Lewis Hamilton, seven-time world champion and counting… By the time this book was written, Lewis had “only” five world championships in his pocket.
This is the biography of the British driver that’s making Schumachers’ achievements look like nothing. It’s the biography of someone that faced all adversities and became the World No. 1 Driver in the most challenging and trilling competition in the World: Formula 1.
Lewis was born on 7th January 1985 and soon his name would be known everywhere in the planet. Facing the challenge to grow in a racist community, Lewis soon released his fury against the injustices of his life on the track by being the fastest driver.
Some say Lewis is a legend, but I think he is more than that. He is something I use to call a working-legend. He was born with a natural talent, that’s a fact, but he has worked so hard to achieve all this championships and winnings that we could not deny it was a simple result of his hard-work.
At the school, Lewis was a focused kid, without any special taste for any subject other than the motorsport world. But his father, Anthony Hamilton, soon realized his son would be one of the bests. That said, his education was based on the same principle of the one Miguel Oliveira, the portuguese MotoGP driver, had: study, study, study and then you can do whatever you want outside school, in this case, drive like there’s no tomorrow.
His father was also responsible for almost everything Lewis conquered. At a certain point in time, Lewis’ father had 4 jobs just to be sure that his son could keep his dream alive. In fact, his father would become his first manager and would become his support during the difficult times (except in the RebBull dominance period in F1, where, by Lewis’ decision, his father would retire himself and quit from being his manager). His step-brother was always an inspiration to him. Even with cerebral palsy, Lewis says he’s really smart and has a very good vision of the races and the manouvers.
The journey to F1 started with a good episode. Lewis went to the FIA Award Ceremony and asked Ron Dennis (McLarens’ Founder and CEO) for an autograph and also a special request: «Please, sign me». «Contact me when you’re 18», said Ron. Lewis has 10. Two years later, his success was so high that he signed at the age of 12 a contract with McLaren, becoming the youngest driver to sign a professional contract.
Since then, Lewis won almost everything he put himself in, reaching the highest level of the motorsport world in 2007. This was THE SEASON. Some say it was one of the bests ever in Formula 1. This is the season responsible for almost every chapter in the book. Lewis finished second, with the same points as his teammate, the double-time world champion Fernando Alonso, just 1 point behind Kimi Räikkönen, who finished with 110 points and won for the first time the World Championship.
In the next season, the world started to testemuny the greatest of the greatests. Lewis won the 2008 F1 World Championship in the last corner of the last race, at the hometown of his rival and 2nd classified Felipe Massa.
Then came the darkest years, with Lewis achieving 4th and 5th places still with his McLaren until he signed in 2013 for Mercedes-Benz, where he is still now.
The 2013 season was pretty much the same as the previous years, with a little more hope than before. Then, from 2014 to 2020, Lewis won 6 championships, 4 in a row, being only stopped by Nico Rosberg in 2016, a long time friend from the karting days.
Last year, in 2020, at the Portuguese GP, Lewis Hamilton achieved another magnificent milestone by being the driver with most wins in F1 all time: 92 wins!
Lewis was since the very beginning described as an arrogant. His father once told «Do not confuse confidence with arrogance». The author of the book goes further, saying that «He needs to have that arrogance otherwise he will not succeed. Does Alex Ferguson have it? Yes. Does José Mourinho? Yes.»
To conclude, this was one of the best books I’ve ever read. The only negative point about it is that it talks too much about the 2007 season and the following ones have just a few chapters. Still, I strongly recommend it!
Rating 4.8/5
Read in 2021