wanted to do French. It turned out to be my best subject. I almost aced French. I spent some of my teenage years kart racing in France and Italy and so found it relatively easy to speak French with a French accent and Italian with an Italian accent. I speak more con dently in Italian than in French, I don’t know why.
But when I go to France it all comes back to me. I want to be able to really speak it uently, although I can’t comprehend it well. I don’t know how anyone can! How can they store all that information? Then again, I don’t really speak good enough English, let alone another language… It got tough for me as time went by, though. My college days were Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday and I had to work hard to catch up on the work I missed, because the Formula Renault single-seater testing always took place on the same days.
So I took extra lessons, just as I had done when I was at secondary school when we had a tutor to help me. I had to get there an hour earlier or work later. I worked some really long days to make sure I caught up. It was the rst time in my life in my academic work that I actually thought to myself, ‘I can do this and I can do well in exams.’ When I went to CATS, they were willing to give me time.
They were totally open to my racing. They didn’t even ask about it. They were just…‘This is what you have to do, if that’s what you want to do then go and do it…’ They never said, ‘Oh, Lewis, you shouldn’t be taking this time o .’ They never questioned it. Instead it was, ‘Well, how can we work around it?’ And that’s why it was so good.
They worked with me. In fairness there were also some good memories from my Stevenage schooldays. I was reminded of them when Ashley Young, now a very successful professional footballer,
was picked to play for England. We were in the same year and we used to play together in the school football team. From what I remember of Ashley, he was a very good football player and a nice guy.
I really liked playing football. I started in mid eld and I would go into a tackle and go in so hard that I risked breaking my leg. I did not deliberately foul people, or go in with studs showing or anything like that, but I would give it a real sliding tackle and if I got the ball I would go charging o and do the best job I could with it.
My problem was that I always kept my head down. I was always looking at the ball instead of where I was going and so would end up being tackled or run into another player. I always thought I did twice the amount of work of any other player on the eld but for half the result! But I knew, at least, that I did the best job I could. In general, I liked competitive sports – I didn’t want to read about the rules or go and watch it; I just wanted to do it because it was good fun – but motor racing was di erent.
I read, studied and knew all the rules. I was relatively good at most sports: I played for the cricket team, the basketball team, the footy team. I was on the athletics team and I did javelin, discus and the metres and won the occasional event on school sports days. Nic also loves competitive sports but is unable to compete in most.
Still, he tries and he tries and he never gets down or depressed about things. If he fell over, he would get straight back up and get on with it even if he was in pain. He made such a big impact on me and on the way I think about things. Nic is blessed in so many ways. Even now, I am sometimes quite hard on Nic about small things, I just want to help him learn and not to take anything for granted.
Most importantly, I want him to do well, even better than me, in his education and exams and so I keep on top of him about this. He always tells me I am the best and he never really talks to me about my driving. He is so sensible.
CHAPTER
4
STARTING OUT
‘My dad would always stand on the inside of the circuit at the hairpin.
He watched to see where the best drivers were braking…“You’ve got to brake here, at least a metre later than the other competitors.”’
MY DAD HAS ALWAYS BEEN MY MANAGER and my adviser. I remember years ago, when I was about twelve, in Junior Yamaha and at a race track giving an interview. I said, ‘My dad gives me advice on what to do on the track, but I don’t listen to it because he doesn’t know what it’s like out there.’ I regret saying that because it’s not true.
I remember I was angry at the time because things were not going so well. Dad’s got a much wiser head on his shoulders than me so he knows a lot of the stu he says is true. He’s always right. It got to the point where I took bits out of what he was saying and then added my own bit – what I thought should be right. I think that’s why we work well as a team.
We gel together. At a young age, he was very hard on me and now that I am older and a little bit wiser I fully understand and appreciate why. I can probably guarantee that he was harder on me than any other driver’s father was on his son. I don’t just mean in life at the track – I mean in life generally. He brought me up to appreciate people and to appreciate general values: you know, be polite and always say thank you, always have a smile on your face, do not be rude – all those things.
If I made a mistake in that sort of area, where I wasn’t polite, I was made aware of it. I’m easy to get on with. I’m just as normal as any other driver, or any other person. When I started karting, my dad did a kind of deal with me. He said that he would support me going racing, but only if I worked harder at school. I remember my dad had to work three jobs just to make ends meet and to keep his end of the bargain.
During the day he worked for British Rail – as it was back then – as a computer manager, having risen through the ranks over 14 years from an admin clerk. When he arrived back home he would go straight out again and erect ‘For Sale’ sign boards in his suit for a local estate agent. I think he only used to get 50 pence a board but it all helped and every penny counted.
In any other spare time, my dad used to knock on doors trying to book double-glazing appointments for his friend Terry Holland’s business. It was not a job he enjoyed but he still did it. The rst time I sat in a go-kart was when we all went on holiday to Ibiza.
Lewis hamilton my story pdf download english: My dad bought my granddad a new seater minibus about a year ago because the old one was over twenty- ve years old and my dad feared for the safety of my granddad and the passengers. Thousands of people travel from Stevenage to London and back every day on the train and my dad was one of them. It syncs automatically with your account and allows you to read online or offline wherever you are. And it still does.
It was in August , and I was three years old. I had not really been anywhere abroad before then for a summer holiday, so I remember it pretty well. Both my dad and Linda were working for British Rail and they were located at King’s Cross. I remember they were living in a small one-bedroom at in Hat eld. We stayed in a mobile home camp in
Ibiza and we travelled one way by plane and one way by train as this was all they could a ord.
The plane journey was something they saved up for, while the train tickets were part of a concession through working for the railway. A big group of us went on that holiday. The real highlight for me in Ibiza was the trip to the kart track. They had little electric kiddie karts and the track was very small. It was less than a hundred metres long, probably only about sixty metres, but I loved it.
I got in a kart and straightaway I knew I was going to enjoy it. I remember thinking I was Ayrton Senna, it just felt natural. After that, nobody gave it a second thought. My dad was just a railway worker and I was just a kid. We went home and I thought that was it, but my dad remembered how much we had all enjoyed it, especially me.
We thought nothing of it until a couple of years later. For my fth birthday I got my rst remote control car. I remember them putting the batteries in this little car. I drove it up and down the hallway and tried it outside, too. I really liked it. I suppose that was the beginning, or at least the beginning of the beginning.
I was consciously hooked on cars from that point. A few months later my dad brought me an even bigger and better 1/12th scale electric remote control car and spent days building it up from all the bits in a box when he came home from work. I loved it. I was always pestering him to keep recharging the batteries. Eventually my dad thought enough’s enough, if we are going to muck around with this car then let’s do it properly and join a club.
So we did just that. We went down to our local model shop Models in Motion, in the Old Town in Stevenage, and we joined the racing club and went remote control car racing every weekend on Sunday mornings. It was great fun for us both. There were like fty adults racing and just two kids – and one of them was me.
I found I was really competitive. My dad loved it and pretty soon he was helping me with everything. I guess that is when he became my first mechanic. We used to go to the shop and get all kinds of new parts, and paint, and try to improve the car. We went racing at a village called Bennington with my electric remote control car packed in the back of Linda’s car – a white Mini Metro that cost my dad £ In my rst year I came second in the club championship, having beaten the adult who had been racing for years.
They were a great bunch of people from what I remember and the camaraderie was brilliant. They didn’t mind me, a little kid, joining in their fun and beating them at it. It was through the hobby shop Models in Motion that I got my chance to go on BBC television’s Blue Peter. I was just six years old. At the end of my rst season the club gave me a special award for the most impressive driver – so with this and ending up on television, what more could a kid ask for!
The next step came when we moved up from electric remote control cars to a 1/8th scale petrol-engined car called a Turbo Burns. I still have the car to this day. I remember it cost my dad a whopping £ to buy second hand from someone at the track. I was still living in Peartree Way then, with my mum, but my dad and Linda had by that time moved to Shearwater Close in Stevenage where they bought a small three-bedroomed
house with its own garden.
It was our house. It was when Linda was expecting Nic, so they needed more space. Dad bought the house in Shearwater Close and let the at in Hat eld. He couldn’t really a ord to keep either but somehow he just managed because he had to. It meant we were now living in Stevenage closer to my mum and that was good for me. Nic was born the following year, in March , and that summer, when I was seven, I went to Rye House at Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire, for my rst ride in a real go-kart on a real kart track.
My dad took me for a day out following what we thought was a successful year in remote control car racing. We knew absolutely nothing about kart racing but we were just having fun. I went out on the little circuit at the back of Rye House – I mean the little one that no one else would dare go on – and I had a really good time.
I got the bug for karting from that moment. That was it, that was all I ever wanted to do. It was wicked and my dad was now in trouble! A few weeks later, there were some pretty strange goings-on in the shed at the back of our house. My dad used to sit most nights in the shed preparing my remote control cars, a job he had done for nearly eighteen months, when suddenly he built this extension to the shed from wood that he bought down the local DIY shop.
The shed door used to be located on the side of the shed but now it was transformed into a pair of front double doors. I got my rst go-kart that Christmas. I remember I was at my mum’s for the morning on that Christmas Day and then I went to my dad’s house. My mum was just dropping me o and my dad wasn’t in. I looked through the letter box and I could see down the hallway and onto the table.
And there, I saw something really big in wrapping paper. I guess I ruined the surprise. I remember I was walking backwards into the house trying to act like I hadn’t even noticed this big monster of a present on the table! Eventually, I got to open it after my dad strung it out and pretended it wasn’t for me. You know what: they had given me the best gift that I’d ever had in my life up to that point.
They had also bought me a pale blue driving suit and matching race gloves, and a red FM helmet. I had the biggest smile ever on my face. We went out and I drove it on the street. We lived in a quiet close so it was okay, plus it was Christmas Day so why not? It turned out that this kart was a tenth-hand, rickety old thing when dad bought it, but he worked night and day to rebuild it in his purpose-built extended shed.
He did everything to make it as good as new: completely re-sprayed it and polished everything that could be polished. That way, I would t in with all the other kids whose parents could a ord brand new presents. I was truly thrilled. I was buzzing. Of course, I wanted to try it out properly and, on my birthday two weeks later, we took it down to Rye House in the back of my dad’s Vauxhall Cavalier, with boot open, kart hanging out – what a sight we were – but we didn’t care; we were going karting.
I had my rst run on Saturday, 9 January, two days after my birthday. I was eight years old. And the rest is history! Seriously, it was a real big thing in my life. It was when I started my karting career. I began racing at the then Hoddes-don Kart Racing Club, Rye House which was run by Alan Kilby and Harry Sowden.
I raced in the Cadet Populars class as a novice and was instantly on the pace. If you are a new driver, you have to wear black plates for your
rst six races so that all the other drivers know you are a novice. Over a number of weekends, I brought home six first-place novice trophies from various circuits. I was now ready and quali ed to go on to yellow plates and start racing with the bigger, more experienced, drivers.
I took part in my rst ‘yellow plate’ race on 2 May , I think at Clay Pigeon Kart Club down in Dorset, and I won against all the odds. In my rst year of cadet karting I was quite often quicker than some of the older and more experienced kids and occasionally if I overtook them on the circuit they would come up to me o the track and warn me o .
It happened to my dad also, their dads would warn my dad o . I was already learning karate and so my dad decided to take it up as well, as we thought maybe this karting stu is a bit more physical than we rst thought. We both joined the local Stevenage Shotokan Karate Club run by Mike Nursey, a 6th Dan.
I managed to get up to one grade short of intermediate black belt when I was ten. A lot of people have said I am black belt and I have not really corrected them as it has been easier to just say nothing. Although I was smaller for my age than most of my competitors, I was never scared to stand up for myself. My dad reached the same grade but we were away so much with karting that it was impossible to compete for our black belts.
We would go testing at Rye House occasionally during the week but mostly every weekend. My dad would always stand on the inside of the circuit at the hairpin. He watched to see where the best drivers were braking and he would go and stand there and say to me, ‘You’ve got to brake here, at least a metre later than the other competitors.’ Then, he would move a metre further and say, ‘You’ve got to brake here!’ So I had to brake later than the drivers who were braking late and doing well.
And that’s how, and where, I learned how to brake late. I was pushing and pushing, and lots of the time I went o because it was just impossible to brake that late. And he would say, ‘No, you can do it, go on, you can do it.’ Eventually, it worked and I could brake later than any of my competitors and still keep the momentum in the kart.
This was one of the keys to my success on the karting circuits. I also had my rst crash at Rye House on a practice day. I think it was Saturday, 30 January, the day before my rst ‘black plate’ race day. It was getting close to the circuit closing time and we were just about to nish. We were on our last couple of runs and some dude came up on the inside of me and clipped me into the rst corner.
I didn’t even know he was there and he sent me o at-out into the tyre wall. I went straight into the tyres – my kart was all bent and damaged and I had a bleeding nose. My dad charged up from the bottom end of the circuit fearing that I had hurt myself, but when he got to me the rst thing I said was, ‘Can you x it for tomorrow?’ I wasn’t bothered at all about me.
I was just in a bit of a daze. My dad drove all the way to the other side of London to nd the parts for my Allkart. Eventually he got the necessary parts from a nice man called Bruno Ferrari. Bruno used to tune race engines for Dan Wheldon and a few others at the time. Dan was then a huge karting star even though he was only about thirteen.
Anyway, my dad got the parts and xed my kart; we went racing the next day and I brought home my first trophy!
