Lewis Hamilton has spent the entirety of his racing career in European single-seaters, like many of his F1 competitors. After winning a European karting championship, he graduated to Formula Renault in 2001.
Hamilton took the UK title in 2003 and made the jump to Euro F3, the series where Max Verstappen later established himself as a future superstar. He would win the championship in his second season to secure a spot in GP2 (now Formula 2).
During his days at the ART team, he worked with Fred Vasseur, who will be his team boss at Ferrari next year. Hamilton produced the best GP2 season ever, going by the percentage of points available.
He very nearly won the world championship in his rookie F1 season, but heartbreakingly lost out to Kimi Raikkonen by a single point. 17 years on, Hamilton is entering the final chapter of his career.
He hasn’t indicated a desire to race in another series after he retires from F1. Hamilton does, however, have a passion for bikes.
In a special 2019 event, Hamilton shared the track with MotoGP legend Valentino Rossi in Valencia. Hamilton rode Rossi’s 2019 Yamaha bike, before the Italian had a chance to drive his Mercedes F1 car.
Lewis Hamilton lapped was close to MotoGP riders in secret Jerez test
Speaking on the Armchair Expert podcast, Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff said he had to greenlight the Rossi/Hamilton swap. He almost finds it ‘annoying’ that he was immediately quick on two wheels.
Away from the cameras, Hamilton apparently travelled to the Jerez circuit in Spain with two Mercedes engineers. This was an unsanctioned run, with Wolff only finding out afterwards.
The British driver came off the bike during his outing, but avoided any injuries. Perhaps the bigger headline was that he was only four seconds off the specialist riders.
F1 hasn’t raced at Jerez since the 1990s, but Hamilton has driven there during winter testing. It remains on the MotoGP calendar.
“I had to give permission,” Wolff said of the Rossi event. “I gave it, and I think they both enjoyed it a lot. Lewis is the annoying kid in school that does everything right and fast.
“I’ll tell you a story about biking. Secretly – they didn’t tell me – they went testing in Jerez with the head of strategy, who is also a keen motorbike guy, and one of the engineers. I couldn’t get hold of him for two days.
“And then, calling Lewis, my engineer picks up and says ‘it’s all good, all is fine, we’ve just finished biking and whatever you hear, he’s all fine’. I said ‘what happened?’
“He fell. But he was four seconds off the MotoGP pros only. It was unbelievable. The body feeling that he has is what makes him a champion.”
Toto Wolff may secretly agree with what Christian Horner has said about Lewis Hamilton
The late John Surtees is the only man to have won championships in both disciplines. Surtees racked up four 500cc titles between 1956 and 1960, then clinched the F1 crown in 1964.
Hamilton’s great rival Fernando Alonso has chased the triple crown, having already won the Monaco Grand Prix and the Le Mans 24 Hours. He only needs the Indy500 to complete the set.
Of course, the departing Mercedes driver remains focused on his pursuit of an eighth world champion. Hamilton plans to move to Italy to better integrate himself into Ferrari.
Red Bull boss Christian Horner says Hamilton looked ‘flat’ in his final years at Brackley. While Wolff would publicly defend his iconic driver, he may privately think a fresh start is in everybody’s interests.
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