Lewis Hamilton (2)

Early life and education

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton was born on 7 January 1985 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.[2] His father, Anthony Hamilton, is of Grenadian descent, while his mother, Carmen Larbalestier, is British, from Birmingham,[7] making him mixed-race;[8][9] Hamilton's parents separated when he was two, after which he lived with his mother and older half-sisters, Samantha and Nicola, until he was twelve.[10] Hamilton then lived with his father, stepmother Linda, and his half-brother Nicolas, who is also a professional racing driver.[11][12] Hamilton was raised a Catholic.[13]

Hamilton's father bought him a radio-controlled car when he was five.[14] Hamilton finished second in the national BRCA championship the following year against adult competition.[15] Being the only black child racing at his club, Hamilton was subjected to racist abuse.[14][16] Hamilton's father bought him a go-kart for Christmas when he was six and promised to support his racing career as long as he worked hard at school.[17] To support his son, Hamilton's father took redundancy from his position as an IT manager and became a contractor, sometimes working up to four jobs at a time including employment as a double glazing salesman, dishwasher, and putting up signs for estate agents,[18] while still attending his son's races.[19] Hamilton's father later set up his own IT company.[20] He continued to be Hamilton's manager until early 2010.[21][22]

Hamilton was educated at The John Henry Newman School, a voluntary aided Catholic secondary school in Stevenage.[23] Hamilton has said that at the age of five he took up karate to defend himself as a result of bullying at school.[24] He was also excluded from school for a period when he was mistakenly identified as having attacked a fellow student who was treated in hospital for his injuries.[25] In addition to racing, he played association football for his school team with eventual England international, Ashley Young.[20] Hamilton, an Arsenal fan, said that if Formula One had not worked for him, he would have been a footballer or a cricketer, having played both for his school teams.[26] In February 2001, he began studies at Cambridge Arts and Sciences (CATS), a private sixth-form college in Cambridge.

Junior racing career
Karting
Hamilton began karting in 1993 and quickly began winning races and cadet class championships.[28][29] Two years later, he became the youngest driver to win the British cadet karting championship at the age of ten. That year, Hamilton approached McLaren Formula One team boss Ron Dennis at the Autosport Awards for an autograph and said: "Hi. I'm Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars."[18] Dennis wrote in Hamilton's autograph book: "Phone me in nine years, we'll sort something out then."[30]

When Hamilton was 12, Ladbrokes took a bet, at 40/1 odds, that Hamilton would win a Formula One race before the age of 23; another predicted, at 150/1 odds, that he would win the World Drivers' Championship before he was 25.[31] In 1998, Dennis called Hamilton following his second Super One series and British championship wins,[15] to offer Hamilton a role in the McLaren driver development programme.[8] The contract included an option of a future Formula One seat, which would make Hamilton the youngest driver to secure a contract that later resulted in a Formula One drive.[28

through the team's young driver programme, he and Anthony Hamilton had a "huge row" at the end of the season, with his father pushing for him to move up to GP2 for 2005, while Whitmarsh felt that he should remain in Formula 3 for a second season, culminating in Whitmarsh tearing up Hamilton's contract; however, Hamilton called Whitmarsh six weeks later and re-signed with the team.[18]

Hamilton first tested for McLaren in late 2004 at Silverstone.[46] Hamilton moved to the reigning Euro Series champions ASM for the 2005 season and dominated the championship, winning 15 of the 20 rounds.[15] He also won the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort.[47] After the season British magazine Autosport featured him in their "Top 50 Drivers of 2005" issue, ranking Hamilton 24th.[

GP2
Hamilton moved to ASM's sister GP2 team, ART Grand Prix, for the 2006 season.[48] Hamilton won the GP2 championship at his first attempt, beating Nelson Piquet Jr. and Alexandre Prémat.[49] He secured a dominant win at the Nürburgring, despite a penalty for speeding in the pit lane.[50] At his home race at Silverstone, Hamilton overtook two rivals at Becketts, a series of high-speed bends where overtaking is rare.[51] In Istanbul he recovered from a spin that left him in eighteenth place to take second.[52] Hamilton won the title in unusual circumstances, inheriting the final point he needed after Giorgio Pantano was stripped of fastest lap in the Monza feature race.[53]

Hamilton's success in the GP2 championship coincided with a vacancy at McLaren following the departure of Juan Pablo Montoya to NASCAR and Kimi Räikkönen to Ferrari.[54][55] After months of speculation on whether Hamilton, Pedro de la Rosa or Gary Paffett would be paired with defending champion Fernando Alonso for 2007, Hamilton was confirmed as the team's second driver.[56] He was told of McLaren's decision at the end of September, but the news was not made public for almost two months, for fear that it would be overshadowed by Michael Schumacher's retirement announcement.[57