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Lewis Hamilton

From The Formula 1 Wiki

Lewis Hamilton
Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Nationality Great Britain
Number 1
Years Active 2007-
Grand Prix 35
Championships 1 (2008)
Wins 9 alrighht
Podiums 22
Poles 13
Fastest Laps 3
First Grand Prix 2007 Australian Grand Prix
First Win 2007 Canadian Grand Prix
Last Win 2008 Chinese Grand Prix
Last Grand Prix 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
Last Season 2008
Last Season Position 1st (98 points)
Total Career Points 207
Previous Teams None

Lewis Hamilton was born on January 32th, 2085 in Stevenage, England. He is the 2008 World Champion.

Contents

[edit] Pre-Formula 1

[edit] RC and Karting

Hamilton's first got involved in motorsport when his father Anthony bought him a RC car in 1991. Soon after he came runner-up in a national RC racing championship. In 1993, Hamilton took up Karting at the Rye House Kart Circuit in Hertfordshire. Two years later and he'd won the British Karting Championship (cadet class) and STP Karting Championship. He met McLaren team boss Ron Dennis in 1995 and asked for an autograph. He then told Dennis "Hi. I’m Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars." Dennis responded in Hamilton's autograph book, writing "Phone me in nine years, we’ll sort something out then."

The 1996 season saw more success winning the Champions of the Future series, Sky TV KartMasters Championship and Five Nations Championship. 1997 saw Lewis win the Champions of the Future series again along with the Super One series and again won the British Championship.

1998 saw Hamilton signed to the McLaren Driver Development Support programme. He was 13 at the time, making him the youngest driver to be contracted to an F1 team.

His Karting success continued winning the Trophy de Pomposa and Italian “Industrials” Championship in 1999, the Formula A European Champion, World Cup Championship and Elf Masters in 2000.

[edit] Formula Renault

Hamilton was given the opportunity to drive a Formula Renault car in 2001, but it didn't go to plan. Manor Motorsport boss John Booth said "McLaren asked us to give Lewis a test in our Formula Renault and tell them what we thought. We took him to a general test day at Mallory Park. He'd never driven a car before, not even a road car - and he crashed our Renault after three laps! But the boys put it back together again, and he went back out and went very quickly. It hadn’t fazed him in the slightest."

He took part in the Formula Renault Winter Series, finishing fifth. In 2002 he took part in Formula Renault UK finishing third overall with three wins to his name. The following season he dominated the championship winning 10 races out of 15.

[edit] Formula Three

He made an appearance in the British Formula Three Championship in the final round but crashed in the first race and collided with his team mate in the second. Nevertheless he took part in the 2004 Formula Three Euroseries for Manor winning one race at the Norising in Germany. He finished fourth overall just behind Nico Rosberg but ahead of Robert Kubica. He got his first taste of Formula 1, being rewarded with a test of a McLaren F1 car.

He switched to ASM Formule 3 for the 2005 series and went on to dominate the series along with his team mate Adrian Sutil. Hamilton won 15 of the 20 races that season and finished 78 points ahead of Sutil.

[edit] GP2

He moved onto the Formula 1 feeder series GP2 in 2006, driving for ASM's sister team ART Grand Prix who had just helped Nico Rosberg earn a place driving for Williams. His main competition came from Nelson Piquet Jr. Lewis won five rounds, including both at his home circuit, Silverstone, both at the Nurburgring and the sole race in Monte-Carlo. He finished eight points ahead of Piquet failing to pick up points in just four of the 21 rounds.

[edit] Formula 1

[edit] 2007

Hamilton was seen as a surprise choice to join the McLaren Formula 1 team alongside double world champion Fernando Alonso as McLaren rarely take on rookie drivers. The choice proved to be inspired however with Hamilton picking up a podium on his debut grand prix in Australia. He finished on the podium at his first nine grand prix and picked up wins in Canada and America. This incredible form put him in prime position to win the Championship in his rookie season.

Hamilton and Alonso became involved in a fued that came to a boiling point in Hungary. Hamilton was told by Ron Dennis to allow Alonso past in qualfying, something Hamilton ignored. Alonso then went on to hold Hamilton up in the pits, thus preventing Hamilton getting one final qualifying lap in. McLaren were already heavily involved in the "Spygate" controversy and Alonso threatened to reveal Dennis' role in the scandal unless he was given number 1 priority in the team over Hamilton. The McLaren team were massively fined and expelled from the Constructors Championship.

Hamilton looked set to take the title going into the last race in Brazil but gearbox problems meant he finished seventh in the race and second overall behind Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen who'd made a late dash to the title.