‘Fun on three wheels during a holiday…’
My first run in a kiddie-kart during a family holiday in Ibiza in August , aged three.
An early photoshoot…
My brother Nic’s third birthday party.
Happy with another grade and certificate in karate.
My first kart, aged eight.
Preparing for my first race in my new kart and helmet.
Champions of the Future – a cadet race winner.
Me with Ron Dennis, at the Belgian Grand Prix in
Kart Masters – and another win!
Meeting Murray Walker at the Autosport Awards
Team MBM – alongside fellow racer Nico Rosberg in
Formula Renault with Nic in
Becoming Formula A European Champion.
Prince Charles came to the McLaren factory at Woking where we swapped a few tips on racing.
My dad has always been my manager and mentor – and also my chief mechanic when karts needed fixing.
You win some, you lose some – it can be a lonely place sometimes.
‘Meeting David Couthard at the McLaren Mercedes Young Driver Support Programme in ’
Posing for the camera in the old McLaren trophy room.
Dreaming and hoping that one day…
Spending time playing pool with Nic.
Playing the guitar, and music in general, is one of my favourite ways of chilling out and relaxing.
Eventually I competed in events all over the country nearly every two weeks.
I remember going up to Larkhall, in Scotland, and staying in this weird hotel where
everything was painted black. It was a real scary Addams Family type of place! And there was a place called Rowrah up in the Lake District way up north, where it seemed to rain non-stop. But it was all good experience, travelling out into the middle of nowhere just to race karts.
The whole family used to go along in my dad’s red Vauxhall Cavalier with a little old box trailer that danced around all over the place behind us. We stuck all the gear in this little box thing, then we put the go-kart on top of it, with all these different straps to stop the thing from flying away. And off we’d go. When I was nine, I entered my rst British Cadet Kart Championship.
We had sold our old Allkart and bought a new bright green Zip Kart made by Martin Hines. Martin owned the company and was a very successful gure in the karting business and he ran a team called the Zip Young Guns. We couldn’t a ord to be in the Zip Young Guns team and so remained independent but with advice, help and assistance from Martin.
Eventually, we bought a larger second-hand box trailer with a roller door on the back, which was a huge improvement. But then the poor old Cavalier had to drag this heavy trailer around all the time. I remember we would travel up to Larkhall in the wind and the rain, and when we arrived most of the other competitors had camper vans or caravans, while we had a box trailer.
Linda would have to bring the microwave and kettle from the kitchen and sit in the back of the box trailer during the cold and windy days with Nic, then aged two, on her lap. That was hard on everyone but they did it for me and we thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. By this time, my dad had even got a Calor gas heater and put it at the back of the trailer.
So Linda and Nic were in the back, jackets on, freezing cold, and then there was me and my dad, at the front of the trailer trying to prepare the kart. I remember Linda always brought a red flask along, full of chicken noodle soup. After that weekend, my dad said ‘never again’ and somehow worked a few more jobs to buy a really old Bedford camper van that Linda named ‘Maureen’.
Life started to get better. No more cold, damp soggy baps but instead we had toast in the mornings before a race – heaven! It is hard for any family who have to nd the money to race, particularly so in the case of my parents who just had normal day jobs. For those rst three or four years, before we had backing from McLaren, it was probably a lot more of a strain for my family than it was for me, and especially for my dad.
For me, it was just get in the camper, go to the racetrack, sign on, do my driver’s brie ng and then go and race – and that felt natural. We didn’t always win; it was tough and I’d get grumpy like a spoilt kid. I just did not like to lose – and neither did my dad. From these early days my dad has been my manager, with Linda in full support.
It has really been a family team, Nic included. Occasionally our relationship has been strained by the pressures of motor racing but that is just normal. My dad has been the motivator and the strength that keeps us all going. To be father and manager can be tricky; it is not easy balancing both of those roles. Sometimes, I know I can be very cold and just treat him as a manager, but then I love him to bits for what he is and what he’s done for
me – and he’s my dad!
It’s not straightforward. You wake up and he’s the rst, or second, person you see and so you’ve got that natural bond. Then you remember he is your manager too. But it works for us. And my dad, and my family, have made more sacrifices than you would believe. I have proved him wrong at some points in my life, but, like I said, he is almost always right.
Even though he is not the driver experiencing what I am experiencing, he is just as involved as me, if not more. He is just trying to do his best. It is a very strange relationship we have because he is so driven. He is so committed but never ever pushy. I said I wanted to race karts and he said, ‘Okay, if we are going to do it, then we are going to do it properly or not at all’ and that was it.
It was either everything or nothing and that is still where I am today. My step-mum, Linda, is fantastic. I was so young when my dad met Linda that I did not understand what had gone on between my parents. It tells you something about a person when they are prepared to take on the responsibility of looking after someone else’s kid: me.
Ninety per cent of the people I know that have divorced parents and stepparents have a tough time because one does not like the other. Linda is Nic’s mum and what I love about her is the fact that she had Nic, her real son, but never ever treated us di erently. My dad could not have picked a better step-mum for me.
As I said earlier, Linda is the best step-mum in the world. I honestly do not think I would be where I am today if my parents and step-parents had not worked hard together. With my brother, as we grow up, the bond is getting stronger and stronger. For me, it’s the most valuable thing I have in my life. My dad has been the main driving force for me.
The way I am now is down to him. A lot of my friends did not have their fathers around and mine was there for me. So, respect to him for that. He has certain morals and there are a lot of important values that he has taught me. I know some people say he is overprotective, but he has always been committed to making sure that I maximize my opportunities to have a better life than he had.
Dad is the one who started it all when I was just a boy. Without him, I do not think any of this would have happened at all.
CHAPTER
5
CLIMBING
‘There was a point where I asked myself, “Am I going to be able to do this?” I remember sitting with my dad
in the car telling him that I wanted to stop…he just said, “Yeah, okay, we’ll just stop.” He didn’t really mean it, but I was doubting myself, not feeling that I was the man at all.’
I REMEMBER IT SO CLEARLY: me on the passenger seat of this old camper van and my dad driving, the two of us singing together: ‘We are the champions, we are the champions’…At the end, the song goes ‘of the world’ but we sang ‘of England’, or ‘of Britain’, or something like that.
It was a great day. And it was just the start… In the early karting years, when I was between eight and twelve years of age, it was all great fun – the travelling, the competitions, meeting di erent people in di erent places and just generally having good family time together – but it started to get pretty serious when I won my first British Cadet Kart Championship in at the age of ten.
The year before, I’d experienced the real dangers of motor racing for the rst time. I remember it was early May and I was at Rye House. I had just nished a race and my dad, quietly, came over to me and said, ‘Lewis, Ayrton Senna’s just died…He’s had a terrible crash at Imola…’I remember how I did not want to show emotion in front of my dad because I thought he would have a go at me and so I walked round the back, where no one was looking, and I just cried.
I really struggled the rest of that day. I could not stop imagining what had gone on. I was only nine years old. The man who inspired me was dead. He was a superhero, you know, and that was him…just gone. In I won the McLaren Mercedes Cadet Champions of the Future Series and the Sky TV Masters title. After that, we moved up into Junior Yamaha in There was a lot of talk about which was the best standard and category to be in.
We chose Junior Yamaha because we thought it was a better career path than Junior TKM, the rival series. People would say we were avoiding TKM because it had ercer competition but we knew where we were headed and what we wanted to learn from our racing and it wasn’t to be found in Junior TKM, although it was also a great series. That year I won both the McLaren Mercedes Junior Yamaha Champion of the Future series and the British Super One Junior Yamaha Kart Championship with a round to spare.
That was also the year when I was invited, by Ron Dennis, to go to Belgium, to the Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps as part of the prize for winning the championship. In , I was invited to be a part of the McLaren Mercedes Young Driver Support Programme. This was a golden opportunity to be supported by a major Formula One team and car manufacturer.
My dad was delighted. As I have said, we were not exactly
rolling in cash and, although we were getting by, the McLaren contract certainly provided us with the financial comfort that all young budding racing drivers desired. I also raced in Europe for the rst time, helped by the recommendation of Martin Hines to the Italian Top Kart manufacturer and racing team.
I had my rst European race in Belgium and it was not a great race, but it was just good showing up. I impressed the people from Top Kart and we got another chance to race for them, in Italy. I did my rst race in Parma and in the same race was this kid called Nico Rosberg, now a Formula One driver with Williams. I remember we had this awesome race where I was behind him, both of us miles in front of the other guys.
I just sat on his tail the whole race, played it cool, and then on the last lap I overtook him on a straight and won the race. That was the day Nico’s father, Keke Rosberg, the Formula One World Champion, came up to me and said, ‘That was an awesome race, well done’ and that’s when my relationship with Nico started. From then on, we became best friends, hanging around with each other all the time throughout our teenage karting years.
A few months later we went to Hockenheim for the German Grand Prix. Keke, Nico and I sat down with Ron Dennis. He said to us, ‘I’m planning to put together a team. Are you two going to be able to stay friends if we have this team and you’re competing against each other?’ We said ‘Yes’ without hesitation and Keke created our own kart team called Team MBM.
We never really found out what the MBM stood for but I assumed it meant Mercedes-Benz McLaren. We raced together in and had a fantastic year winning nearly every major race in our class. That was one of the most amazing years of my career: I won the European Championship and the World Cup in Japan. I especially remember one weekend, in the European Championship, at a place called Val d’Argenton in France, for very special reasons.
The week before, I had fallen o my bike and hurt my wrist. I tried to hide the swelling because I was really worried about what my dad would say but the pain was so bad I eventually had to tell him what had happened. My dad called Ron Dennis and asked for his help. Ron called the then Formula One doctor Professor Sid Watkins and a friend who put my wrist in a special cast.
So, we travelled over to France and took part in the race weekend. I won my rst two heats, then suddenly someone complained to the Clerk of the Course about my plaster cast. The next thing I knew, I was excluded from the event. Naturally, with the European Championship at stake, my dad pleaded with whoever would listen but eventually he contacted Ron to explain what had happened.
Ron was actually at the Austrian Grand Prix but he spoke with a Senior Member of the FIA who intervened and I was reinstated. I missed one of my heats and therefore started lower on the grid for the rst nal but still managed to win both feature races, the second one ahead of Robert Kubica, who is now racing for BMW in Formula One. I had a bad year in karts in when Nico and I thought we would move up to the nal karting class – Formula Super A as it was then – and try to win the championship.
It didn’t go well at all. We were developing our own chassis with Dino Cheisa our Team MBM manager and it was tough but it was something we wanted to do for Dino and his
team. It was a good learning experience. At the end of the year we went to single-seaters. McLaren arranged for me to have a test with Manor Motorsport in their Formula Renault car.
It was always going to be tricky, never having been in a racing car before, and I crashed after about three laps, taking out the right rear corner of the car. It did not put them o too much though, and after they xed the car I got straight back in and did okay. I started my rst year of the British Formula Renault series in with Manor Motorsport.
Moving on from my fantastic years in karting to single-seater racing was something I had been looking forward to for some time. I had my rst race at Donington Park in November. I had quali ed fth. I remember all these cars shooting past me at the start. It was like I had never raced before – well, I hadn’t in cars. I couldn’t believe just how di erent it was in cars as opposed to karts.
In karting I was a king, but now in single-seaters I was back to basics. It was so aggressive on that rst lap it was unreal, and I was like, ‘Shoot, I’m going to have to pull my nger out!’ It was not like karting, where you could just roll around the paddock and have some fun, get in the kart and drive. You had to be there paying attention to all the data, working with the engineers and all that stuff.
In I had quite tough times through the Formula Renault days and there were moments when I would come home and my dad was on at me for one thing or another. I was having problems keeping up at school, I was struggling. Actually, there was a point where I asked myself, ‘Am I going to be able to do this?’ I remember sitting with my dad in the car, telling him that I wanted to stop.
My dad is very emotional about my racing and, being peed o , he just said, ‘Yeah, okay, we’ll just stop.’ He didn’t really mean it, but I was doubting myself, not feeling that I was the man at all. But things changed: from that low point in my life I got myself together, won some races and then came third in my first full year of Formula Renault.
The next year, , I had a slow start before something just clicked, and then I just blew everyone away. I won ten races out of fteen that season. I came second in two of them and third in one and because I had won the championship, I did not have to race the last two races. It was such a great year with Manor Motorsport’s Formula Renault team that I decided I wanted to stay with Manor and move up into the British Formula Three series with them for a couple of end of season races.
From the rst time in the car I was quick and setting the pace but I had much to learn. Although my pace was good the races didn’t quite nish as I expected. I had a huge shunt at Brands Hatch where I had the misfortune of being involved in someone else’s accident but, that aside, I had a fantastic time. For , the team decided to move from the British Formula Three series to the Formula Three Euroseries with me as their driver.
I did okay but it was the absolutely worst year of my racing career both because of the car and my relationship with the team. It was obviously di cult for the team as it was their rst year in the championship and neither they nor I had ever raced on most of the European circuits before. It was a huge learning curve for us all, but I did feel that I was the one being blamed for poor results.
It did cause quite a lot of tension between the team, me and my
dad. In what I felt were very challenging circumstances, I won one race and nished fth overall. This was a very frustrating period. Towards the end of that year, I had a really, really di cult time when we fell out of contract with McLaren.
