Gulf News

Hamilton goes from humble beginnings to F1 hero

BRITON ROCKED ESTABLISHM­ENT ALONG THE WAY WITH SPEED AND STYLE

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Lewis Hamilton joined one of sport’s most exclusive clubs on Sunday when he became just the third driver to win a fifth Formula One Drivers’ Championsh­ip world title.

His fourth-place finish at the Mexico Grand Prix lifted him into the company of the sport’s true greats, joining seven-time champion Michael Schumacher and fellow five-time winner Juan-Manuel Fangio — who he describes as “The Godfather” — in the F1 pantheon

To have won more than men like Australia’s Jack Brabham, fellow-Briton Jackie Stewart, Austrian Niki Lauda and Brazilians Nelson Piquet and Ayrton Senna as well as modern-day rival Sebastian Vettel is a spectacula­r statement of achievemen­t.

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.

Rosberg broke Hamilton’s sequence of supremacy in 2016 and then retired, leaving the Englishman to return and deliver another back-to-back title success for Mercedes.

His former McLaren teammate Jenson Button summed up Hamilton’s pure speed when he said: “For me, over one lap, I don’t think there is anyone as quick as Lewis and I don’t think there ever has been.”

That speed, which has always been a natural talent, had last season been allied to a more mature attitude to his job as team leader in the postRosber­g era at Mercedes.

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.”

 ?? AFP ?? Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton celebrates with his team after a fourth-place finish in the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday.
AFP Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton celebrates with his team after a fourth-place finish in the Mexican Grand Prix on Sunday.

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