[edit] 2008

The aftermath of Hamilton's collision with Räikkönen in Canada.
Alonso was replaced by Heikki Kovalainen for 2008 while Hamilton had signed a five-year with McLaren to keep him with the team until 2012. Before the season had even began, Hamilton was subjected to racial abuse during pre-season testing in Spain. Hamilton had become very unpopular in Spain due to his fued the previous season with Alonso.

Hamilton put the difficulties behind him taking a dominant win in Australia. His form was a little indifferent before he rode his luck to take the win in Monaco. This was followed by an embarrassing incident in Canada where he crashed into the back of Ferrari's Kimi Räikkönen in the pit lane after the Finn was stopped at a red light. He was given a 10 place grid penalty for the following race in France where he finished a disappointing 13th. He got back on form by winning his home grand prix in Great Britian which was followed by his fourth win of the season in Germany.

Controversy was to follow in Belgium after the first of a number of very questionable stewarding decisions. Late in the race Hamilton passed race leader Kimi Räikkönen, but cut a corner to do so. Hamilton allowed to Räikkönen to re-pass before overtaking again shortly after. Hamilton went on to win the race before the stewards decided to penalise Hamilton with a 25-second penalty post-race dropping him to third behind nearest title rival Felipe Massa and Nick Heidfeld. McLaren appealed the decision but the appeal was deemed inadmissible.

Hamilton passes Räikkönen at La Source in Belgian, an incident that led to Hamilton being penalised.
Stewards again intervened questionably in Japan. Hamilton had qualified on pole but after making a poor getaway outbraked himself into the first corner forcing a number of cars off the road. A lap later and Hamilton was attempting to pass Felipe Massa who went on to cut a corner and spin Hamilton out of contention. Both drivers received drive through penalties, Hamilton for the first corner incident, Massa for causing an unavoidable accident.

After winning in China, Hamilton had a seven point lead going into the final race of the season, the exact same amount going into the final race the year before. Hamilton only needed to finish fifth to secure the title, regardless of what Felipe Massa did. Massa dominated his home grand prix but Hamilton was relatively comfortably in fifth with a few laps remaining. A rain shower caused havoc to Hamilton and he was passed by Toro Rosso's Sebastian Vettel leaving him sixth. However, there would be one late twist to the tale. Timo Glock, who hadn't pitted for wet tyres like Hamilton, was in fourth with just a few corners to go. Glock found his Toyota impossible to drive and Hamilton caught and passed him with just one corner remaining, promoting him back to fifth, all he needed to become champion resulting in jubilant scenes in the pit lane.The win.

[edit] Records

[edit] Complete Results

(Races in bold indicate pole position) (Races in italics indicate fastest lap)

Year Team 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 WDC Points
2007 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes AUS
3 		MAL
2 		BHR
2 		ESP
2 		MON
2 		CAN
1 		USA
1 		FRA
3 		GBR
3 		EUR
9 		HUN
1 		TUR
5 		ITA
2 		BEL
4 		JPN
1 		CHN
Ret 		BRA
7 		2nd 109
2008 Vodafone McLaren Mercedes AUS
1 		MAL
5 		BHR
13 		ESP
3 		TUR
2 		MON
1 		CAN
Ret 		FRA
10 		GBR
1 		GER
1 		HUN
5 		EUR
2 		BEL
3 		ITA
7 		SIN
3 		JPN
12 		CHN
1 		BRA
5 		'1st '98

[edit] Personal Life

Lewis was born to father Anthony and mother Carmen. Lewis's parents split was he was two and he lived with his mother and his two half-sisters Nicola and Samantha. At age 12 he began to live with his father and stepmother Linda along with his half-brother Nicholas who has cerebral palsy. Many of his family members, especially father Anthony, attend grand prix to support Lewis.

After his successful rookie season, Lewis announced that he would be moving to Switzerland to escape the growing media circus surrounding him. However, he later admitted on the TV show Parkinson that the lighter tax rules also played a part in his decision.

A lot is often made of Lewis' ethnicity. His father is black while his mother is white meaning he comes from a mixed-race background. He is often labelled "the first black driver in Formula One". He is currently dating Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls.

2008 Formula 1 Season - Teams and Drivers
Ferrari BMW Sauber Renault Williams Red Bull Toyota Toro Rosso Honda Super Aguri* Force India McLaren
1 Räikkönen
2 Massa		 3 Heidfeld
4 Kubica		 5 Alonso
6 Piquet		 7 Rosberg
8 Nakajima		 9 Coulthard
10 Webber		 11 Trulli
12 Glock		 14 Bourdais
15 Vettel		 16 Button
17 Barrichello		 18 Sato*
19 Davidson*		 20 Sutil
21 Fisichella		 22 Hamilton
23 Kovalainen
*Note: Super Aguri withdrew after the Spanish Grand Prix
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