We were unhappy about the year we had just had and this was part of the reason that we had a disagreement over where I should race in I wanted to move on but McLaren recommended that I stay another year in Formula Three with Manor. This was not what I wanted. I had given it much thought over the previous few months and had also discussed it with my family and I eventually decided that I was prepared to give up my contract with McLaren rather than stay for another year.
McLaren couldn’t see it at the time and told me to go away at the end of and analyse my next move. I had been at Manor Motorsport for three years and thought it was a good time to move on. I wanted to go some where else and learn from other people. I thought I could do that in GP2. McLaren disagreed. So we came out of contract.
My last two races of were to be in Macau and Bahrain and, as I was now without McLaren, I had to nd my own sponsorship money to get there. I was going through a tough time with everything in my life. The team I had always wanted to be a part of had cancelled my contract because of a disagreement about the next step in my career. My dad and I then set about nding sponsorship money.
My girlfriend at the time, Jodia, said, ‘Hey, my dad owns this company in Hong Kong, and he would love to sponsor you.’ I told her there was no way I wanted her to do that, but she went and sorted it out anyway. Basically, Jo’s dad paid for my racing in Macau. It was a last attempt for me to make an impression in the world of Formula Three.
So I went to Macau and won the rst race with Jo’s dad’s company livery on my car but unfortunately crashed out on the second lap of the main race having started from pole position. It was one of the most disappointing races of my life. I thought the whole world had folded in on me and that was it – the end. My dad was devastated because here we were with no McLaren Mercedes-Benz contract, no money, and no takers.
The following weekend we were in Bahrain for the Formula Three Superprix, which was the last race of the year for Formula Three. The Manor Motorsport team actually funded this race which was much appreciated and pretty incredible considering the tough year we’d had until then and I remain grateful to all the guys at Manor Motorsport.
In qualifying, I made a huge mistake. I ended up twenty-second on the grid after damaging my rear oor on the kerb. It was a really low point. My dad was unhappy that I had possibly just blown a great opportunity to shine after the disappointment of Macau. We were both devastated but my dad in particular because as usual he felt responsible for everything, the loss of McLaren, the situation we were in, and he was worried about where he would nd the money to keep my career going and to fund the following year’s racing.
He was so depressed and worried that he booked an early ight home so that he could make better use of his time making calls and focusing on getting help. I know he was really feeling the pressure because I had no sponsor and at that stage not enough good performances to attract new ones. Before he left, he made sure I knew all about it, leaving me to kick myself for the rest of that day
and all night.
I woke up in the morning with a fresh head and feeling more determined than ever. For the Sunday race, my dad had the team stick his company name on the side of the car. The company was called Hedge-Connect. Hedge-Connect was a disaster recovery business and it was incredibly appropriate as I eventually found out.
I started the rst race twenty-second on the grid and nished eleventh. In the second and main race, I started eleventh and nished rst. I couldn’t believe it – from nothing I had triumphed. It was awesome. Afterwards, I called my dad and he was stunned. No one could believe it – I had come from twenty-second in the rst race to win in the main race.
The racing magazines called it my ‘Bahrain Transplant’ and a transplant it certainly was. From a bad weekend in Macau to winning unexpectedly in Bahrain, everything had changed instantly, as it can do in motor racing. In karting, I had won from the back many times, but to do it in a single-seater…it just does not happen. I stayed in Bahrain that night with my team and it was great.
The next thing I knew, Martin Whitmarsh from McLaren came on the phone to congratulate me and said, ‘We’ll discuss where we can go from here.’ That was typical of Martin and Ron, they were always there somewhere in the background keeping an eye on me. They really cared and wanted to help but also wanted us to learn the hard way.
Lewis hamilton my story pdf download full I cannot do it with everything. It was really cool — Orlando, Disneyworld and all that stuff. My dad reminds me of that nearly every single day and I am always aware of how much work we have put in to get where we are today — and how much more work he expects me to do in the future! They had little electric kiddie karts and the track was very small.Throughout my time supported by McLaren Mercedes, a lot of people, and not only some of my competitors, disliked me for the fact that I had this McLaren contract at such a young age. Some people wanted what I had and thought it was easy for me because my racing was fully funded. But keeping a sponsor like McLaren, the biggest company in Formula One, was not exactly easy.
Imagine having Ron Dennis call you, having that pressure…I knew if I had any problems at school or if I did not keep performing, I would lose the opportunity. Everyone said I would be nothing without McLaren – but I did not have McLaren for those two weeks in Asia. In fact, I did not have McLaren for the rst ve years of my racing career but I had still won championships.
After a di cult weekend in Macau, I then went out to Bahrain and proved I could win even when times were bad. I had turned things round as I had to and it was a most pleasurable feeling. I do not think for one moment that coming out of contract was just a bluff; at the time I really thought I had lost McLaren. After Bahrain, McLaren was back on.
From there, we analysed all the di erent options and teams in GP2 and Formula Three. I selected the teams that I was interested in and to help me form my own opinion I went to them all with a notepad and pen, as a nineteen-year-old, and asked them how they could help me win. Once we had decided what was the best option McLaren brokered an agreement with the then current Formula Three Euroseries champions ASM.
ASM was and still is run and owned by Frédéric Vasseur. Frédéric is an incredible man and it was an absolutely fantastic team to work for: I learned so much from them. They were the ones who gave me the opportunity to learn how to set the car up and do what I do now in Formula One. It was great, the best year of my life outside of Formula One.
I won fteen races out of twenty. Well, I actually won sixteen, but eight of us got disquali ed from the sixteenth race at
Spa, something about a worn-down rear diffuser, so that took a win away. The win I enjoyed the most was at Monaco, a track where I had always wanted to race. I got there and I was so quick.
There were two races. I won the rst and in the second, leading again, I hit the wall badly with ve laps to go and nearly destroyed the car. When I hit the wall, the rear wheels buckled, the right pushrod was bent and the balance was all over the place. The car was really messed up. Adrian Sutil (now in Formula One with Spyker) closed the gap and he was all over me.
I could not go round left-hand corners very well because my suspension was broken but through the righthanders I was okay. I had to be nervous of the kerbs, but I still won and it just felt so good. The following year, , we went to GP2, which was a completely di erent experience. There were quite a lot of people there who saw the McLaren name on my suit and wanted autographs and whatever.
I joined the ART Grand Prix team again with Frédéric Vasseur, the owner of ASM. Nico Rosberg had won GP2 with them the year before so they were the team to be with. During the season, I remember speaking to Ron Dennis and Martin Whitmarsh and saying, ‘I want to do Formula One next year, I think I’m ready.’ They gave no indication this might be possible but said I had to do the job, I had to win, so you can understand the amount of pressure that I was under at the time.
There was a spot that I thought had my name on it and I worked as hard as I could to get it. I kept telling Ron and Martin, ‘Next year I’m going to be ready for Formula One, I promise.’ I remember that both my dad and I had no idea what was going to happen at McLaren the following year or whether I would reach Formula One or have to go elsewhere.
I was performing well at that time and I was leading the GP2 Championship. My dad remained calm about my future prospects and that gave me a huge amount of con dence even though I still wanted that con rmation from McLaren. Then, the end of the season got really tough, as I battled for the title with Nelson Piquet Jr. McLaren said: ‘There is a possibility that you could race with us next year.’ That was it, I had to have it.
The pressure was greater than ever. I eventually won GP2 and thought this is it, it’s now time for McLaren to give me the opportunity, I know I can do it. I eventually got the chance that I had been asking for to test a Formula One car. I remember I wanted to impress in my rst attempt but instead I took it steady, trying not to make any mistakes but just applying myself methodically.
The engineers were professionals and experienced, they could tell if I was right or not for the job – but then, after everything, I got the news that the Formula One seat was mine.
CHAPTER
6
DREAMS
‘He [Ron Dennis] sat down and spoke to me for what seemed like ages…I got him to sign my autograph book and I said, “Can you also put down your number and address please?” and he said, “Okay…I tell you what… phone me in nine years and I will sort you out a deal”.’
FOR ME IT WAS JUST A COOL NIGHT OUT.
A lot of people have talked about it since as if it was the night that changed my life. But when I left home with my dad on that rst Sunday evening of December , little did I know what lay ahead. I was ten years old and on my way to my rst prestigious motor sport awards event – the annual Autosport Awards dinner.
This was a major event that is a kind of celebration of the motor racing year gone by. It was a real big deal. I was going because I had won the British Formula Cadet Karting Championship, my rst national title. I felt proud, of course, but a bit apprehensive, too. The dinner was held at the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane, London.
There were about a thousand people in a huge room full of tables and chairs and there were waiters everywhere. It was amazing. I was wearing a green velvet jacket that my dad had borrowed from Mike Spencer, the previous year’s winner of the British Formula Cadet Championship. Fortunately for me, he was my size, although Linda had to take up the sleeves.
I borrowed his shiny patent leather black shoes o him as well. That night, just ten years old and in that suit, I felt really good, like the whole thing fitted me. I had started to watch Formula One a few years before that evening, of course, and McLaren were the team I followed. I was just attracted by the colours of the McLaren car around that time.
It was my favourite. I was a huge fan of their driver Ayrton Senna. It was a strange feeling. It was that team that made me think, ‘I want to drive that car one day.’ I wanted to be in that team. ‘One day, I want to be in his seat.’ I had always followed Senna. When I went to the Autosport Awards it was the year after he had been killed at Imola.
To this day I always feel a bit gutted that I missed him by a year. He was ‘the man’ for me. It was everything about him, but especially the way he drove and him as a person. Anyway, for that Autosport Awards night, my dad made me a very special autograph booklet, with spaces for people to write their names, addresses and phone numbers.
It was all done out really professionally. Dad thought we might never get the chance again and so let’s capture as much information and details as we can just in case we ever get the opportunity to do something with it. I still have that book at home. I carried the
thing with me all night and, after the dinner, when everyone was walking around, my dad was saying, ‘Oh, that’s so and so, go and get their autograph.’ There were all these di erent people and I hadn’t a clue who they were.
I don’t think kids at that age remember names and faces particularly, but what they can remember is the number on the car, or the colour of the car, be it a rally car or whatever, and the driver’s trademark helmet. So when my dad said, ‘That’s Colin McRae who drives a Subaru,’ I was like, ‘No, really!’ Colin McRae was the man at that time and he was also one of the guys I met early on who was genuine, who gave me time.
That night, he gave me so much time and he was so pleasant. At the end of the awards presentation Colin, his brother Alistair and a few friends were chanting ‘Lewis, Lewis!’ It was incredibly funny to have these big guys shouting out my name. I really appreciated Colin from that day. Sadly, he was killed in a helicopter crash during the weekend of the Belgian Grand Prix this year.
I had not seen him for a long time, but remember that he was such a great guy. Eventually that night, my dad said, ‘There’s Ron Dennis, go and get his autograph.’ I walked up to Ron. I remember standing in front of him. I remember being so nervous but con dent at the same time; nervous of speaking, but I also had my own self-belief, too.
I knew what I wanted but I was not con dent that I could speak the words properly. I was uncomfortable to the point that I really did not want to say too much. So I went up to him and I said, ‘Hello, I’m Lewis Hamilton. One day I’d like to be a racing driver and I’d like to race for McLaren…’ Ron sat down and spoke to me for what seemed like ages, ten minutes or so, although I’m sure it was really just a minute or two.
I remember looking in his eyes – and I never lost contact with him. He said, ‘You have got to work hard at school. You have got to keep that spirit and keep going.’ So I got him to sign my autograph book and I said, ‘Can you also put down your number and address please?’ and he said ‘Okay.’ He wrote down his address and said, ‘I tell you what – phone me in nine years and I will sort you out a deal.’ I said, ‘Okay’ and he wrote down his phone number.
He just wrote, ‘Call me in nine years.’ Like I said, I have still got the autograph at home and it is odd to recall, like when I looked back recently, that I got Sir John Surtees as my rst autograph when my dad told me how much he had won and who he was and about his achievements; then Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Jackie Stewart and all these great people.
It was so cool. I guess at ten years old I had no clue what it all really meant. I was in a complete daze. I won several British Kart Championships in di erent classes after that, and so I went again to the Autosport Awards the year after and the year after that – three times in a row – and it is really a pleasure when I go now because you sit there amongst all these youngsters and you say, ‘Shoot, that was me many years ago!’ It is weird because when you are that age people say, ‘I remember when I was your age…’ and all that.
And now I am sitting here, and I am only twenty-two, but I am looking at the kids and I am thinking ‘Wow, ten years ago…’
A few weeks after my third visit to the Autosport Awards, Ron Dennis’s secretary, Justine, called my dad on his mobile phone. ‘Hello, Anthony, Ron would like to talk to you.’ My dad couldn’t believe he had called. He came to me and said, ‘Ron Dennis has called – and he’s o ered to support your career nancially, technically and whatever is necessary.’ I was like, ‘Oh, yeah.
Great.’ And I just went upstairs to my room and got on with my homework – I think I was in shock! It was so unbelievable. I struggled to take it in – until my dad said he was actually going to meet with Ron later in the week. Ron used to come to some of the kart races because he was the sponsor of the McLaren Mercedes Champions of the Future Series.
I remember him coming to speak to me after I won the Cadet Championship. He smiled at me and he just said, ‘It’s nice to see you up here.’ That was, I think, in When I won Junior Yamaha the next year, he was there again and smiled at me on the top step of the podium and joked, ‘Oh, no. Not you again!’ My dad was happy when he phoned a year after that.
