Hamilton, the humble hero
Mexico City, Oct. 29: Lewis Hamilton joined one of sport’s most exclusive clubs when he became just the third driver to win a fifth Formula One world title.
The son of a black father and a white mother, who survived a broken home in his youth, Hamilton, 33, grew up on a municipal housing estate in Stevenage where his father Anthony at one time held down three jobs to fund his son’s embryonic racing career in karts.
His journey was unprivileged and without luxury, but it was clear from an early age that he had an outstanding gift for speed and all the gutsy natural instincts of a born racer.
In 1995, aged 10, and wearing a jacket and shoes borrowed from his predecessor as British Formula Cadet karting champion, he went to a glittering awards ceremony in London where he met McLaren’s thenboss Ron Dennis.
He asked for an autograph and told him “one day I want to race for you”.
Dennis replied: “Phone me in nine years and I’ll sort you a deal.”
The McLaren chief did not wait that long. After less than three years, he agreed to support Hamilton’s passage through the junior formulae en route to his F1 debut with his team in 2007.
Bold, determined and individual, he almost won the title in his first record- breaking season as he reeled off nine successive podiums from his debut in Melbourne, rocking the establishment along the way with his speed and his style.
On and off the track, he was fast, somewhat mercurial and occasionally tempestuous and this combination led to a fierce rivalry with teammate and twotime champion Fernando Alonso, who left McLaren at the end of the year.
That was a signal of how tough it was to be for all his future teammates as Hamilton, who narrowly missed out on the 2007 title, returned to triumph in 2008 with a dramatic lastgasp fifth- place finish in Brazil.
Escaping the management regime of Dennis and his father, Hamilton found freedom at Mercedes alongside teammate German Nico Rosberg, his teenage karting friend and rival.
This enabled Hamilton to express himself with a headlinegrabbing trans- Atlantic lifestyle, mixing with musicians and ‘ fashionistas’.
Speed has always been a natural talent. Mercedes team chief Toto Wolff summed up: “He is never satisfied. He never settles. He is never happy with where he is as a racing driver and a human being. He wants to optimise, to develop and he is very much part of the leadership of the team.”