Lewis Hamilton: The Full Story

by Mark Hughes (Author)

• Used

  Hardcover
  2007

  $3.25

  No driver has ever made such an instant impact on the sport of F1 racing as Lewis Hamilton. The first black grand prix driver, his astonishing level of success in his rookie season together with his swash-buckling, attacking style has created a sensation. It has also been a central factor in the most exciting and controversial season of F1 in living memory as Hamilton was involved in a three-way fight for the world crown. Industrial espionage, claims of team favouritism and some stunning on-track action have peppered Hamilton's first season in the sport's top category.Here is the in-depth story of this phenomenon - from his upbringing on a Stevenage council estate to the day he first sat in a kart as a seven-year-old to his sensational challenge on the world title. Friends, colleagues, team-mates, rivals, chaperones and engineers who have worked with him here give some remarkable insights into Lewis the man and the driver, as well as into the close but complex relationship with father Anthony, the man who has largely steered his career. In the process, we see how F1 success has changed this young man's life in a very short space of time.

• Used

  Paperback
  2008

  $3.25

  Published to coincide with start of the hotly-anticipated 2008 season, this book is a widely acclaimed and hugely successful hardback published at the climax of the 2007 World Championship. It has considerable brand new material added to the paperback edition. Veteran F1 journalist Mark Hughes unearths the true foundations that have enabled a personable and down-to-earth 22-year-old from a sleepy village in Hertfordshire to achieve the most successful start to a career the sport has ever seen.This book helps you discover how it all began, from the day Hamilton's father bought a hyperactive six-year-old a go-kart, to the British, European and World karting titles that followed. You can learn how at a motorsport awards ceremony in 1995, a plucky 10-year-old Hamilton asked Ron Dennis (the principal of McLaren F1 Racing) of the opportunity to race for his team in the future and how in 1998, at 13-years-old, McLaren duly signed him in a long-term agreement that made him the youngest driver in history with an F1 contract.Hughes takes us through the intervening years, right up to the explosive 2007 Formula one season when he became not only the first black driver ever to race an F1 car, but the first driver of any colour to stand on the podium at the end of their first nine races. As Sir Jackie Stewart said, 'Lewis is a man of the people and the people will love him for it.' Brand new material in this paperback edition includes: interviews with former F1 drivers who proffer their opinion on his qualities, where he needs to make improvements, where he stacks-up against the greats, and what his ultimate potential is; an insider view of testing during close season; and, a preview of the 2008 season and a detailed run-down of his prospects against the new team line-ups, including his new team-mate at McLaren.