He was ecstatic, but, for me, I was just the same. I guess that phone call changed our lives far more than I ever understood at the time, but my dad knew exactly what and how much it meant. I was very appreciative of the opportunity, but I was not really old enough to understand it. My dad looked after all the stu outside my racing, just as he does now in Formula One.
Though I was pleased when the McLaren drivers David Coulthard or Mika Hakkinen came to a few of the kart races, and I was obviously really impressed with their talent and achievements, I have never really been into hero worship like some people. There are those who are amazed by everything they see around these famous people and then they want to be just like these ‘stars’ who have become their role models.
I have never been like that but maybe I would have been if I had met Ayrton Senna or if I were to meet Michael Jackson, say, I would be star-struck, but I honestly haven’t been starstruck yet. I do not have a role model as such: I prefer to take a little bit from everyone, whether it is fashion, style, music or whatever.
One person who does stand out for me though is Muhammad Ali. I have never met him but would love to. When I see him on TV, I think ‘Whoah, this dude…’ He is my favourite sportsman ever. I go onto the internet and watch clips of him and I have also got the When We Were Kings DVD. Seeing him in the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’…oof…that was sick! I love watching those kind of old-school things when you try to understand what was going on back then.
How cool was Ali! I would love to be like that. No one had the balls he had. That’s inspirational. The style that Ali had and the way he was such a hero matters to me so much more than money ever could. One of the many people I have met this year, a kid no older than thirteen, asked me about being at McLaren and what it is like. He asked, ‘How’s the money?’ Well, I can tell you I have not spent any money, or hardly any at all, and I have not even seen any money!
My dad is taking care of that stu . I spend money like I have done for the last few years – in limited amounts and for necessities only, although
maybe one day I’ll splash out on something for my family and myself. Ron Dennis always mentions it to me – he kids me about it. ‘Oh, I know you’re always pinching pennies’ and I’m like, ‘Hold on a sec…we’ve not had a lot of money to grow up with and I don’t need to go and spend any money.’ And that is right.
I have a car provided for me, by Mercedes-Benz, which I am very fortunate to have. There isn’t anything else that I need at the moment but if there is, it’s taken care of by my dad. Honestly, there is nothing else I could possibly want. Dad and I once talked gures of what I could earn in the next few years as an Formula One driver and we could not even imagine a tiny fraction of what people say I could earn.
It is just crazy. What di erence does it really make? Okay, maybe you can buy more things but what di erence does that really make in your life? I don’t know. I must admit, I like boats, big ones. My friend has a boat and that is just the most unreal thing. It is pretty seriously cool. So, if I were ever to save up for anything, it would be a boat.
I was very fortunate to be invited to spend some of my summer holiday on a boat owned by Mansour Ojjeh and his family – it was so cool. Mansour is a shareholder in the McLaren Group. You wake up one morning on the boat, and you can just go somewhere else. That’s what we did and I loved it. Mansour has such a great family.
That’s why he is so happy. So, for me, it was a real pleasure to see that. None of that would have happened, of course, if I had not been driving for McLaren and if I had not been in Formula One. So I do appreciate how lucky I am. In , when I was only thirteen, I met Prince Charles when he came to visit the McLaren headquarters.
And since then, I have met lots of people from all walks of life and all parts of the world. It is one of the great thrills of my job and I am truly grateful that I have had this opportunity. I am determined to make the most of it and I believe, just like I did in , that if I aim for my dream then it can happen.
CHAPTER
7
RUNNING
‘I was determined to succeed.
I was ready to do anything it took. I knew I was young and I was a rookie. But I
am very straightforward and I say what’s on my mind. I will not try to be someone I am not. I will just tell it as I see it or understand it.’
AFTER MY FIRST FEW TESTS in the McLaren Formula One car, I was comfortably putting in respectable lap times during testing.
I think it impressed a few people that I was consistently getting on with my job. I knew then that anything is possible. I was saying, ‘You know, we can actually win a race if we work hard enough.’ And that is when my road to Formula One really began. That is when a real new chapter in my life started.
I had been on that road for some time. I was running. I wanted to go to Formula One. I was pushing as hard as I could. Every opportunity I had, I told them I was ready. Then Martin Whitmarsh hinted, while I was going for the GP2 Championship title in , that there was a possibility I could race in Formula One.
‘But,’ he said, ‘if you don’t win, you know, it will make it more di cult to put you in the car.’ The pressure was now greater than ever. I’m sure it wasn’t intentional to add more pressure but that’s the way it was. I wanted it so much. I had a period during the year when I was a bit negative and I came back positive. I had ve wins, six fastest laps and took pole and the race win at Monaco in GP2.
I also had a double win at Silverstone. Eventually, at the end of September, I was called to Ron’s home. Martin Whitmarsh was there. I went along with my dad and we were told that I would be racing in for Vodafone McLaren Mercedes. Well, we were kind of numb with shock. We wanted to burst out laughing, crying or whatever but we just sat there as if this sort of thing happened every day.
Even when we had left and got in the car we still couldn’t believe it, and it was only when we gradually got closer to home that the reality of it kicked in. The family were ecstatic! We were sworn to secrecy so couldn’t share our news with anyone except Linda, Nic, my mum and her husband Ray. It was torture for a few weeks but worth it! It was a very good year for me and, at last, I had the opportunity to test a Formula One car.
It was a great feeling. Having your rst test in a Formula One car, you feel that you want to blow the world away and I was really determined. But it didn’t happen just like that. It took time. The team understood how tough it would be for me to begin with, so they gave me plenty of time, six or eight test days at Silverstone and then I
started to find a real consistency.
My rst-ever test took place at Silverstone. It was a cold grey day but the world was alight as far as I was concerned. I took it easy, not wanting to make a mistake on my rst day in the job by crashing the car. My dad was petri ed that I might push too hard but gradually the more laps I did the more comfortable and confident I became.
I remember that when I was rst given the job, my race engineer and now good friend Phil Prew was a bit disappointed that he did not get to work on Fernando’s car. He was, after all, the double World Champion. I remember he told me and I said, ‘I’m sorry that you didn’t get Fernando, but I’ll do the best job I can.’ And all credit to Phil, he was great about it after that and relished the challenge of working with a rookie.
He turned out to be so very, very positive and he said, ‘Don’t worry. We’ll work hard and we’ll do fine.’ I’ve heard people say that in the past some drivers used to just walk into the paddock garage and get into the car and race, then afterwards get out and go home without even a word. I wanted to make sure I was not like that. I made it clear I was willing to work twice the hours, never mind the same hours, as anyone who was working in the team.
I was asking: are you willing to work the amount of hours I’m willing to work? I was determined to succeed. I was ready to do anything it took. I knew I was young and I was a rookie. But I am very straightforward and I say what’s on my mind. I will not try to be someone I am not. I will just tell it as I see it or understand it.
I am easy to talk to and that is important, too. I believe you have to communicate with your own team and the people around you in as normal a manner as possible. The McLaren and Mercedes-Benz engineers and sta are some of the most intelligent, hard working and loyal people I have ever met. We all have di erent jobs but our goal is the same – we are a team and their support has been incredible.
There are guys like my race engineer who want to work that extra bit more in order to win. But they, like any other people, need to be motivated. They need another party to work with them. I think that you have to be completely dedicated and focused to do this job and that’s where Michael Schumacher was di erent. I had read about Michael and I had seen how dedicated and committed he was.
So, for the six months leading up to my rst Grand Prix in Australia, I was in the factory every day, from eight in the morning until six or later in the evening. Ron and Martin had basically given a number of people at McLaren the task of transforming me from a GP2 driver into a Formula One driver. The aim was to make sure that I was ready to score a podium in Melbourne, even though that seemed ambitious at the time.
I put in maximum e ort to achieve the best I could. I worked hard with the team and they paid me back by putting in enormous e orts in return. I did two long stints of physical training and, in between, hours of working with the engineers on the car. When I went home at night, I was nished. I went to bed at eight o’clock. And it was like that for the whole six months.
When the team saw that, and how enthusiastic I was, even on bad days, they could see I was totally committed.
Working as a team is critical. Okay, it’s not always possible as sometimes you have to make your own decisions for the best but generally all decisions are better when they are team driven. If I had a problem with the car, I would always come back and discuss it with my team.
I never blame the car or my team and it is the same with the team to me. We are all human, and we all make mistakes. If I make mistakes, I apologize. I am still learning. It is about appreciation. Firstly, I always make sure that I go into the garage, and if it’s in the morning then I always say ‘good morning’ to them all. Secondly, I speak to everyone – not just to my engineers but to Fernando’s engineers and mechanics as well.
I give them time, which is important, and I get on with them well. They do a fantastic job. I feel that for them to put per cent into us as drivers, they all need to feel that we are giving per cent. I know I am because I am committed to the success and achievements of the team. For me, working as a part of the team rather than an individual in the team is the way it should be and everyone bene ts from the relationship and shares in the good and the bad times as a team.
I do my best to learn from mine and other people’s mistakes, whether I am right or wrong, and I try to take all that in and to mould myself so I am a better person and a more rounded driver. I feel that we are all in it together, we are a team, and without their commitment at every pit stop, I will not get out that fraction of a second quicker to get in front of someone else.
Also, I feel very much involved with them as people. We are all in it together. I think, ‘Come on guys, let’s do this!’ Sometimes, it feels a bit awkward because there are so many of them to talk to, but it helps me. It helps me feel real and keeps me in touch so that we can work together. Earlier in the year there was a story going around saying my success was the work of other people who trained my mind, put me on the simulator and taught me how to race.
I have got to say that is complete bull! And it was a rubbish story. Sure, I worked on the simulator and used it, but I knew how to race, I’d been doing it successfully for fourteen years previously. I knew how to prepare mentally and physically, and how to race, how to win and just as important how to lose a long time before I went near the simulator.
Throughout my career I developed these skills with my dad’s help. It is my dad’s mental strength and thought process that has helped me develop myself and my application to racing and life. In the winter after GP2, and before Formula One, I worked like I had never worked before. The team and I did everything possible for me to prepare myself in every way for the season ahead – training hard, physically and mentally.
I was really feeling con dent about my tness and working on learning everything I could about the car. So, all that stu about me being a ‘robot’ or simulator-trained driver is total and utter fanciful reporting. Like all Vodafone McLaren Mercedes drivers, I have been helping to develop the simulator at McLaren on and o in recent years.
It is an advanced bit of equipment, but they have been developing it since I was fteen and it is an ongoing thing.
Occasionally, I would have the opportunity to get into the simulator and just have fun, and had to take days o college to do it. It was an opportunity for me to learn more about the controls on the car and spend more time at the factory.
It was also hopefully a chance to impress the bosses at McLaren and show them I could handle everything they wanted to throw my way. I wanted to be noticed so that I could get the opportunity I so desperately wanted – to drive the Formula One car. For the past two years, I’ve had a great team helping me to develop and be prepared for a career in Formula One – my family, Ron Dennis, Martin Whitmarsh (McLaren’s Chief Operating O cer), Norbert Haug (Vice-President of Mercedes-Benz), Dr Aki Hinsta (the team’s head of Human Performance), my physiotherapist and personal trainer Adam Costanzo, plus all the sta at McLaren and Mercedes-Benz.
It was a full team effort. During my training and development, I visited all the di erent departments and engineers both at McLaren in Woking and Mercedes-Benz in Brixworth, England and Stuttgart, Germany so I could learn about the brakes, suspension, rear-suspension geometry, disc-control settings, gear ratios, pit stop strategies, the controls, the dashboard, the launch procedure, the default procedures when you are out on the track…I had to take in all these di erent things.
I had to understand them and the details and exactly how it all works and know them backwards. I took that opportunity with both hands and maximized my potential. I did not just turn up in a daze. I went home and I studied. All the sheets of paper and booklets that they gave me, I read and made sure I understood. I had never done anything like that in my life before, but I did it then.
So, it is not about being programmed. I was given an opportunity to learn and I took it. I applied myself better than I have ever applied myself – and that is why when I got to my first Grand Prix I was ready. The only other in uence on how I learned to win and learned to drive was through my experiences in karting – and through what I took from my family.
I am the way I am because of my family. That is the re in my heart. We – my family and I – have taken the opportunity presented to us and made it happen. That re in me is important because it drives me on. Wherever I am, if I have an idea of something that would help the team, I call them to discuss my thoughts or we talk about how it has been going so far.
I might say, ‘This has made a big impact here, this has helped there, this is what we need to do, this is where we are going…’ There are so many people who work in the factory. I try to get around as many di erent departments as I can – not all in one day, obviously, because there are too many, but bit by bit I try to get to each shop, like the machine shop, and spend ve or ten minutes there.
It is good for me. We talk and they come over and ask me a load of questions. They are happy to hear what has been going on. I can speak to them freely because I have known them for years. I think they appreciate it as well. I knew it was really important to prepare for everything last winter before the season began. And, for me, that meant listening to advice on food, fitness and rest and learning
from it.
I worked with Dr Aki and Adam and they were fantastic for me, really committed, so enthusiastic. They helped me a lot and we are like a team together. I could feel that they wanted me to win as much as I did myself. And that kind of support is a really great feeling. It is how I feel about the guys in the factory and the guys in the race team. Dr Aki and Adam told me about this energy thing – that we all have a certain amount of energy and that some days we feel tired and some days we do not.
