Early racer – PRETVORITI U PREZ

You wouldn't expect rc cars to be the starting point for the career of one of the greatest drivers of all
time but for Lewis Hamilton that's exactly where it started at least from a competitive standpoint it was.

After receiving a rc car for his fifth birthday it set the wheels in motion and it got to a point where father
Anthony decided to get him into some serious competition and so after joining a local club in Stevenage
Lewis began competing in competitions with a degree of success.

After a successful year in 1992 Lewis and his dad went to try out some go-karts.

Lewis was hooked he loved carting. He wanted more of it and on Christmas he got his wish when he got
a present in the form of his first go-kart.

After a couple years of growing his race craft he won the British cadet championship in 1995. He was the
youngest driver to ever win it, at the age of ten.

It was during that year as well when Lewis attended the “sport awards dinner” in London. His father
Anthony realised the importance of being in a room full of motor racing hierarchy and legions and so
forth and gave Lewis an autograph book with spaces for contact details and effectively told Lewis to get
as many as he could.

Eventually they scoped out Ron Dennis, head of the McLaren formula one team.

He wrote his contact details, and said to Lewis: “Phone me in 9 years, and we will sort something out.”

Dennis approached lewis in three years with an offer of place within the mclaren camp, it was a huge
deal.

After many accolades in the british karting scene lewis was signed on to the mclaren driver development
program.

lewis also began racing on the european karting scene and it was in this time that he would encounter
none other than nico Rosberg and believe it or not these two were legitimate best buddies.

LOWER FORMULA RACING – STAVITI U PREZ

mclaren was still firmly in his corner and by 2001 it was time for lewis to enter the car racing scene
signing on to race with manor in the formula renault uk winter series at the age of 16. he was the
youngest driver to race in that series at the time.

overall it wasn't an awe-inspiring amazing season for him then again none of the expected champions to
be ever got to be the champion but it was a good stepping stone.

He had questions regarding his future, was this all worth it, could he actually make it work. Well in 2003
he got his answer, when after a slow start he absolutely blitzed the field.
From silverstone onwards every race he finished he won and the field was still plenty strong.

But then came time for him to step up to the formula 3 euro series over it would be a place where
manor wasn't the best team around.

A problem with his main backers at mclaren was that they wanted lewis to remain with manor for the
next season but he wanted none of it.

He wanted to move on to another team that would give him a better shot at the title. The solution he
left McLaren.

First race after leaving McLaren at the Macau Grand Prix Lewis crashed into the wall and ended last.
Next race at the Bahrain Super Prix he came from the back of the field to take the win, an outstanding
drive and one that caught the attention of McLaren who welcomed him back into the team with open
arms. He would return to the formula three euro series still with the endeavour to be in the best team.

Lewis signed up with signature and what followed was well the one word that could describe it was
domination.

Out of the 20 races that season lewis won 15 of them he had won at every single circuit he raced at.

It pretty much went about as well as it could get that year, what it also meant was that he would
graduate to gp2 for 2006 driving with ART.

He won the GP2 championship at his first attempt, beating Nelson Piquet Jr. and Timo Glock.

F1 McLaren – staviti u prez

His success in GP2 resulted in a promotion to F1 in 2007, when he was paired with Fernando Alonso in
McLaren, after Juan Pablo Montoya and Kimi Räikkönen left McLaren to race in other teams.

After finishing on the podium in his debut, Hamilton went on to set several records as he finished
runner-up in the 2007 World Drivers' Championship to Kimi Räikkönen by one point.

Hamilton's success continued in 2008 as he got five victories and ten podium finishes. As the season
reached its conclusion in Brazil, it became a clear two-way fight for the title between the home
favourite Felipe Massa and the young Briton. On the last lap in the final 5 corners Lewis overtook Timo
Glock for the fifth position witch gave him the 1 extra point he needed to win the 2008 World drivers
Championship

In his last four years with McLaren, Hamilton continued to score podium finishes and race victories,
without any titles because of the pure domination of Sebastian Vettel in the Red Bull.

Before the end of the year, Hamilton announced, to much surprise, that he would be joining Mercedes
for the 2013 season, replacing the retiring Michael Schumacher.

F1 Mercedes – staviti u prez