Do you now that you were born to be great? Are you aware that all the people who have risen to prominence did not just wake up and became great? There is a special reason for you being in existence. You just didn't show up for nothing. There is something special in each one of us.
Greatness can be referred to individuals who have a natural ability to be better than all others. The idea carries the suggestion that the particular person or object, when compared to others of a similar type, has clear advantage over others. As an explanatory term it is most often applied to a person or their work, and may be qualified or unqualified.
Lewis Carl David Hamilton was born on 7 January 1985 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire to Carmen Larbalestier and Anthony Hamilton whose parents emigrated from Grenada to the UK in the 1950s.
Lewis’ parents separated when he was two and he went to live with his mother and half-sisters. When Lewis was six his father bought his young son a radio-controlled car, then a go-kart. Hamilton senior told Lewis that as long as he did well at school he’d support his son’s passion for racing.
Lewis started go-kart racing in 19930 aged eight years in while studying at the John Henry Newman School. By the age of ten he had won his first British Karting Championship and had already met Ron Dennis, his future boss, and cheekily informed him his was going to drive one of his F1 cars. Between 1998 and 2000, with the backing of Dennis, Hamilton won both European and World Karting titles. In 2000, aged 15, Hamilton was crowned Karting World Number One –he remains the youngest ever to this day.
He attended sixth-form at Cambridge Arts and Sciences before racing in the British Formula Renault Winter Series in 2001 where he finished fifth overall, despite crashing in his third race. Michael Schumacher said of him, "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."
In 2002 he participated in the Formula Renault 2000 UK series with Manor Motorsport. Hamilton finished third in the final standings with three outright wins.
He stayed with Manor for another year and won the championship in 2003. The same year, he made his debut in Formula Three by racing in the season finale and later at the Macau Grand Prix and Korea Grand Prix in 2004.
Hamilton was almost signed to Williams but BMW refused to fund him. Instead, he returned to McLaren and continued to win races in Formula Three. Hamilton ended the 2005 season having won 15 of the 20 rounds. Autosport ranked him number 24 in its list of Top 200 Drivers.
In 2006, he moved to ASM's sister GP2 team ART Grand Prix, the leading team of the series. Hamilton won the GP2 championship after beating current F1 Racer Timo Glock. Notable wins included Nurburgring, where he had been penalised for speeding in the pit lane, and Istanbul where he recovered from a spin that had dropped him back to 18th.
A vacancy appeared at McLaren at the end of 2006 and after months of speculation over who would be joining Fernando Alonso at the team, Hamilton was selected as he’d predicated as a boy. The announcement was made public on 24 November 2006.
He stayed with Manor for another year and won the championship in 2003. The same year, he made his debut in Formula Three by racing in the season finale and later at the Macau Grand Prix and Korea Grand Prix in 2004.
Hamilton was almost signed to Williams but BMW refused to fund him. Instead, he returned to McLaren and continued to win races in Formula Three. Hamilton ended the 2005 season having won 15 of the 20 rounds. Autosport ranked him number 24 in its list of Top 200 Drivers.
In 2006, he moved to ASM's sister GP2 team ART Grand Prix, the leading team of the series. Hamilton won the GP2 championship after beating current F1 Racer Timo Glock. Notable wins included Nurburgring, where he had been penalised for speeding in the pit lane, and Istanbul where he recovered from a spin that had dropped him back to 18th.
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Hamilton's first race as a Formula One driver was at the Australian Grand prix in 2007. He qualified fourth, finished in third as it dawned on the UK press and British public that we could be looking at a new World Champion. According to Hamilton it was only when he returned home to the UK after the Malaysian Grand Prix that, due to all the press attention, it’d sunk in that he was, at last, an F1 racing driver.
He finished in the top five of his first five races and won his first Grand Prix in Canada, going on to win again in America. When he went to Silverstone for the British Grand Prix he was leading the world championship. Despite finishing third Hamilton said that race would stay with him forever because his home crowd were 100 per cent behind him. Frustratingly, in Brazil, the last race of the season, he finished seventh and missed out on the World Championship by just one point.
During the winter break, Hamilton worked on his fitness and stamina, he was confident the hardware would deliver and he went into the 2008 season with high hopes. At the Australian Grand Prix, he took pole and went on to win comfortably. However, Ferrari soon became McLaren's rivals and Hamilton had disappointing results in Malaysia, Bahrain, Spain and Turkey. That's until Monaco 2008 where he crossed the line first. He then went on to win the British Grand Prix, the Shanghai round and, despite coming in fifth in Brazil –again, the final race of the season- he clinched the World Championship on points at the age of 23.
2009 was not as successful as the previous year with Hamilton qualifying outside the top ten at least four times and he only won two races. 2010 was a more successful season as Hamilton finished second in the World Championship table behind Sebastian Vettel, who broke the Brit's record as the youngest champion.
In 2011, Hamilton had another disappointing racing season as he finished fifth in the World Championship rankings and for the first time his team-mate Jenson Button was more successful finishing in second place.
2012, his last with McLaren, seemed open for anyone to take home the title as seven different drivers won the first seven races. Hamilton won the Canadian Grand Prix for the third time and came first at the Hungarian Grand Prix on 29 July 2012. His final win of the season was in Texas but, dogged by back luck and crashes, he finished fourth.
In 2013 Hamilton signed a three year contract with Mercedes Benz. He secured his first win with his new team in Hungary making him the first British racing driver to win in a Mercedes since Stirling Moss in 1955. In spite of that being his only win of 2013, he finished consistently well over the season and finished, again, in fourth.
Off the track Hamilton has been seen with former Pussycat Doll and erstwhile X- Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger. The couple started dating in November 2007 and separated in 2010 only to reunite. She can often be seen supporting Hamilton from the pit lane.
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