Well, I do not claim to understand it all, but I know that food makes a big di erence to the way you feel. And relaxing properly, not wasting energy when you have some to spare, is important, too. I took that stu on board so I was trying not to waste my energy for weeks, or months, in preparation for the new season.
I knew it was going to be a really intense year. Everyone has the same schedule, but for me is was important to perform with per cent mental capacity as the physical demands of racing for an hour and a half, seventeen or eighteen times a year, require your undivided attention. It is something very special. I knew that and I wanted to be ready for it.
Most people can just go through their lives and balance everything and it’s really good for them and they get time to recuperate at weekends. But I am racing on average every two weeks and have been for the past fourteen years. So, in that time when I was getting ready for the season, I was coming back home and getting to bed early and getting up at a decent time and eating healthily and really taking care of myself.
I am not one of those people that says that you have to eat this or that type of food all the time. Obviously, I do watch my diet, but I love the occasional bacon sandwich and a chance to enjoy some food just for the taste when I can. I like to have a healthy balance between work and play. I have to feel free and able to do the things that I want to do.
If I want to drive to London or see my friends, I know I can. If I want to go to the cinema or go bowling, I can do those sorts of things. But I also know, when I am in a racing car, it is important to be tter than my competitors. And that comes from the preparations long in advance of the season starting. When you are racing, and you have been driving for, say, forty minutes, you start to fatigue and then your body starts to take energy from your mind.
Your concentration drops and you cannot push as much and your performance just gets worse. I always train to make sure I’ve got enough to go for ninety minutes or more, so when I do a race I never get to the point where I know my body is fatiguing and taking energy from my mind. You cannot brake as late or overtake as much if your brain energy is sapped away.
My life has changed so much in the last two years that it is hard to even imagine now what it used to be like. My dad manages everything and this takes all the worry away from me so that I can focus on what I do best. All my days are planned out in advance. I have a carefully xed schedule. I have no issues to deal with.
I can just have fun which means getting in that McLaren car and racing it. When I have to do appearances, I can tell people my story and enjoy it. I try to feel happy because that is what I can take
energy from. It is a great package right now for my life. Linda looks after all my diary and makes sure everything is booked – and all I have to do is arrive and drive.
Of course, it wasn’t always like that! But now I need to be in the best condition I can for every race. I have to be at my peak and all the stu I have learned in the past has to come out now. I try to avoid making any mistakes and I feel able to do that because everything around me is right. So much of it is in the preparation. That’s why I went back to those basic principles when I was working all last winter down in Woking, reading, absorbing and learning – and training so hard I was ready for anything that lay ahead when I caught the plane to Melbourne.
CHAPTER
8
UNBELIEVABLE!
‘I was standing on the podium thinking…“I’ve done my parents proud.” I had been so busy all weekend that I had hardly spoken to my dad…we never seemed to have more than
ve minutes together.
Seeing his
expression after the race made it worth all the e ort. “My dad’s smiling down there,” I thought, “so I know
he’s happy – and that’s all that matters to me. There’s one thing I can do that makes my dad smile and this is it.”’
I DO NOT KNOW HOW MANY LAPS I LED FOR, but it was a few…And, right there and then, on those laps, I knew I was just meant to be in Formula One.
I could feel it. For years, I had played all these Grand Prix games. I had been everywhere on all the circuits, racing against Nic on the computer. And here I was in Australia, in Melbourne, and this time it was for real. It had felt great enough to be running second, in my debut race, so when McLaren told me over the radio, ‘Lewis, you’re now leading,’ I was like ‘Shooooooot – I’m leading my rst Grand Prix.
How wicked is that!’ I just loved that moment. I wish I could live it forever, again and again. The reaction afterwards was something else, too, but it was that race, and the whole weekend, that brought it all home for me. My rst event, the Australian Grand Prix: to nish on the podium there was just fantastic.
Right from the start, I knew I was t and I was ready. I ew out to Australia with Adam. I had already started working with him in when he helped me prepare for the nal few races of the GP2 season, making sure that I maintained my tness. When Martin Whitmarsh asked me what I thought of having Adam as my personal trainer, I said, ‘We get on really well.
He’s very enthusiastic. It would be cool.’ So, together, we did all the pre-season training and, knowing the level of dedication that he had put in over that period of time, I was con dent before that rst race. Adam was so passionate about his job. He would say, ‘We want to win!’ and for someone whom I had known for only a short period of time, this was amazing.
I felt so lucky to have found someone like that, where you just click and get on with it. I was glad to feel so well prepared. It helped there and then as much as anywhere else. The whole Formula One experience is so intense, especially at the rst race of the season. It is a lot more intense in terms of physical training and preparing mentally and also in terms of other things like the winter testing programme, which was pretty hectic.
I needed to squeeze as many running miles in through the winter as possible. For me, that meant running three days a week after coming in from GP2. At the same time, I did a lot of physical exercise work with Adam to make sure I felt fresh and con dent. Then,
before the race, I started going to sleep at a di erent time every night, bit by bit during the week, to prepare for the time di erence.
Adam then ew to Australia and a few days later I followed him. I stopped o in Hong Kong, partly to break up the journey and partly to see Jodia Ma, my ex-girlfriend. I spent a couple of days with her at her house; we went into town, around Hong Kong, took the trip to Macau, and went around the circuit I had raced on in Formula Three, one of my favourite circuits in the world.
It was just that: a nice break on the journey with a very good friend. I had broken up with Jo in January, just before my birthday, when it was obvious that my schedule was not going to give me time to include her. I had told her that I faced a very intense time, that I had to go away the week of my birthday for a week of special training in Finland, and was due to come back for one day and then go to Spain, for three days of testing.
Then when I came back again, I had two more days of special training and then I was due to y out somewhere else the next day. I explained it was going to be like that all the way to the rst race. I knew also that her parents needed her back home – so I said, ‘You know, Jo, it is best to be around the family when needed…Maybe you should go back to Hong Kong.’ I knew it would be hard for her.
I said, ‘I’m going to be away for the rst Grand Prix, then I’m going to be away two months and you’re just going to be here in London.’ In the end, we sorted it out and we went our separate ways. She left London and went back to start her life again in Hong Kong. It was hard not having Jo around but we kept in contact. I rst met Jo at a party in London.
She had actually been at Cambridge Arts and Sciences College in , a year behind me, where she’d become good friends with one of my best mates, Mohammed. There was just something about her that I really liked and I found myself meeting up with her all the time. She was such a kind, considerate person that she became a really big part of my life.
I had never before had the opportunity or desire outside of my racing to spend time with such a loving and generous girl like Jo. She had to cope with a lot, living and studying in England and being away from her family, which was di cult for her. In her family’s business sponsored my racing in Macau. Unfortunately, the business su ered a downturn in fortune in and the family could no longer support her studying in England and she had to return home.
In November , after a race in Macau, Jo ew back with me to London but she was stopped at customs and not allowed back in the country because she had only two weeks remaining on her visa. She said she was about to renew it for her studies, but instead of letting her in, the customs o cers boxed her in a room and then sent her back on a ight that night.
It took her two months to sort that out, but she came back on my birthday after renewing her visa. It was a nice present, but it was only temporary as her family still needed her support and so she returned to Hong Kong shortly after. After a while, Jo moved with her mother and sister to Atlanta, in Georgia, to stay with friends while the family business was wound down.
Around that time, I took a ight
over to the US in the middle part of my GP2 season, stayed with her in Atlanta and then took a road trip with her and her sister, seven hours, down to New Orleans and to Florida. It was really cool – Orlando, Disneyworld and all that stuff. Apart from her studies, I was the only other reason Jo returned to the UK after that and it was a big weight on my shoulders.
If a girl does something like that, then it is a real commitment. It became serious and very intense. I was beginning to worry about how I could share my time between the two things I loved. I had always told Jo that I could never let anything a ect my racing and it was coming to the point where our relationship just could not continue for that reason.
She knew it. It was an incredibly tough time but we both had to be mature and face the realities of our lives, where we lived and what we wanted to achieve. Maybe it was just the wrong time to meet such a fantastic lady and her family. We still have a great friendship. After the stopover in Hong Kong I ew down to Brisbane, where Adam comes from and where his family live.
Brisbane was quite unreal. I had never been to Australia before and when I got there, it seemed so familiar and similar to everything I had seen and read. I felt great, in a great place and probably because I was with Adam I felt like I was at home. After a day or two, we ew up to the Gold Coast and stayed in a hotel where we concentrated on our training programme.
It was about sleeping right and making sure my body was prepared and had recovered from the jet lag. Everything was perfect. When we ew down to Melbourne, it was so nice. It was my rst Grand Prix, of course, and there were a lot of events for me to do with the sponsors, the team and the media. It was my rst experience of what to expect at a Grand Prix.
We went to the track and I did some preparation with my team, walked the circuit and just soaked it up. I was picked up in a car and taken to the hotel where I had my own S-class Mercedes, which was cool. I was staying in this great hotel and could feel some of the expectation building. I just tried to stay calm and focused. I learned so much that weekend – not just on the track, but o it as well.
The schedule, the intensity, the pressure – I had to take it all in and handle it. I was being whisked everywhere: up in the morning, go to the track, do this and do that, then I was pulled away to a promotional event – it was just relentless but really enjoyable for me, too. On the Friday, I had the driver’s brie ng with my engineer, then I was able to get onto the track, then it was lunchtime, then I was out testing again.
When I nished, I had an engineers’ meeting for an hour or two, then a brie ng for all the drivers after which I had to rush back to the hotel, change quickly into my suit and go to this event, at the top of a tall building, where I had to stand on a box in front of a big crowd and talk with a microphone…For me, it was my rst event like that in front of so many people.
I had done the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes launch in Valencia, obviously, and that was almost unreal, too, so here I was just standing there talking. They were a great audience, and I had a good time. There was also so much to learn technically about a Formula One car that I was
pleased I had done all those hours and hours of studying in advance.
My GP2 car had nothing like the technical complexities of my Formula One car. In GP2, you do not have traction control or numerous knobs and buttons on the steering wheel like in Formula One, so for me it was something new to try to get used to traction control and being able to use the di erential for braking by adjusting a switch on the steering wheel.
I have twenty buttons on the steering wheel, and for me that was the hardest part of my learning curve going into Formula One – understanding what e ect and function each setting had on the performance of the car and how to optimize them. But after that rst day in Melbourne, I felt that it was pretty similar in a lot of ways to all the other tests I had done.
So I did all the preparations and I went out on the Friday – and I did not put it in the wall! I thought I did a reasonable job and kept out of trouble. There had been a lot of talk down the years and nally, when I got this job, people were saying things like, ‘Oh well, he’s not going to be able to do it.’ I think even Ron Dennis was conservative about it.
‘You’ll be alright,’ he said. ‘You’ll nish in the top ten.’ Did Ron underestimate me? I don’t know, I think he was just trying to manage my expectations in preparation for any possible disappointment. Most other people did, though, understandably given that I was a rookie about to race a Vodafone McLaren Mercedes Formula One car.
That rst day round Albert Park in free practice I nished up P3. It was just a fantastic day for me. To leave the garage for the rst time in Melbourne and drive down the pit straight was, for me, living my dream. I had been getting up early for years to watch this race and now I was in it. It rained at the start and that made the circuit a bit slippery and more di cult to learn.
Any wet circuit is a bit tricky, but Melbourne was a street circuit with a lot of white lines around. I had to watch out for them. It went pretty smoothly, especially in the second session when we made some progress, and I nished that first day feeling pretty strong. Fernando had finished seventh. After the sessions, I was asked to attend my rst o cial Formula One news conference upstairs in the media centre.
That was pretty cool, too. There were five of us, I think: myself, Heikki Kovalainen, Jenson Button, Mark Webber and David Coulthard. Me and Heikki sat in the front row and I think we got most of the questions! I remember one of them was about the jump up from GP2 to Formula One. The next day, Saturday, I went into my rst Formula One qualifying session and ended up fourth on the grid.
That meant I was in the second row for my rst Grand Prix start: P4. I said I was overwhelmed and it was true. I was enjoying every moment of the whole experience, but a little part of me was disappointed that I had not outquali ed my team-mate Fernando, even if he was the World Champion. I always want to come out on top if I can and I think it is natural for any racing driver.
On race day, Sunday, obviously I was a bit nervous before the start, but nothing more than was usual, I felt. When the lights went out, I got o pretty well. I was on the dirty side of the grid, but I had as good a start, reaction-wise, as Fernando, but he had better traction. That meant he could pull away and I came under attack from the cars around
and behind me as I went into the first corner.
Robert Kubica, in his BMW, came round the outside and slotted in front of me and took my place. I had a moment when I reacted and I thought, ‘Shoot, if I stay in this spot, there’s gonna be a few other cars that will go round the outside…I’ll be down in eighth…I’m gonna come out a lot further back than where I started and that’s not good – and I’m not having it!’ There was no reason for me to stay in that queue.
So, before everyone started braking, it was Boom! Dice to the outside, to the left. Then, they started braking and I’m still on the power. Dice more, down to the left. I braked. I do not even know how I judged where I was, braking-wise. And then, there was a gap around the outside of Fernando! I just slotted in so perfectly. I did lose a bit of ‘aero’ from my front wing because I touched Nick Heidfeld’s BMW, his wheel clipping my front wing and breaking something.
