How Defense Against Bullies Turned Lewis Hamilton Into a Karate Black Belt: “I Wanted to Be Bruce Lee”

Being one of the very few Black children in his school, Lewis Hamilton was bullied very often, something he has spoken about several times over the years. He wanted to protect himself from them, which is why long before suiting up for a race, he took up karate as a sport.

Hamilton practiced so religiously that he became a black belt, looking back on which he admitted that he wanted to be like Hong Kong martial artist Bruce Lee. “I was bullied at school and I decided to go to karate,” the Briton revealed in an interview with Gayle King. “When I was six, I wanted to be Bruce Lee, so I could defend myself“.

During his school days, Hamilton took up karting with the sole intention of one day making it to F1. However, he admitted that martial arts helped him in all areas of life, including that. “As a kid, I was very wild and there’s a lot of discipline when I went to karate,” he added.

Perhaps what is most important is that he now enjoys it. Today, he follows a life of incredible discipline, which makes him a top-level F1 driver despite being 40 years old.

Lewis Hamilton opened up about being bullied and the difficult time in school in the podcast “On purpose with Jay Shetty” ️#F1 #Mercedes #Motorsport pic.twitter.com/Mgh4WgJJLS

— Motorsport.com (@Motorsport) January 25, 2023

Hamilton developed a strong interest in martial arts, eventually taking up Muay Thai after achieving everything he could in karate. While it might seem that these pursuits made life at school easier for him, the reality was quite different, largely due to a lack of support from his headmaster.

Hamilton reveals headmaster’s bizarre punishment

The Stevenage-born racer was serious about his racing career, which required him to take time off from school to visit karting tracks. He needed to practice, and there was no way around it. As a result, his father asked the headmaster to help his son catch up on schoolwork, the Ferrari driver revealed in the interview.

Strangely, the headmaster—who remained unnamed—not only refused but also punished him for his absences.

Hamilton revealed that his headmaster would make him “sit outside his office, facing the wall, for the entire day in front of the other students.” As a result, Hamilton expressed in the interview that he believed his headmaster was not a great person because he denied him basic education.

Yet, Hamilton believes that aspiring young drivers should not take days off school for karting, as education is equally important. This perspective likely influenced his decision to start Mission 44, an organization dedicated to helping young people of color pursue careers in STEM.