Driver Profile: Lewis Hamilton
Lewis Hamilton was born in Britain on the 7 of January 1985. He attracted attention as a potential Formula 1 champion from an early age even missing the championship by a single point in his debut season. However, Hamilton was crowned the Champion the following year and he made history by becoming the youngest Champion to date.
The young Brit began his F1 journey in 1993 when he started karting at Rhye House Kart Circuit in his Hertfordshire home county. He became the British Champion at just the age of 10 and on one day simply approached the McLaren Team boss Ron Dennis and said to him, “I want to race for you one day”. On this, Ron smiled and wrote on his autograph book, “Give me a call in 9 years”. Ron, later signed Hamilton to the McLaren Mercedes Young Driver Support Program. This enabled Hamilton to race in the Formula Renault series 2002 while winning it the next year. He then joined the European Formula 3 series 2004 and repeated his past by dominating there again in his second year. The 25 year old won GP 2 in his very first attempt. As McLaren required two drivers in 2007, Hamilton was lucky enough to drive alongside the Spaniard Fernando Alonso. This was like a dream come true for him.
Hamilton’s first season with McLaren was not without drama. He constantly outperformed his teammate Alonso and stood on the podium after each of the first nine races. He scored his first win at the Canadian Grand Prix followed by another a week later in the US Grand Prix. The season’s second half saw heavy crashes and conflicts with Alonso and the Championship was to be decided at the final race in Brazil. Lewis was leading Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen by four and seven points respectively. In the beginning, it seemed that he will achieve the unachievable but as the middle of the race approached Lewis faced a gear box problem in his car which cost him the Championship while Raikkonen emerged victorious by a single point.
After that, Alonso left the team and went back to Renault while harmony returned at McLaren but the determined young British made his comeback with a bang and took a string of wins followed by some errors including a huge crash during the practice session at Bahrain. Lewis returned to the top of the standings at the Monaco Grand Prix. The Championship again went to a final-race decider at Brazil. This time, Lewis was 7 points clear of the Brazilian Felipe Massa in the Ferrari and needed to finish in the top 5 to secure the Championship. Drama was at its peak as Massa was in the lead and Lewis was in 6th place. Massa crossed the chequered flag and Ferrari thought they had won the Championship but it seemed they didn’t know Lewis very well who overtook Timo Glock in the final lap and won the title by just a single point.
The first two seasons seemed like a dream for Hamilton but the third turned out to be a nightmare as he was able to score only 9 points by the tenth round. Hamilton managed to score only 2 wins in the last half of the season and 5 podiums that put him 5th in the drivers’ standings with just 49 points. Despite the ups and downs, Hamilton, this season is lined up against the reigning World Champion Jenson Button and is set to remain with McLaren until 2012. The current season seems quite promising for him as he is 2nd in the drivers’ standings just 4 points short of Mark Webber. With his unique driving skills, Hamilton has been successful in proving that he could achieve the best possible results whatever the situation may be. He simply hopes to win the Championship this year.
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