Otherwise, I could have been even quicker. But it was all happening, all at once. Then, I looked in my mirrors and I could see everything. ‘Shoot! I just overtook that whole pack and I’ve got Fernando behind me…’ It was a heart-pounding moment for me. I was really in it. I was in the middle of everything. I had just overtaken Fernando, the World Champion, with an outside manoeuvre and it was one of those feelings where you are really right on the limit.
You either pull it o or you don’t. And, realistically, there was far more chance of me not pulling that o , but it all went so well. And it was not luck. I just timed it to perfection and I got in there and I was like, ‘Phew! That’s a much better place to start!’ I was third, working on overtaking Nick Heidfeld in front – and he was lighter on fuel than me so there was no way I was going to catch him.
But I knew he was going to stop early so that was cool. The key for me was just keeping Fernando in my mirror – and in the distance. So I pulled out a gap and then I would get round a corner, pull a few hundred metres and look in my mirror and if Fernando was in the same place, or further behind, I knew it was alright.
That’s how I judge the distance. Then it was just, ‘Keep pushing and don’t make mistakes…’ That’s what I concentrated on doing. I did my best, but I got caught up in traffic before I pitted and finished third. I was gutted that I didn’t beat Fernando but I thought ‘he is a great driver and a double World Champion’ and I have to give him credit for his drive.
I felt so much satisfaction at nishing third in my rst Grand Prix. When I stepped onto the podium, it felt almost like winning a race. It was very emotional because of what I had gone through in the previous six months, what my family had done, how much work we had all put in. It had all come together and I felt really full with it all. Then, other thoughts started entering my mind, like ‘Is this a one-o thing?
How do I maintain it?’ I was standing on the podium thinking that, but at the same time feeling great and thinking ‘I’ve done my parents proud.’ I had been so busy all weekend that I had hardly spoken to my dad. He was there in Melbourne, staying in another hotel nearby, but we never seemed to have more than ve minutes together. Seeing his expression after the race made it worth all the e ort.
‘My dad’s smiling down there,’ I thought, ‘so I know he’s happy – and that’s all that matters to me. There’s one thing I
can do that makes my dad smile and this is it.’ I knew that after that, things would change. I knew then that everyone would know who I was. It made things harder. I had earned respect, but I was not going out there to earn respect.
I was out there to win. There is no doubt that the result was very much a turning point for me, even more so when I think about it now. It was a reward for both me and my dad and a great start to the year. It was a foundation stone for what lay ahead. My hard work and all my preparations with Adam had paid o . I knew we had done as much running as we could in pre-season testing and I had done plenty of race distances, so I knew I was fit enough.
It was just another learning curve for me. You get con dence every time you nish a race. You gain a bit of con dence in the car. You know what you can do with it. I knew what I needed to do. It was good to have that rst race under my belt, over and done with. And now, after so many months of hard work, I had a chance to go and let my hair down and have a bit of fun for a few days before the next race.
Actually, I had a three-week break before the next event, in Malaysia, but in the middle of the second week there was a three-day test at the Sepang Circuit, near Kuala Lumpur International Airport. There was no point ying all the way back home and then back to Malaysia. I decided it was a chance to go to some places I’d always wanted to see. I went to Bangkok for two days with Adrian Sutil, who is a great friend of mine, and from there we went to Koh Samui.
It was my rst break after all the build-up to Australia. It was great fun. I enjoyed the sights and the food was really good, too. After Koh Samui, we did the three-day test and from there, with Adam and Adrian, I also met up with Jo in Bali. We all had a great time. Then we returned to Malaysia for the race and Jo went home to Hong Kong.
Kuala Lumpur is a really cool city. It is modern with a lot of interesting old districts, and the atmosphere, the food and the weather are all just great. I was feeling good, very con dent and enjoying the whole vibe. The circuit, at Sepang, near the airport, is a big and modern place with a wide track, good for the cars. It has plenty of room, but the heat is just amazing.
Someone once said that racing in Sepang is like racing in a sauna and that is just exactly right. It really is so hot. I had done well in Melbourne and I wanted to prove myself again. I had a feeling that I could do more and do better, but I was not given the best chance in qualifying. In the end, Fernando was second on the grid, sharing the front row with Felipe Massa’s Ferrari, after Felipe took pole, and I was fourth, next to Kimi Räikkönen in the other Ferrari.
It was obviously going to be a pretty tense start with both Ferraris and McLarens all together like that at the front. And it was. I had a pretty good getaway and so did Fernando. He was able to pass Felipe and I managed to pass both Ferraris before the rst corner. I think Felipe was paying a bit too much attention to Kimi and that gave us a chance.
I did not need asking twice and I went straight through with Fernando. It was a bit like Melbourne, another chance to take some places and I did it. It meant that I had to cope with some pressure, too. It was
something else, something new for me. It was the most di cult race I had ever been in: I had both of those Ferraris behind me, two big red blobs in my mirrors, and I had to try to make sure they stayed there.
It was so di cult. I knew they were lighter than me and that they were faster than me. Felipe made a couple of moves to pass me, into turn four, I think. I was lucky because I was able to lead him into a mistake – and it was lucky, too, that I was able to cut back across in front of him and in the end, eventually, he went o .
It was really dicey stu and I remember I apologized for it after the race at the press conference and everybody laughed. At the end of the day, we got the points because I came home second behind Fernando, who had been able to pull clear and build a lead, but the thing I always remember from that race was the heat and the pressure.
I had Kimi right behind me, too, hunting me down, and it was just so tough. Inside that cockpit, I was sweating so much and halfway through the race I ran out of water. It was tricky. I kept pushing all the time, just to hold them o and to stay in front of them all the way to the last lap. It would have been nice if I had been further ahead in the nal stint, but I had to put up with it.
I concentrated on not making any mistakes and the team did the rest. The car was really good. The team did a fantastic job and they deserved the rewards because they work such long hours. I felt proud to be on the podium again, really thrilled to be second. But a part of me always wants to win and as always I wanted to beat my teammate, so in that way, while I was happy, I was just a bit disappointed to be behind Fernando but I remained con dent that it would just be a matter of time until I gained the necessary experience to be in front.
I knew it was not going to be easy, in my rst season, and that you cannot predict what is going to happen. Testing is one thing and racing is another. I was quick enough and I knew I was very strong at racing so that was not an issue. We did longer stints and race runs in testing, but it is a lot di erent to actually doing it in a race when you have someone pressuring you like that and there is no room for error.
All that said, though, I was still delighted to get two podiums in my first two races. A lot of people were interested in how I managed to shake o Felipe when he attacked me. On the exit of turn two, I knew he was close and he seemed to be extremely quick down the straight. So I expected him to be slipstreaming me going into turn four.
I did move over, but not too far. I did not want to compromise my exit. Then, he dived and I anticipated that and tried to brake as late as possible. All those old lessons from my dad came into my instinctive reactions I guess. I tried to outbrake him but he braked even later than me! But I was able to get the car into the corner and he was lost – he was going straight!
He was gone. And then I knew that each time, as soon as we braked, he was going to overshoot so I was able to control the car and keep ahead. It was de nitely my hardest battle up to that time. I had a great sense of achievement after that, but I was itching for my rst win. That Sunday night I went to a Kanye West concert with my dad and Adam to celebrate – that was awesome.
Those two early results – third in Australia and second in Malaysia – had given me a
real con dence boost and there was a lot of talk about me going one step higher. Sure, I wanted to do that, but it is always dangerous to talk like that and make predictions. I was aware of that from my own mistakes and from my own career. I have always been fortunate, along the way, that whenever I have gone to a new category I have usually been able to challenge at the front.
That is down to having a good team and a good, competitive car. To be honest, I had always found that I had a decent amount of respect from the other drivers throughout my career. I felt it was the same in Formula One, but obviously I was still new and I was learning my way around. I had not spent that much time on track racing against a lot of the other drivers so it was di cult to know how far they would go in certain situations.
I just had to pay them respect and hope for the same in return. I had experienced so much in just two races, especially in Malaysia, in my tussle with the Ferraris, and Felipe in particular, that I had learned a lot of that stu . But I knew there were tough challenges ahead and I was not going to make predictions. In racing, anything can happen.
The next day, we went to Bahrain, a place I knew because I had raced there before. As I took a look at the Sakhir track for the next race, I was trying to be careful not to be drawn in. I did not want to be making mistakes in or out of the car. I was enjoying the banter with Felipe and that was cool. He seemed to be a straight guy and we got along well.
I felt he was open and easy to be with, too, in spite of the way we had battled in Malaysia. He was also very fast! Again, a lot of the media were turning the spotlight on me. There were lots of questions from the local journalists, and as always a lot from the international media who travel to all the races. People wanted to know how I was coping with the pressure and the level of expectation and stu like that.
I just told them it felt natural to me because, honestly, it did. I was feeling very happy to be there and said I had worked for thirteen years to get my chance. And I wanted to carry on enjoying it by performing as well as I could.
Focusing, waiting, watching…
Out in front, I enjoyed leading the field at Donington Park in this Formula Renault UK race in
I ran my first season of Formula Renault UK in and finished third.
Formula Renault Eurocup success.
In I won at every circuit in the F3 Euroseries.
Racing on the streets of Macau in the Formula Three event in
My F3 win in Bahrain, from the back, was an important statement of intent for me.
Discussing GP2 with McLaren’s Martin Whitmarsh.
Crossing the line and winning the GP2 Championship at Monza in
The race to win – Monaco GP2,
Winning at home in front of the British fans is a fabulous feeling and I loved it at Silverstone, where I won the GP2
race in
My first Formula One seat and car fitting in the McLaren factory.
Fans surprise me at Melbourne Park ahead of my first Australian Grand Prix.
Preparing my mind – eyes closed as I focus on the job ahead before the Australian Grand Prix.
Arriving with Fernando for a Vodafone promotion on St Kilda beach, Melbourne, Australia.
Hold it high – celebrating my first podium finish in my maiden Formula One outing at the Australian Grand Prix this year.
Spinning a few friendly words with Australian bowling legend Shane Warne.
The Spanish Grand Prix, and a dramatic start as I move up from fourth to second at the first corner.
Malaysia and a team one-two – fantastic!
Three wise men – my dad Anthony with Dave Ryan, McLaren team manager, and Ron Dennis, the boss.
Sharing a smile with Felipe Massa in Bahrain, my third straight podium finish.
‘Monaco pit stop – a team effort!’ I felt good.
I was in my third Grand Prix and they were all very di erent. I do not think you could get three more contrasting places really than Australia, Malaysia and then Bahrain – and the ways the people dressed in places as di erent as the Gold Coast beaches and the Arabian deserts showed that, too. But while that was interesting, and stimulating, I knew I had to concentrate on my job.
And I knew that in the race, I had to be very careful in the first corner, a tight and tricky one, where anything could happen. I really wanted to do well again, of course, but more than anything I wanted a chance to prove that I could beat Fernando on the day and in a straight ght. The practice sessions on Friday went well and then on Saturday, in qualifying, I wound up two places ahead of him.
Again, Felipe took pole for Ferrari, but this time I was second and Fernando was fourth – it was a straight turnaround of positions for us from Malaysia. On Sunday I knew the start was going to be vital again and I just built up my concentration on the grid. My dad was holding a parasol overhead to keep me out of the heat, and the funny thing was, Rory Bremner, the British impressionist, took a walk around my car out on the grid!
When the race started, I was away pretty well while Fernando came past Kimi to take third behind me. There was an early collision, involving two cars, and this meant the Safety Car came out. After that, it was just me and Felipe in front, and we had a really close scrap, but I just could not nd a way to get near enough to pass him.
Then, after I pitted, my second set of tyres were just not performing for me and I lost touch a bit with Felipe who pulled away. My third set were a lot better and I pushed hard, but this time Felipe was in front and he stayed there, and stayed cool, to win the race. Fernando finished fifth. As I was slowing down, the team came on the radio and said: ‘Leading the championship, Lewis…Not bad for a rookie.’ It was an amazing day for me.
I was level top of the points table with Fernando and Kimi, all three of us having collected twentytwo, but all the attention was on me. I cannot say I minded that. I had spent more than half of my life working for that moment, to be on top of the Drivers’ Championship one day, and I loved it. It was sweet. I did my job and then I had another job to do – y back across the world to Shanghai for another special promotional event.
I literally ew directly there, walked o the plane and went straight through immigration and into the Hilton hotel, where they were all waiting. I had to get up and pour this bottle of Mobil 1 oil and talk about it. It was a real job for me so I had been reading all about Mobil 1 oil, about its qualities and so on, on the plane. There was no time to celebrate at all, even if I had been inclined that way.
You have always got to come across properly, get the message right and give a good impression at these events with the McLaren partners. And after I had spoken, I had to sit down and do interviews. I do not know how many I did that day, but it was so intense. I was glad when it was over and I could go home for a few days. I needed a rest.
What I did not realize was that while I was away, a lot of things had
changed.
CHAPTER
9
FORMULA FAME
‘I like and admire Fernando, so I was sad and disappointed that for whatever reason our relationship did not improve but it was not for lack of trying.’
IN THE SPACE OF SIX WEEKS, MY LIFE HAD CHANGED.
I was a prisoner in my own home…and all because I was leading the Formula One Drivers’ Championship. I had nished third, second and then second again and I felt great. Life was so sweet. But when I returned to the UK and went to my parents’ home, there were people everywhere: reporters outside and photographers camped on our doorstep. At one point, there were ten cars parked outside the house.
