Frank Worrall - Lewis Hamilton: Five-Time World Champion: The Biography

I t was 28 October, 2018, when Lewis Hamilton joined the immortals of motor racing: the day he won his fifth F1 crown. He lifted the drivers world championship title in Mexico City, becoming only the third man to do so five times, drawing him level with Juan Manuel Fangio, and leaving himself just two short of Michael Schumachers record of seven. It propelled him well beyond fellow Brit, Sir Jackie Stewart, who won it three times, making him the greatest British racing driver of all-time, and joint second greatest of all-time with just Schueys record of seven left to target.

After lifting the world title in Mexico, Lewis celebrated into the night. The significance of the feat had not been lost on him. He said, To win it with Mercedes means something, as Fangio won two championships with Mercedes. Its an incredible feeling, very surreal.

He would later admit another, closer-to-home motivation to win and to claim victory in his second season of an intense duel with his biggest rival, Ferraris Sebastian Vettel. Three days before his triumph in Mexico City, Lewiss beloved granddad Davidson had passed away, aged 88. Lewis dedicated his latest success to Davidson, saying, My grandfather would be so proud of us, so grateful that the Hamilton name is established and that it will now go down in history. He was the godfather of the family.

At thirty-three, Lewis had proved he was the best driver on the planet. The boy from Stevenage with humble beginnings was now a true global superstar and icon. His face adorned magazines and billboards not connected with motor racing and he was in demand for TV chat shows around the world.

Lewis Hamilton had become F1s first celebrity phenomenon. He was more, much more, than just a racing driver but it was in motor racing where he had made his name and it would be in motor racing where his biggest dreams still lived. He was not content with five crowns: his aim was to be the greatest ever.

The road to legend had not been easy. There had also been nightmares to contend with during a 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. Lewis moved from McLaren to the then emergent 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.

By the time he had collected his second world title in Abu Dhabi, Lewis had become a national treasure. Similar to David Beckham at his peak, Lewis earned standing ovations wherever he went.

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.

Lewis had made his mark with those who previously would not have given the sport of motor racing the time of day.

This is his story, and an unlikely one at that. From his ancestral roots in Grenada, through his modest start in life in 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, that initial world crown in 2008 and the joy he expressed by finally reclaiming the title in 2014 and then triumphing once again in 2015, 2017 and 2018.

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

Frank Worrall
London, 2018