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World Drivers Champion in 2008 and a runner-up in his rookie season in 2007, Lewis Hamilton has proved time and again why he should be ranked among the all time greats of the sport.
Born on 7 January, 1985 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England, Lewis Hamilton began go-karting at the age of eight and emerged victorious in several karting championships. As a ten-year-old, Hamilton approached the then McLaren team boss Ron Dennis for an autograph and expressed his wish to drive for them in future; his wish was finally fulfilled, when he was signed by McLaren in 2007.
He started his racing career in 2001, competing in junior category formulae like Formula Renault series, Formula 3 series and GP2 series among others. In 2005, he won the Formula 3 Euroseries where he defeated future F1 stars like Sebastian Vettel, Paul di Resta and Adrian Sutil.
In 2006, he moved on to GP 2 series where he emerged victorious after successfully keeping at bay a challenge from Nelson Piquet Jr. His great results in junior formulae prompted McLaren to provide him a drive for them in 2007 alongside none other than the then defending double world champion Fernando Alonso.
His rookie season got off to a flying start, as he secured third position in his first race in Australia, thereby equalling the best performance by a rookie since Jacques Villeneuve in 1996. After this, a string of second places followed, post which he finally achieved his first win at the Canadian Grand Prix. He then went on to win a further three Grands Prix and ended his rookie season with a magnificent second place in the championship, remaining just ahead of his team-mate.
Hamilton exceeded everyone’s expectations with his powerful performance throughout the year, and in the process he made several F1 records such as most consecutive podiums (9) from debut race, youngest driver to lead the World Championship, most wins (4), pole positions (6) and points (109) in a debut season.
Although Hamilton had made a grand entry to the sport, his first season in F1 was marred by several controversies as well. Throughout the season there were a lot of differences between him and Alonso and also with the team. Finally, after a turbulent season, Alonso and McLaren parted ways.
Hamilton started the 2008 season perfectly with a win at Australia. During this year, Felipe Massa, the Brazilian Ferrari driver emerged as his biggest rival for the Championship. The British Grand Prix at Silverstone was one of his biggest highlights of the season, where he mastered difficult wet conditions to win one of his most memorable races.
In the last round of the season in Brazil, Felipe Massa, his championship rival, won his home race and got the required points that he needed to acquire on his own to win the championship (assuming other results went his way), which had crowd erupt in a huge celebration. But their happiness did not last long, as in a thrilling finale, Hamilton overtook Timo Glock at the last corner of the last lap, and thus got the required fifth place to win the championship by one point. By doing so, he became the youngest driver ever to win the world championship, beating Fernando Alonso’s record set in 2005, a feat which has now been surpassed by Sebastian Vettel.
The 2009 season didn’t start well for Hamilton, as he was penalized for an overtaking incident during a safety car period with Jarno Trulli. Besides victories at Hungary and Singapore and a few podium finishes, 2009 was a disappointment for him as McLaren could not cope with the rule changes and thus underperformed.
For 2010, the then defending World Champion Jenson Button joined McLaren as Hamilton’s team-mate. Hamilton secured several wins and podiums during the season and even led the championship for a while, but after a tough fight with as many as four contenders for the title, he finally finished fourth, just ahead of his team-mate.
Vettel won the title comprehensively in 2011 with no driver able to catch him throughout the season. That year, Hamilton had to cope with several personal issues which seemed to have affected his performance. It was alleged that dropping his father Anthony Hamilton as his manager and also the high profile break-up with his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger could be the reason for his dip in form. He did not shed light upon why exactly his performance had gone down recently, but in an interview with BBC, he said,
“It’s not just arriving at the race track and driving, it’s your appearances, it’s your mood swings, it’s the people that are around you — your family and your friends — and the time that you are able to give to them and the relationship that you have with them. As soon as some of those things are off — and you’ve not got all those pieces of the puzzle in place — then it makes it very hard to do other aspects of your life as easily. The key I think to life is getting all those pieces of the puzzle in place.”
After a tough year, he finally finished fifth in the standings, behind his team-mate Jenson Button, who had a better year and finished runner-up in the championship.
2012 started off well for McLaren as they were the fastest during the pre-season testing, which showed during the first race where both the McLarens qualified on the front row. Hamilton managed to score three consecutive podiums in the first three races of the year. But as the season progressed, many of the races in which he could have produced strong results were affected by technical glitches. Although he secured four victories during the season, the inconsistency in performance of his car compelled him to look for a drive elsewhere in the future. He finally decided to join Mercedes AMG Petronas for the next season which, in a way, propelled Michael Schumacher to retire and this time, forever.
Many were skeptical of Hamilton’s move to Mercedes, but he put everyone’s suspicions to rest when he put in a strong performance and got several podiums and a win at Hungary.
Hamilton is one of the most gifted drivers of his era. His performance at times has been below par, but he has proved time and again that given a competitive car, he can deliver the Championship. Also, his future looks bright, as his new team Mercedes seem to have really stepped up their game, as they are currently second in the Constructors standings, which is higher than the fifth position achieved by them in 2012.
