Lewis Hamilton: My Story

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It started to go wrong there,” Whitmarsh says. “Lewis should have on that occasion heeded the instructions of the team not to take excessive risk.

The Mercedes driver is under contract with his team until the end of next year and said he has considered extending his stay in the sport beyond then. Hamilton has had to make do with fighting to be the best of the rest during this campaign, with Verstappen seemingly on course to retain his crown. He had the ability to stay out of trouble. He was always there at the end with his relentlessness and never-say-die attitude," he adds. You couldn't meet a nicer, more grounded group of people," says Liam, who is a successful rally driver and navigator. Nic was born two months early and it was a long time after his birth – I think nearly eighteen months – before he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. He was still the same Nic to us and we loved him whatever. Nic has trouble walking, and this affects his whole body to a point, but he never complains. He always has a smile on his face whatever the situation.The tale unfolded with Horner’s assertion that Hamilton, or at least his entourage (namely his father), had shown interest in donning the Red Bull overalls. Yet, Hamilton’s response during the press engagements ahead of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix was unequivocal: no such approach had been made. He clarified that the only interaction with Horner was a congratulatory message, devoid of any career manoeuvring subtext. He replied: "I would be more than happy to race against Max in the same car. It would be wonderful. I don't think he wants me to be his team-mate." Wolff says: “He’s almost philosophical about certain things. He spends a lot of time thinking. He is someone who hasn’t built his whole life on one particular pillar. It all circles around his driving. He is the F1 world champion. But now he is the F1 world champion and he’s a fighter for diversity, a fighter against racism. These are topics that go far beyond the racing driver.

Born and educated in Stevenage, Hamilton described how racial abuse continued during his school years, prompting feelings of isolation and confusion. It’s a fantastic thing. I’m thinking, ‘Wow. You’re not just a race driver. You’ve become a statesman, a spokesman, a champion of causes for other people.’I’m baffled as to what is driving him,” Wolff told the press. “The actual sequence of events is that Horner, through a mutual agency, asked for Hamilton’s details to discuss a possible seat. That’s the extent of it – Horner was the one who investigated his availability.” And then constant [jibes], the things that are thrown at you, like bananas, people that would use the [racial slur] just so relaxed. People calling you 'half-caste' and just really not knowing where you fit in," the 38-year-old said. "That for me was difficult, and then when you go into history class and everything you learn in history there are no people of colour in the history they were teaching us. So I was thinking, Where are the people who look like me?' 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.