(On Lewis Hamilton’s 33rd birthday, The Quint is republishing this story from its archives. It was originally published on 7 January 2017.)
When you Google Lewis Hamilton, a strange mix of articles show up, many calling him a ‘phenomenon’ but interspersed with reports of friction between him and his fellow drivers. Threaded through these links will be stories about his former girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, his tattoos, rumours about how hard he parties, his fledgling music career and the words ‘vanity’ and ‘arrogance’.
Lewis Hamilton is to Formula 1 what Cristiano Ronaldo is to football: He is immensely talented, enjoys the good life, is unarguably good-looking and incapable of being ignored. You either love him or you hate him.
The F1 Powerhouse
He didn’t so much emerge on the scene in 2007 as he steamrollered through it, winning two of his first nine races and finishing on the podium for all of them. He took on his McLaren teammate and then-world champion Fernando Alonso and gave him a tough time. Right from his debut season, Hamilton left no Formula 1 watcher room to ignore him.
With three World Championships under his belt and 53 race wins, he’ll be starting the 2017 season on the heels of a troubled 2016 where he struggled with racing errors and mechanical issues. But a single troubled season isn’t likely to slow down a driver considered one of the best that Formula 1 has ever seen.
Hamilton, who is 31 now, began his racing career at age 8 when he took up karting. He was soon winning championships and after winning the British Championship at the age of 10, he met Ron Dennis, the McLaren Formula 1 team manager. Legend goes, at that meeting, the 10-year-old Hamilton told Dennis that one day he wanted to race for McLaren. Sure enough, he made his Formula 1 debut in 2007 with McLaren, 12 years after his first encounter with Dennis.
The Image of Arrogance
But there are those who love to hate Lewis Hamilton. His good looks, sharp sense of style and numerous tattoos lead many to believe that he takes life too lightly and coupled with his massive wins, makes it seem like he’s had his successes handed to him on a platter. Anybody who’s followed his career knows this to be untrue.
But, even in an interview published on the Formula 1 website, Hamilton, who drives for Mercedes now, found himself fielding questions about his sense of dressing and styling. The interviewer began by asking him “how much vanity is there inside Lewis Hamilton?” In fact, nearly the entire interview deals with his clothing (which he admits he takes great care in choosing), his tattoos and his social life.
In the same interview, in response to a question about who the most important person in his life is, Hamilton says, “Me personally, I come first.” While alone, that may seem like a relatively inoffensive reply, but it’s this same sense of self that leads many to call Hamilton arrogant. His single-minded focus on winning a race, and the discord between him and his former Mercedes teammate and rival Nico Rosberg has built an aura of overconfidence.
But none of this takes away from the raw talent that Lewis Hamilton brings to his driving. And what drives him? In his own words:
I don’t let anybody stand in my way, ever. The only person who could get in my way is myself – and I won’t allow that!Lewis Hamilton in an interview on the Formula 1 website
And on the topic of his fledgling music career, we’re just going to leave you with this video of Hamilton playing Adele’s Someone Like You on the piano:
(Sources: Vice Sports, Formula 1, Vogue, Sportskeeda, BBC)