Seven times world champion Lewis Hamilton recalls his family struggles and the eventual 2008 world championship.
Lewis Hamilton is one of those stories of an athlete achieving his dreams from middle-class family background.
He won his first world championship in the year 2008 after narrowly missing out in 2007 by just a point. For a normal human being, winning the first championship is always the prestigious one.
However, for Hamilton, he did not really enjoy winning his first championship with McLaren back in 2008.
Lewis Hamilton’s family struggles during his F1 journey
Hamilton described his journey to F1 and expressed his disappointment in winning the first championship. He said: “I didn’t enjoy it at all. I think getting to formula One was an incredible achievement for my family.”
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The Briton continued to speak about how he came up from a background where his dad had to work four jobs. Secondly, as F1 is a sport for the rich, he compared himself with other rich drivers and how he had a ‘crap’ trailer in comparison to that flashy stuff.
He further added: “Then we got to formula one. The pressure was so intense that the pressure to deliver above and beyond people’s expectations.”
Why Lewis Hamilton did not enjoy his first championship
Speaking in an interview with Graham Bensinger, Hamilton explained why he did not enjoy winning his first championship.
No F1 fan can ever forget the ‘Is that Glock? Is that Glock? It is!.’ These words were enough to take the championship from Felipe Massa’s hand and gift it to Lewis Hamilton. He felt traumatized when he lost the championship for a second only to win it back on the last corner.
As per the Briton, due to his age being 23 back then and serving the penalties were a big letdown from the championship-winning season.
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He further added: “There were some strange things going in the business and almost like anything to stop me from succeeding.”
Hamilton concluded by reflecting on being an immature 23-year-old driver. He stated: “I wasn’t much mature enough to grasp everything that was going on and to enjoy it”
