Lewis Hamilton: My Story

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Just trying to fight against racism in your closed environment wasn’t enough anymore. It was about raising your voice and changing the tonality as well, to make himself heard, to make racism a topic nobody could ignore any more, even if it polarises or it’s controversial. It’s just the right thing to do.” But the way he is living his life, the way he looks after himself, the veganism, the training that is constantly adapting to his age, the people he surrounds himself with, all this makes it possible for him to stretch his ability for top performance beyond an age where you would normally think about ending your career. I think he has many more years in him to perform at the top level.”

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. If he wasn't happy with the kart it could get heated, but that's racing and that's what got him where he is today. He didn't always agree with us and he didn't always agree with Anthony.Hamilton’s father says he still can’t quite believe what the boy from the council house in Stevenage has become. He immediately stood out. Not only because he was good - and he was - but because he did not look like any of the other kids he was racing. The three-time champion lost none of his natural speed (he had the most poles and wins) yet lost the 2016 championship (by five points) to his hard-trying Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg. Their huge car advantage and the team’s policy of letting them fight freely led to a sometimes acrimonious title battle. Hamilton had more mechanical problems and made some driving errors that suggested a wavering focus caused by his continuing pursuit of a celebrity lifestyle. He denied this, saying “I probably drove with more heart his year. It took a lot more heart and courage to face the challenges”. It wouldn't do much for me in the sense of stepping into the most dominant car of all time. Working with my team to be able to beat them would be better for my legacy for sure."

After years of trying to impress Dennis, Hamilton finally got a "sensational" deal with McLaren in 1998. Hamilton was destabilised, and in 2011 he made an uncharacteristic series of mistakes, many of them crashes with Massa. Hamilton was asked whether he would like to compete against Red Bull's three-time world champion Max Verstappen in the same team.Hamilton fought to re-pass Vettel but couldn’t. As they went around the final lap, it appeared as if it was all over. Massa was about to win and Hamilton, one place short of the minimum result he needed, was on the verge of missing out for the second year in a row.

Whitmarsh says: “He was very cosseted at McLaren, very controlled by two individuals he wanted to divorce himself from [his father and Dennis]. They had contributed to his growth but then ultimately limited his growth. I think he had the belief that he had to become his own man, and he had to be able to survive and grow further without those two dominant characters.Hamilton’s strenuous effort in a losing cause was far from a personal disaster. There was no sulking over the unfairness of his 2021 title loss, no lessening of his will to win, His tremendous fighting spirit was still there, as was his steadfast loyalty to Mercedes, whose imperfect W13 chassis was the root cause of the team’s performance drop-off in 2022. Searching for solutions to sort out the ill-handling car, Mercedes experimented with radical set-up changes during race weekends, entrusting much of this task to its most experienced driver - Hamilton. It doesn’t make me think about my future but it is a reminder that I am in that part of my career that people I came up with and have raced for so long will start to stop,” Hamilton said. “Before you know it Fernando Alonso will not be here and then who is there after that? I guess I will be the oldest. Fry tells of an exhausting few days as negotiations over the detail of the Mercedes contract reached their critical point over the weekend of the Singapore Grand Prix, in September 2012. The seven-time champion added: "Initially, I just replied on my new phone. It was after a weekend. It was quite late on I found the message. It was from earlier on in the year. It was, like, months later, and I just said 'Congratulations on the amazing season and I hope we are able to compete with you soon', and he replied repeating the same thing."