Detalles del Piloto de Formula 1

Biografía del Piloto

The bad boy of Formula 1 racing has already 5 seasons as a driver for McLaren, but it seems longer than that given his troubled relations with his peers and the press.

Lewis Hamilton was born in Stevenage, England, and he is the on of Anthony Hamilton whose family came from Granada in the 50s and his mother, Carmen Brenda Larbalestier.

Like many F1 drives, Hamilton started his career in Karting, and kept progressing through other more competitive categories like Formula Renault, Formula Three and GP2 where he became champion and showed that he was on a league of its own.

It comes to mind and interesting episode in his life, when at the age of nine in a gala to honor young drivers, Hamilton approached Ron Dennis (McLaren boss) and told him the following: "Hi. I'm Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars." Naturally Mr. Dennis was impressed and kept the young boy in his mind until 1998 when he offered him to be part of the McLaren Driver Development Program.

The day had come, and in 2007 he was chosen to share driving duties with no other than double champion Fernando Alonso. In the process he became the first Formula 1 black driver.

His first race in Australia was just a warm up and a getting-to-know type of exercise. He finished third behind Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso, only the second driver to get to the podium in his debut behind Jacques Villeneuve in 1996.

The season kept going and Hamilton continued to impress everyone on the track, where he soon became a strong contender for the title, but also gave much to speak off the track. His clashes with teammate and world champion at that time, Fernando Alonso, were notorious, and their relationship deteriorated down to not talking to each other.

But for Lewis, everything that went out of his car was secondary, as his 21 years he was able to fight the championship against his teammate and Raikkonen, who led Ferrari in that season. He went to the podium in nine straight occasions, winning for first time in Canada and following with another in the US. He later collected two more in Hungary and Japan.

The Brit commanded the standings with one race to go, and with a good result in China he could secure the crown. However, when bad luck and inexperience join, there no much anyone can do.

In the Chinese GP, under complicated environmental conditions, in an attempt to enter pits for a tire change, he softly slide at the turn that leads to the pits, and got trapped in the gravel, thus retiring and putting his championship in peril.

To make matters worse, a strange bug in the Brazilian GP (Hamilton pulled the limiter and the car suddenly went dead) cost him the championship, as he was relegated to 18th place in the race and Raikkonen was proclaimed world champion. It is important to highlight that the Finn had a remarkable second half of the season, and Alonso was also in contention.

However, Hamilton took his revenge in 2008 and became champion at only 22 years. This time the battle was between him and an inspired Felipe Massa from Ferrari. The end of the Brazilian GP, where he was fifth while his title rival, Felipe Massa, took the race, has been listed as one of the most thrilling in history.

It happened that until the last corner, a gripless Timo Glock could not hold Hamilton who was able to overtake him and get the minimum possible finish position to snatch the title from Massa, who had his family and team celebrating at Ferrari’s garage. Unforgettable.

After the glory of 2008, Lewis Hamilton has been the victim of poor planning of McLaren-Mercedes, and has finished the championships in 2009 and 2010 in fifth and fourth, respectively, sipped off the podium in his first two years in the big circus.

The mergence of Sebastian Vettel, brought fresh to the headlines, and a formidable driver who shares similar skills with Hamilton, like aggressiveness and speed. The German became champion again in 2011 and for 2012 things looked a bit dim for the other teams.

In the middle of the total dominance from Vettel and Red Bull, Hamilton seemed to be out of focus and more aggressive than usual in the track, and sometimes off the track through comments. He collected three victories, which included and excellent one at China, but made mistakes too often, featuring a string of on-track incidents with Felipe Massa that led to a hot animosity between the two (especially on the Brazilian).

At the end, he was outscored and outdriven but his teammate Jenson Button, who won the same number of the races, but drove with more consistency.

Alfonso Duro / Gustavo A Roche

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