A look at Lewis Hamilton’s six F1 seasons with McLaren – Formula 1 news – Part 1
Lewis Hamilton began his F1 career with McLaren and also won his first and only F1 championship with the British team. He has also been related to the team since his childhood days. In September 2012, Hamilton announced that he will be leaving McLaren to
join the Mercedes AMG from the next season. He is leaving after driving for six seasons with the team and has admitted that while McLaren is home and he expects to return someday but he is in need of a new challenge.
Hamilton had initially become part of the McLaren team when Ron Dennis had called him 1998 after he had won the Super One Series to become the part of the McLaren driver development programme. He became an official driver for the team from the beginning
of the 2007 F1 season.
2007 F1 season
Hamilton began the season with teammate Fernando Alonso and securing the podium position in his debut F1 race in Australia. His achievement made him the thirteenth driver in the history of F1 to secure a podium finish during his first ever F1 race. He also
became the second youngest rookie ever to lead a F1 championship. He also equalled Jim Clark’s record of nine consecutive podium finishes for a British driver.
Hamilton was unable to win the championship but became the youngest driver to become a runner up in the drivers’ championship which was later broken by Red Bull’s Sebastian Vettel.
The season was also surrounded in controversy regarding his tense relationship with Alonso. it was reported that one of them might have to leave the team at the end of the season which was ultimately Alonso.
2008 F1 season
Hamilton continued with McLaren for a consecutive second season and won his first F1 championship in this season. He was partnered by Heikki Kovalainen. He began the season with Australian GP; qualifying for the pole position and converting it into victory
on the race day. As the season progressed, the British driver was leading the drivers’ championship with five points over Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.
The season’s final race was the Brazilian GP and Hamilton needed to finish at least in the fifth place if Massa won the race. Hamilton was able to secure the title at the very end of the race. He became the youngest driver to win the championship of that
time and also the first British driver since Damon Hill.
Hamilton was also targeted with racism ahead of the season as some Spanish fans painted their faces black; wore black wigs and shirts with the words ‘Hamilton’s family’ written over them. Following this incident, the FIA launched a campaign named ‘Race against
Racism’.
2009 F1 season
Hamilton did not begin the 2009 F1 season on a strong note and his performance remained poor. He made progress by winning the tenth race of the season which was also his tenth race victory and the first one in car equipped by KERS technology. He won a second
race of the season at the Singapore GP. The season had also featured the first ever Abu Dhabi GP and Hamilton had led the race but retired due to a brake failure marking his first technical retirement.
He was unable to defend his title and Jenson Button won it with 95 championship points. Hamilton finished the season with fifth place in the drivers’ championship.
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