Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton is my inspiration. Lewis started his racing career when he was 8,. He began carting in 1993 and quickly began winning races and winning hearts. "Hi. I'm Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars." Dennis wrote in his autograph book, "Phone me in nine years, we'll sort something out then." This is the conversation that began his career. This conversation sparked when Lewis met the CEO of McLaren-Mercedes Motorsports. He gave Lewis his phone and address so that when he was old enough to drive legally, he could call him and Ron Dennis (CEO) could offer him a job in the formula 1.

In 2001, Michael Schumacher made a one-time return to carting and competed against Hamilton along with other future F1 drivers Vitantonio Liuzzi and Nico Rosberg. Hamilton ended the final in seventh, four places behind Schumacher. Although the two saw little of each other on the track Schumacher praised the young Briton, "He's a quality driver, very strong and only 16. If he keeps this up I'm sure he will reach F1. It's something special to see a kid of his age out on the circuit. He's clearly got the right racing mentality." -Michael Schumacher, speaking about Hamilton in 2001. This was Lewis’s first encounter with the racing superstars of that time period.

Later in his career he entered formula three. Hamilton began his car racing career in the 2001 British Formula Renault Winter Series. Despite crashing on his third lap in the car in testing, he finished fifth overall in the winter series. He was very successful in formula three and because of that he moved up to the GP2 series. Due to his success in Formula Three, he moved to ASM's sister GP2 team ART Grand Prix for 2006. Hamilton won the GP2 championship at his first attempt.

He holds many records including; youngest ever driver to lead the World Championship, youngest F1 world champion, and many more. Hamilton is also the first driver of black heritage to compete in Formula One. Lewis Hamilton's contract for the McLaren driver development program made him the youngest ever driver to secure a contract which later resulted in an F1 drive.

Lewis is a perfect example of grapping opportunities and not to let them fly away. He is also demonstrating to not give up and put your ladder up high, so that you want to achieve the highest you possibly can. Most of Lewis’s opportunities came to him because of luck but some believe to call it destiny, either way it inspires me to grasp every opportunity that comes my way. I also believe that I should always stride to accomplish as much as I can and when I try to accomplish something, I give it my all. I will do this is almost everything I do; in homework, projects, relationships, jobs, etc. Lewis is not the only person that accomplished so much when he was young, but I chose to do this project about him because he and I share the same thing; A need for speed.



Robbert van Doorn 10C