And all because of me. My dad warned me about the paparazzi using long-distance lenses and trying to take pictures of me. I had to keep a low pro le. The reality of my situation had just set in. It was like I could not just be normal anymore. I had been away for about two months and had absolutely no idea of what had been going on back home.
I had no idea of what to expect.
Lewis hamilton my story pdf download My dad manages everything and this takes all the worry away from me so that I can focus on what I do best. My dad remained calm about my future prospects and that gave me a huge amount of con dence even though I still wanted that con rmation from McLaren. He thought that it would be more useful and relevant in motor racing and that it would give me a better chance at a decent job should I ever need it to fall back on. It was getting close to the circuit closing time and we were just about to nish.People, complete strangers, knew who I was. When I went to the petrol station, they were coming up to me and it was like, ‘Hey, Lewis, well done and good luck.’ What a strange feeling that everyone I met had been following my racing exploits both on the TV and in the papers. Some people would shout, ‘You were in the papers today, well done’ and so on, but unless you are there and you see it yourself, you do not know what the effect at home really has been.
For me, that was a lot even then, but it was nothing compared to what came later as the year unfolded. It was like a snowball going down a mountain – and the mountain was Everest! It just got bigger, and bigger, and bigger. My ordinary life ended then really. I had not seen my family, other than my dad, for all that time and Nic was amazed at everything.
I spoke to them, of course, from every race. They always said they couldn’t believe how qualifying had gone and then how the race had gone. I knew that every weekend they had all the family round and would sit and watch the whole weekend. I would speak to them each time before I went out for qualifying or for the race and I could hear them all.
It was strange, too, with the time di erences, but I could just feel the support and draw on it. It really made a huge difference for me. So when I nally returned to the UK, we had a family reunion and a really great
family meal together – our usual slow roast barbequed Sunday beef llet prepared by dad, Linda’s special roast potatoes with Yorkshire pudding, and all the trimmings.
That food, my family…all of that gives me such a great lift. That kind of feeling is great for energy and con dence, especially as I was more and more being drawn into a scrap at the front – not just with the two Ferraris, but also with my team-mate. Fernando, I am sure, did not like me doing so well and getting all the attention so early in the season.
That is only natural – I am sure I would feel the same in a similar situation. He really kept to himself and it was the same for me. Ron kept asking me if I would try extra hard to help Fernando feel welcome. I wanted Fernando to feel normal in the team and around me and couldn’t understand why he didn’t, as he never really spoke to me. I had already made a huge e ort when Fernando joined the team and felt I was doing as much as I could but without a response.
Nevertheless I continued to try. Fernando is very, very quiet. You say, ‘Hi’, he says, ‘Hello’ – and that’s it. I started going into his room to play computer games with him, just to build up the relationship. I took the initiative. I had to do it all and I think that if I had not gone in there and spoken to him, there would have been no relationship at all to work with.
And, for the sake of the team, I knew we needed one. We all had to work together. I like and admire Fernando, so I was sad and disappointed that for whatever reason our relationship did not improve but it was not for lack of trying. It was weird. I was pretty well bedded into the team and Fernando arrived as the twotime World Champion.
I thought he would be the one trying to set me an example and show me what to do, not the other way around. I thought, ‘I need to make an e ort to go over and meet all the people at McLaren to win their trust and belief, and to share their motivation.’ It doesn’t matter what sport it is. When I used to play football, I really worked hard to meet up with the guys and when I was on the eld I was enthusiastic – ‘Well played!’ and all that stu .
You have to work at it. You do not really know if you are doing well or not, but you need someone to be the strength of the team. That’s what I felt in football even though I wasn’t the captain. I was o ered a chance to be captain, but I was really the central mid eld guy and I was the magnet to bring the team forward.
We did not always win, but that is how I felt in my team, how I feel in any team. At the beginning of the year in January, there was a tness week that the team had really worked hard to put together. It was for everyone, including all the mechanics from my car and Fernando’s and the engineers as well. We went to Finland and it was a real bonding week for us all.
Everyone went: me, test driver Pedro de la Rosa, the mechanics and engineers – everyone except Fernando. He was supposed to go, but he didn’t. He didn’t go so he didn’t build any bond with the team. We went ten-pin bowling, we did all these team events – it was really good fun. We all enjoyed it. The only time you ever see that sort of team event normally is when you watch a lm or a television programme.
Often it is with soldiers and they have to do this and that and it can make a huge di erence. It did for me. I think the respect I had for them and the respect they had for me grew and it was good for all of us.
So after the rst three races, in which I had done pretty well with three podiums, I was feeling good.
But I knew that the next race, the Spanish Grand Prix, was Fernando’s home event so he was going to have that extra boost, a bit more con dence and support. It made no di erence to me, or my preparations. I was just going to do my job: stay focused, think about my racing and do my level best. The track, the Circuit de Catalunya, is about half-an-hour’s drive out of the city of Barcelona, inland a bit, and a bit exposed.
It can get pretty breezy there sometimes and it can also be hot. But it is the same for everybody and just about everyone in Formula One has been there to do loads of preseason testing so it is not a place with many surprises. I went into the weekend knowing that Fernando was the likely favourite, the driver who was supposed to take the team to the World Championship.
As it was his home country, I understood that he would have liked to be on pole and to be given the best shot to win the race. On Friday, in practice, I was quickest in the morning, but I slipped to fth in the afternoon after I ran o and picked up some dirt. It was no big deal. We were con dent about the speed in the car and felt that we had taken a step ahead of Ferrari in the long break since Bahrain.
More than anything, I felt I was able to be consistent and that was important. I could see Fernando was relieved to be quickest in the afternoon and in a funny way I was pleased for him. In qualifying, I was fourth, Felipe was on pole, Fernando was second and Kimi was third. I got a good start and got ahead of Kimi. At the rst corner, I had another opportunity.
Fernando had gone o in his battle with Felipe. I could see that he was coming back on to the circuit and it was very close. Fernando could have taken me out and I was like, ‘Shoot!’ But I got past him and then I was chasing Felipe. I couldn’t catch him, but importantly for me I stayed in front of Fernando. I was not thinking, ‘I’ve beaten Fernando in his home country’ or anything like that.
It made no di erence to me what country we were in – his, mine, or someone else’s. I race to win wherever I am. I got the points and I was leading the championship. That was sweet. I was the youngest leader of the title race in the history of Formula One, breaking the record set by Bruce McLaren – the founder of the team I was racing for.
He was a month older than me when he did it. I was twenty-two years, four months and six days old. Wow, it was cool. I kept on telling everyone I was living my dream. To be a rookie who leads the championship after just four races was simply amazing. I had thirty points and that was two more than Fernando, who had won the title the two previous years.
In so many ways, it was incredible. But in other ways, for me and my dad, and all my family, it was just what dad had always worked for. Obviously I felt happy, but after every race the dream got bigger and bigger. I knew that there was a long way to go and I did not want to start talking about winning the championship or anything like that. But I knew inside me that if we could keep the consistency going, maintain the fantastic reliability and stay out of trouble – well, then anything could happen.
I also knew that Felipe was going to be a tough competitor.
I felt we had the pace of the Ferraris that weekend in Spain and I told him afterwards that we would be beating them soon. We had some good banter. He is a good guy and we get on well. That is why I was able to joke with him in Malaysia. We had started building up a friendship the year before, when I was in GP2. I think it was at Monaco that it really started.
I was hanging around with Nicholas Todt, who was his manager and also a part owner/manager of the ART GP2 team. So our friendship built up from there. We went to the Amber Lounge party and we went to dinner a couple of nights, so we got along. We had great respect for each other. We were friends. But like a lot of things in Formula One, things changed as time went by.
He was in a di erent kind of mood later in the year. Things were not going as well for Felipe as they were for me and I think it may have been hard for him to remain happy with the situation. It seemed it was hard for him to keep smiling. But still we get on: he is a good, fun guy and we can joke around together. After Barcelona, my dad kept me working, like always, and I just got back to basics.
The next race was Monaco, my favourite, a place I loved and a circuit where I had always been a winner. I fancied my chances, but I was keeping it to myself. I had had a fantastic race there the previous year in GP2. I loved it, and there is no doubt it is the race every driver wants to win more than any other. There is not one race that comes close to it and I know that I have something there: an ability to drive that track quicker than anyone else.
It just feels special. The place looks so great to start with and then there is the whole glamour thing that hangs around it. There were a lot of promotional events and most of them seemed to be on boats. I decided to duck out of most of all that stu and keep a low pro le and focus on the racing. But there were some sponsors’ engagements we had to keep.
One of them was a publicity thing we did for the Steinmetz diamond company who prepared our helmets with the words ‘Monaco 07’ embossed on them in diamonds. I really thought that was pretty cool because for years previously I had seen Kimi there, in Monaco, with diamonds on his helmet, and I had wanted to take his spot or race with him.
So, to have my own helmet designed – which actually I put quite a lot of work into myself, to make sure it was good this year – and then for it to have diamonds on it…well, it was cool. I also had to go on a boat and stand with this model. She was stunning and I looked around and just thought to myself, ‘Here I am in Monaco, and this is something so cool.’ I didn’t do any other glamour things but I was given a ‘bling’ ring that weekend by Steinmetz as a gift.
But nothing else took place apart from a party I went to at the end, after the Grand Prix. I did not go to the fashion show or anything else (if I had gone to everything I was invited to, I would have been out all the time) but just stayed in my hotel room, relaxing and focusing on my job. If you do not have that commitment and focus at race weekends, then partying and lovely females can be an easy distraction – as well as a pleasurable one!
I had enough to do with the team, in the paddock and in the pits. There were people everywhere, like there always are at the Monaco Grand Prix.
I was not on holiday though. I was there for business. My weekend started okay, even if I did have a small crash in practice on Thursday at Ste Devote. It did not a ect me mentally at all.
It was my rst small hiccup of the racing year, but it was cool. I was nding my limits and I knew I would sort it out. I quali ed behind Fernando. He was on pole and I was second but with a heavier fuel load. On that circuit you have to be ahead, on the lighter fuel load, because you really cannot overtake. I knew I was already second and so I had to figure out how, mentally, I was going to turn it my way.
It was not a perfect situation for me but nevertheless I did my best considering the circumstances. The team helped us to manage our cars home by telling me to cool my brakes and take it easy with the car and the barriers. My brakes were ne, or so I thought. I knew I could keep pushing so I did. As usual, we were also told to, ‘Turn the engine down’ so I was turning the engine down, but I felt Fernando was pulling away and I just wanted to keep pushing.
‘Just back off five seconds, for Fernando,’ the team said. ‘What do you mean, keep it to ve seconds? I want to win this race. It’s not over till I see a flag.’ ‘No, just turn it down, keep the gap to five seconds,’ they said. It was then I realized that Fernando was going to win the race but I thought to myself I’m going to make sure people know I have the pace and so I stuck behind him to the end.
After the race it was evident that my team were not happy, but I said, ‘I’m not here to finish second.’ I really wanted to win at Monaco, I felt I had the pace to win but on re ection what the team decided made sense after all. It really is better to nish at Monaco than risk the barriers and a DNF (did not nish). The decision really a ected me because I had never had to hold o from racing before.
I was leading the World Championship and was driving to win. Throughout my racing career, if I was quicker than my team-mate, I was quicker. If I wasn’t quicker, then I wasn’t and could accept the situation but in Monaco I knew I was quicker. I was disappointed I couldn’t continue and get the hat-trick of three consecutive wins because I had won the previous two years in GP2 and Formula Three.
Monaco is such a great circuit and when you win it is so special: all the feelings that pour out of you, it is all so rewarding. Ron came to my room after the race in Monaco, sat down with me and tried to cheer me up. But I was already over it. I am someone who can get over issues and move on pretty quickly. I have learned to do that.
My dad taught me how to rise above them: not to sulk but to drive myself on. So I was very straight with Ron and, even though he is the boss – my boss – for me it was a bit di erent because in the relationship that we have it is almost as if he is like a parent, a mentor and a friend, all in one. ‘I really wanted to win this race and I had the opportunity and the speed,’ I said.
‘You know, this is one race,’ he said. ‘There’ll be other races.’
He was right. I still enjoyed the fact that I came second in my rst Monaco Grand Prix and it was really cool to share the moment, down at the podium, with my brother Nic. I learned a lot about Formula One that day and I was determined to make the most of my next opportunity to win.
What I did not know was that the chance I wanted was going to come along much quicker than I thought.
CHAPTER
10
WINNING
‘In those
nal laps I was just trying to control myself. I wanted to stop the car and jump out and do
cartwheels or something! I just had to keep it going and it was mine.
It was extremely emotional: to get all the way to Formula One and then to have my first pole and my first win – what a weekend!’
I HAD JUST WON THE CANADIAN GRAND PRIX. My dad stood there in the crowd and, even from the podium, it looked like he had a tear in his eye. There was nobody else in the world I was going to dedicate that rst win to – he was the man who put me there.
We were a team. We had done it all together from karts to Formula One. And here I was, standing on the top step of the winners’ podium at the Gilles Villeneuve Circuit in Montreal. No wonder he felt emotional. I could feel his pride. His face betrayed everything. He was feeling so good to see that his family could be that successful.
But without him, none of it would have been possible. For me, after all that had happened, it felt immensely satisfying. I had done it for my dad, but also for myself. I was so happy to have proved a lot of people wrong, the people who had expected me to be way slower than Fernando. Even when I matched him in pre-season testing, they said, ‘Yes, but this is testing…Don’t be surprised if you are half a second slower than him at the first race.’ I knew that would not happen and so did my dad.
