LEWIS HAMILTON: RACING AGAINST ODDS
Rising from oblivion, he soon began to occupy centre-stage. Lewis Hamilton has scripted an emphatic journey in F1 despite the many challenges thrown by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel
It all started when father Anthony Hamilton bought a radio-controlled car for son Lewis in 1991. Back then, few could have pictured Lewis sharing the stage with bigwigs and ultimately establishing himself as one of the greats of his trade.
Unlike many F1 drivers of the past and present, four-time world champion Lewis Carl Davis Hamilton – MBE, didn’t have the privilege of growing up in an F1 household and, thus, began by racing radio-controlled cars in his early years when he even won club championships against adults. A go-kart was then gifted to a six-year-old Lewis for Christmas. Soon, at the age of eight, he started professional karting, prevailing in several championships.
Two years later, a self-assured Hamilton would approach Mclaren boss Ron Dennis for an autograph at a karting championship, famously telling him “Hi. I’m Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and, one day, I want to be racing your cars.” Dennis replied “Phone me in nine years, we’ll sort something out then.” In 1998, Hamilton did receive a call and was eventually signed to the Mclaren driver development program after he had won a second British Karting Championship and a Super One series title. Hamilton landed a contract which included the clause of a future F1 seat for the youngster.
With his triumphs in the British Formula Renault, Formula 3 Euro Series, and GP2 championships on his way up the racing ladder, he made his Formula 1 debut twelve years after his initial encounter with Dennis, driving for Mclaren in 2007. In his first F1 season, the Briton pinned several records which included the most consecutive podium finishes from debut (nine), the joint most wins in a debut season (four) and the most points in a debut season (109) after finishing runner-up to Kimi Raikkonen by just one point in the 2007 season. Come 2008 and he punctuated his first title win in a dramatic fashion – driving alongside Heikki Kovalainen, all the while becoming the-then youngest Formula One World champion in history (a record broken two years later by his current archrival in the business, Sebastian Vettel) and the first-ever black driver to win the title. The following year was seemingly forgettable as he would not even be close to the title after several low and non-point finishes in the first-half of the year. However, in the latter half of 2009, he bounced back but it was not enough to bring him close to the title which was won by Brawn GP and Jenson Button.
The dawn of 2010 was marked with changes as Brawn GP was acquired by Mercedes and Hamilton began partnering Button at Mclaren. The same year also witnessed a dominating spell by Red Bull and their driver Sebastian Vettel who defeated the Englishman to become the youngest-ever world champion that year. Vettel soon went on to claim the title four years in a row. Hamilton signed with Mercedes in 2013, reuniting with his childhood karting teammate Nico Rosberg and occupying the seat left vacated by his legendary partner, Michael Schumacher. He produced average results, finishing 4th in the drivers’ standings, as Vettel continued to rule with nobody appearing even close.
However, the outset of 2014 witnessed a totally different turn of events as Lewis Hamilton carved out his modern day ‘rule’ in Formula 1 on the back of two subsequent successful seasons as he secured his second World Championship by topping 11 races, winning the title in a galvanic battle fought with Nico Rosberg – decided in the final race of the 2014 season, and then sealing his third world title with three races remaining by finishing the season on the podium for a record 17 times while also matching his hero Ayrton Senna’s three World Championships. Despite ending as runner-up in 2016 to Rosberg, he rose to victory again by bagging his fourth title in 2017 and joining the likes of Juan Manuel Fangio, Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Sebastian Vettel as drivers with four or more incredible recovery from 14th on the grid in last weekend’s race in Hockenheimring (German GP) when Vettel looked all but set to boost his championship advantage as he led from the pole. But he blew it away later as he crashed out in the downpour and Hamilton led the standings by 17 points at the end of the day. In the previous race, he had finished second when he was knocked off the track on the first lap but managed to bounce back from last to finish second at the British GP with yet another clinically skilled and superb driving display.
Currently F1’s record holder with 76 pole positions – eight more than iconic Michael Schumacher – Hamilton had proved his mettle in the very beginning of the 2017 campaign after Sebastian Vettel got the better of him in the opening race at Melbourne. But, the Briton responded well when he beat his Ferrari rival in China before the German handed another setback in Bahrain. However, that didn’t stop Lewis from overcoming his loss as he defeated Vettel convincingly in Spain. He was again eclipsed when Vettel downed him in his beloved Monaco as Mercedes’ handling problems got him a lowly seventh finish. Cut short to the summer break, the German was back on top but the aftermath of the break saw Lewis never finishing lower than second as he won an array of races starting in Belgium, then in Ferrari’s home ground at Monza, against expectations in Singapore, Japan as well as in America only landing in the second position to Max Verstappen in Malaysia on a day when team Mercedes was again found to be struggling.
It appears that adversity propels Lewis Hamilton. Being a winner of 66 races, 125 podium spots and with career points summing up to feature approximately 2800 in numbers, the Brit seemingly derives huge motivation from being against the odds. Few had backed Hamilton to succeed in Germany, especially after a hydraulic failure disrupted his qualifying session and archrival Sebastian Vettel led from pole position on his home soil. But luck did play a role when fortunes exchanged after a sudden crash by the latter on the rain-hit track cost him dearly and resulted in an unexpected but commendable turnaround by the British driver. Hamilton later described his performance as ‘possibly his best’, silencing his critics in style.
Regaining control of the title race heading into Hungary’s Hungaroring on Sunday with a 17-point lead over his archrival Sebastian Vettel, it would certainly be a boiling encounter between the two top racers with the championship title only Hamilton’s to lose.