LEW MOVED BY FILM STAR WILL
King Richard’s ‘so inspiring’
LEWIS HAMILTON has drawn extra inspiration from a film made by his good friend Will Smith.
The seven-time world champion has watched King Richard, a movie charting the lives and careers of Serena and Venus Williams and how they were guided by their father Richard.
And he is planning a similar project when he finishes his time behind the Formula One steering wheel.
As he prepared for tomorrow’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Hamilton said: “I was really fortunate during the process to be speaking to Venus and Serena, and obviously I know Will.
“I was really moved by the story. was very inspired by it.
“All of us have watched both of them rise and have seen their success and their trials and tribulations.
“But we don’t understand what it has taken to get there. People who just tune in think they are the best and do not understand the time and sacrifices they have had to put in.
“And behind everyone there’s always somebody. I can relate to it because I have an amazing family and without them I would not be here today.
“I hope at some stage I will be able to do something similar because it’s inspiring for families out there.”
Hamilton is working on a documentary about his career but, for now, he is fully focused on helping his Mercedes team fix the technical problems that have blighted them in testing and in Bahrain last week.
He goes into the race on the back of a fortunate third place in the seasonopener, where he benefited from the failure of both Red Bulls to finish. And he is expecting another struggle in Jeddah, explaining: “A huge amount of work has gone on in the past three days but three days is such a short space of time.
“There won’t be a huge difference and, hopefully, we will have some things to try.
“There’s a lot of potential in our car. The last race was an amazing feeling for us to get that result in the way we did.” Hamilton was asked if he had reservations about racing in a country which, according to one human rights organisation, has executed 97 people over the past fortnight and the Briton revealed he had received a letter from a teenager on death row. Hamilton said: “It’s mindblowing to hear the stories. “There’s been a letter sent to me from a 14-year-old on death row. When you are 14, you still don’t know what the hell you are doing in life. “We don’t decide where we go but I think we are dutybound to try to do what we can while we are here.”