That was why I gave him such a huge hug after that race and why I dedicated that win to him. He believed in me absolutely; right from the start. It was a special moment. And it was part of a very special two weeks for us in North America. Looking back now, at the end of a rollercoaster of a season for me, I remember so many things.
But one thing I recall so well was when I came across the line in Montreal – not in the race, but in qualifying. That, for me, was the coolest feeling. Qualifying is so tough, so tense, that it is even more rewarding when you cross the line and they tell you over the radio, ‘Congratulations Lewis, you are on pole!’ I had some pole positions in Formula Three and in Formula Renault, but this was Formula One!
And you might be surprised to hear me say this, but getting pole position is almost even better than winning – it really is. As I found out plenty of times this year, if you do not have pole, then you can be stuck. Formula One drivers rarely make mistakes, so if you are starting from behind one, you know you have a bit of work to do.
The further back you are, the more work you
have cut out for you. But if you are on pole, you know you stand a good chance in the race – you have a real chance to win. Yet from arriving in Canada on the Wednesday right through the weekend, I felt calm and focused. In , I had raced at a kart circuit there, in the rst round of the World Championship, but apart from that I had never raced in Canada before – unless you count on computer.
When you get to the track, all the kerbs are di erent, the gradient changes are di erent, the bumps are a problem and so on. All simulators can do is give you an idea of where the corners are and, perhaps, what gears you should be taking. Luckily, though, the challenge of racing on new tracks has never really bothered me. Even though it looks a simple circuit, Montreal is actually quite demanding physically, and also quite technical, so it took a while to learn in practice on Friday.
That was a good day for me, though and we worked very hard to get the car set-up right. I stayed out of the barriers, which is always good – and not that easy on such a dusty track – and when I went back to the hotel that evening I had some time to think about where I could steal the extra time to get pole. Going into the third practice session on Saturday morning, we had improved the setup a lot and then in qualifying the car was just so sweet.
For my all-important nal lap, I had a perfect car and a clear run, and, really, all I had to do was just pull it out. The most important thing was that it was a very consistent lap: I did not make any mistakes at all and I got the time. I remember thinking to myself, ‘Wow! I quali ed pole and I did not put it in the wall!’ To go to Canada for the rst time and then compete against Fernando and the Ferraris, who were very quick there, and the BMWs and then to set the car up so well with mine and my team’s own setting…we really dialled it in for that nal qualifying run, but I still had to take the chance.
I had an opportunity to go out and put it on pole and I grabbed it with both hands. No matter what happened in the race after that, it had already been a fantastic weekend. I felt like I had taken another big step in my learning curve. It was not that I was surprised: I knew I had it in me to do it. But I was not sure when it would be.
Before that weekend, I really did not think it would be my time. I thought Fernando was extremely quick in Canada and he would probably get the job done, but that was not the case. I knew I had to stay focused and the only way for me to do that was to be fully relaxed that night. So we did not celebrate.
We just had a chilled quiet evening: me, my dad and Adam, my trainer. I made sure I got a good night’s sleep so I was ready for the race. I do not know exactly why, but if I am honest about it, I made quite a poor start in Montreal. I am supposed to have a certain amount of revs to get away fast but I went over that amount, then under to try to get it back.
I saw Nick Heidfeld getting close, so I had to shut the door and then I saw Fernando fly past. Obviously, I did not want him coming past me and I thought, ‘Oh no, I’m going to lose it here…’ But luckily for me he just went straight on over the first corner so I was able to continue with my line – and then I got a fantastic exit. It was exciting, all happening so
fast, and it was great to get out in front.
The starts in Formula One are so important and so aggressive. It is a long way from GP2, but I felt I learned from that bad start in Canada. You know you have to be cautious, but at the same time you want to keep your spot. It is about nding a balance. You cannot win the race in the rst corner, as the old saying goes, but you certainly can lose it.
You have to get around that rst one and be safe and bring it home. But you have to have your elbows out and defend your position as well. After the start, it was a fairly simple race in a way because when I came out of the rst turn, still in the lead, that was it. It was my opportunity to get away into the distance. And I would have done that, if it were not for the Safety Car coming out four times.
Each time, the eld bunched up and I had to make sure that I pulled a good gap out from Heidfeld, who was second. Each time the Safety Car came out, I was thinking ‘Uh-oh, someone doesn’t want you to win this…’ and that was because each time you restart racing, your tyres have got cold, your brakes have got cold and it is so easy to go back out and just put it in the wall.
That was the real problem: warming up the tyres enough and not making any mistakes. It did not get to me, though. I thought it was a good challenge – and it kept me busy. In fact, it was not until there were only about ve laps left that I realized I was going to win. I was counting down the laps – ve, four, three, two, one – and I was thinking, ‘Okay, here we go’ and each time I was getting slower and slower and trying to stay o the kerbs.
My steering was a little bit o towards the end of the race as well and I thought maybe something was wrong. So, I just tried to stay o the kerbs, but other than that, the car was superb all race. In those nal laps I was just trying to control myself. I wanted to stop the car and jump out and do cartwheels or something! I just had to keep it going and it was mine.
It was extremely emotional: to get all the way to Formula One and then to have my rst pole and my rst win – what a weekend! The Canadian fans were brilliant after the race as they had been throughout. I really did feel like I was on another planet. It had been a fantastic day. I’d had ve podiums and felt I had been ready for the win for quite some time.
It was just a matter of when and where – and now it had happened. Obviously it was a big stepping stone in my career and in my life. It was also a really positive thing for the team. That victory signalled to them that they could win races with me, not just with Fernando. That was an important psychological breakthrough for me.
And yet, in all the good things that happened for me, there was one bad thing – the big crash involving Robert Kubica. Robert is an old and good friend of mine from our early karting days and it was a real concern when I was told on the radio about his crash. I did not see the accident, but there was a lot of debris on the track when I went past where it had happened.
I was not focusing on his car because I was trying not to run over anything, but it looked serious. Luckily for me, while the Safety Car was out the team told me, ‘He’s out, he’s on his
way to hospital, possibly a broken leg but he’s okay.’ That was important for me. I knew Robert was okay, so, immediately, I could get on with the race and not have the worry that something serious had happened.
I did not have time to go and visit him in hospital, because we had to travel the next morning, but I was obviously relieved when it turned out that he was going to be fine. You never want to see anyone hurt in a crash. As a racing driver, you always know that bad crashes like Robert’s may be just a fraction of a second away, but you do not let it a ect you.
You cannot a ord to – it takes energy away and wastes it in a negative way. When I am in the car, I feel great: it is really comfy in there and I am not worried at all. I know that Formula One has done a fantastic job to make safety a number one priority. I think the results of Robert’s crash in Canada and mine in Germany, at the European Grand Prix in July, proved that the sport is pretty safe.
You just cannot take anything for granted. Robert’s accident was just a reminder of that for everyone. On one of the happiest and most memorable days of my racing career, I was thinking of him and hoping he would make a complete and speedy recovery. Robert’s accident was just about the main talking point after the race, too.
So, despite winning my rst Grand Prix and feeling great for doing that, I was feeling a bit re ective as well when we left the track after all the podium formalities and media interviews were over. Of course I wanted to celebrate, but there was another race a week later at Indianapolis and my mum, Linda and Nic were back in England, so it just did not feel right to celebrate without them.
One person that I would especially have loved to have been there was my mum. When I spoke to her afterwards by telephone, she was absolutely kicking herself that she did not go to the race. I had o ered her the chance but because of work and other family commitments she was unable to be there. Usually I try to keep my personal life as far away from my racing as possible, so that when I get to the track it is just me, in my world, and no one can a ect it.
I never once took my girlfriend Jo to work – and if I did take someone, they would have to be way out at the side so I would never even notice. It has been very di cult for my family and friends to understand this, but that is how I go to work; that is how I focus. Apart from my dad, when my family come to my races they very rarely see me during the weekend because I am so busy and they like to leave me alone to get on with my job.
But that weekend in Montreal I really wanted to share the joy with my mum. When I spoke to her after the race, she was so proud of me and also really upset because she regretted missing what was a huge occasion for me. That night, after winning my rst Grand Prix and leading the World Championship, I somehow managed to remain calm and composed and did not go out drinking.
We did go to a big barbeque, which was good, and then after that I was up early the next morning to y to New York. That is the thing with Formula One: it never gives you time to rest on your laurels. I went to New York with my dad and Adam and it was good for
all of us to be able to escape and to relax a little bit. It was not my rst time visiting New York, but it is not a city I know that well.
I was happy to just chill out and look around. I did not go out partying or anything, but did take the chance to have some unhealthy food, some chicken wings, and I was quite happy with that. Through that week, we were focusing on the next race. It is so easy to just go partying and then take a couple of days to recover but it is like cheating yourself – you know you are not going to be at your best for the next race.
So in New York we had a job to do and we knew it. I was lucky, too, because I met up with a good friend, Je ery Roberts who works for Mercedes-Benz USA, and so we hung out and went to a New York Yankees versus Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game. It was just a cool time. I did get recognized a couple of times, but only by tourists from Europe and that was nice.
None of the Americans noticed me at all. I was able to walk around as free as everyone else, which helped me to chill. One thing that did stop me relaxing as much as I would have liked, though, was the two hundred or so text messages I got from friends back home, all saying ‘Well done!’ I was not going to start complaining about that, though!
From New York, I went to Washington DC and then to Indianapolis for the United States Grand Prix. The team had arranged a couple of sponsor appearances for me in New York and Washington, so I never really felt I had stopped work completely. Then we were on our way to ‘The Brickyard’ and another race weekend. The ight from Washington kept getting delayed.
It went from four o’clock in the afternoon to eight o’clock that evening, half an hour at a time, then eventually it was cancelled at nine. So we ended up staying in a hotel and luckily we managed to get a ight to Indy on the Thursday morning. When I got to the track, I literally went straight into the o cial pre-race media conference, which is held with four or ve drivers on the Thursday prior to a race.
I had to answer questions about everything from the history of the circuit to me and Fernando and comparisons between me and Tiger Woods. It was an intensive session. Tiger Woods is one of the greatest golfers ever and has completely changed the way that his sport is perceived by millions of people. I was just a rookie driver who had won my rst Grand Prix only a few days earlier – and I am certainly no threat to him as a golfer!
Having said that, I knew where the Tiger Woods comparison questions were heading, so I just answered them in the way I always did. I have said already that, for me, race is not an issue at all so I was comfortable just handling all the questions from the American reporters and they seemed pretty happy with the answers.
Of course, I think Tiger Woods is a sensational athlete and it is an honour to be compared to someone like him. But I do not want to be the Tiger Woods of motor racing – just being the Lewis Hamilton of motor racing will be cool enough for me. I am completely di erent to Tiger Woods, but if I can have a similar impact on Formula One to that which he has had on golf, then I will be delighted.
Basically, I just tried to be honest and polite and they all looked satis ed with that. Anyway, I am terrible at golf. I
can hit the ball, but not very consistently, and I refuse to have lessons because I have watched my dad’s friend Terry having lessons and his game is still worse than mine although he’d tell you di erent!
Having said that, if I met Tiger Woods I would be happy to have lessons from him! There was another thing, though, that cropped up in that rst press conference in Indianapolis – it was the rst time that Fernando made comments about the team helping me more than him. I found it strange when he said that, especially after what happened to me in Monaco.
As far as I was aware and concerned, the team and everything else was completely fair and equal for us both. Obviously, I already had a great relationship with all the guys because I had been to the team tness and team building week in Finland with them earlier in the year. And I guess because Fernando is Spanish and I am English, he might have felt that there was something else going on but there was nothing.
I doubt very much that Fernando expected me to do as well as I did. Coming into the team as a two-time World Champion, he had not really been challenged too closely before. I do not believe he expected a rookie to challenge him so strongly, let alone beat him, but it was just racing. I was just there doing my best and I was, as I often said, very much living the dream.
Certain things that came with my success were even surprising me. The whole time I was in Montreal and then in Indianapolis there was a lot of interest shown in me by the media and also by a lot of fans out there. I was really shocked to see that there was so much support. When you are just a newcomer you simply do not think about, or expect to see, any support in a country you do not really know.
So when you get there and you see that you have fans, it is a real shock to the system. In Indianapolis, especially, I got a lot of support from the Americans: they were extremely nice people and it was good to meet so many of them. I think that because I had been in New York, I did not really appreciate the level of interest that was developing.
I was told by people at home that I was on the front page of all the newspapers in the UK on the Monday after the Canada race, which was pretty awesome. But other than that, I really had no feel for what had gone on around the world. I actually think that was a good thing because I was able to relax for a little while before the Indianapolis race.
When we got to Indy, I was lucky enough to meet up with Pharrell Williams, one of my own heroes from the music world, and that helped me stay cool. Things just worked out nicely. Pharrell was the American solo rapper who founded the band N*E*R*D and I have been a big fan of his for years and years. We had spoken on the phone a few times before, but I nally met him at Indianapolis.
He was the rst real top dog celebrity that I had met and, to me, he is a pretty big star, especially in the music that I am into. I buy his albums and, for me, this is a cool cat. He came to the race as my guest. We had dinner with him, I got to know him better and our friendship grew from there. We hooked up and we were like boys, you know, and got on really well.
Like all the Americans I met, he was really supportive towards me that weekend.