Worrall - Lewis Hamilton : the biography

I t had been six years in the making, but Lewis Hamilton left no one in any doubt about what becoming F1 world champion for the second time meant to him: This is the greatest day of my life, he said, after claiming the coveted crown by winning in Abu Dhabi in November, 2014. Winning it in 2008 was special but the feeling I have now is way past that. Its the greatest feeling I have ever had.

The stuff that dreams were made of? Most certainly, but there had also been nightmares to contend with during that six-year barren spell between his first and second crowns. Along the way, Lewis would fall out with his dad Anthony (and eventually make his peace with him in 2014), see his mentor Ron Dennis leave McLaren and then walk away himself from the legendary racing team that had been home since he was a boy. The unpalatable truth could be ignored no more the McLaren car simply could not compete with the Red Bull speed demon of quadruple world champion, Sebastian Vettel.

So Lewis moved from McLaren to another emergent team, Mercedes, in 2013. It would take him a year to settle in and for the German team to fine-tune his car but then he would show his mettle by becoming world champion for the second time. Yet even that 2014 campaign had posed challenges as he battled for the title against his teammate Nico Rosberg. The German racer had been his best friend growing up together in karting, but that long-term alliance would be sorely tested on the F1 tracks of 2014.

By the time he had collected his second world title in Abu Dhabi, Lewis had become much more than just a racing driver: he was a British sporting icon and a national treasure. His shadow fell just as large in other unexpected areas. Similar to David Beckham at his peak, Lewis earned standing ovations wherever he went. He was as much in demand at celebrity bashes as he was at sporting occasions as he travelled the world with his pop star girlfriend, Nicole Scherzinger.

Yet some pundits suggested that while he was undoubtedly a winner on the track, he would never be one off it with the British public. They carped that he was too arrogant, that he was too attracted to money, bling and showbiz for the public to hold him close to their hearts. That idea was blown out of the water in December 2014 when Lewis won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2014 award an accolade decided purely by the public. As if to emphasise just how much the British people did adore him, he beat runner-up and hot favourite for the award, golfer Rory McIlroy, by 86,000 votes.

Lewis had made his mark with those who previously would not have given the sport of motor racing the time of day. His modesty, his unassuming nature and glowing star quality made him the pin-up boy for mums, daughters and petrol heads alike. One thing was clear: this was no run-of-the-mill sportsman. Lewis was a phenomenon who could only go one way, from strength to strength.

This is his story, and an unlikely one at that. From his ancestral roots in Grenada, through his modest start in life on a council estate in Stevenage and years of steely determination and commitment in the lower echelons of racing, right up to his glorious debut season in F1 and that initial world crown in 2008, his journey peaks with the joy he expressed by finally reclaiming the title in 2014.

At the age of 29, he had joined an exclusive club by becoming only the fourth Briton to win the drivers championship at least twice. And, yes, he now wanted a third and even a fourth title! No way was he going to sit back and be happy with his lot. He was a natural-born winner and admitted he would not rest until he had become the most decorated British racer of all time.

And it would be a foolish man who would bet against him doing just that.

Lewis Hamilton, this is your life and long may you reign.

Frank Worrall

London, 2015