Lewis Hamilton: My Story

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Lewis's family was not that wealthy to participate in sports, but because of his father's hard work, he has come to this level.

The pressure, the expectation, the hunger and the humility are all articulated in this honest account. Rather a shameless opportunity to cash in at the end of what was one of the best F1 seasons for years. Formula One is such a demanding and fast-moving business that it is easy to lose your own sense of direction sometimes.

As the story of his rookie season in F1 and the route to get there it was an interesting view on Lewis' motivations, but it was a little self-indulgent and repetitive. The only problem I had with the book is that it is too short as it covers his life up to the end of his 2007 season. We will do a better job, for sure, the team will keep pushing and I have got the experience now and I will bank that. He looks back in detail at the 2007 World Championship – the race wins, the frightening crash in Germany, his intense rivalry with team-mate Fernando Alonso, his special relationship with Ron Dennis, and the furore over the Ferrari allegations – right up to the dramatic last race of the season in Brazil.

One of the few bad days came when I had a big accident testing the new MP4-22 at Valencia in January before the season. At an early age, Lewis narrates his humble beginnings, the people who supported him all the way and his first year as an F1 driver. Lewis has achieved so much since then but it was interesting to see what was in his mind over a decade ago - long before he became the sports second ever most successful driver. Since young, Lewis faced lots of racism from other drivers, however he made those racist comments into great driving skills to prove them wrong.From this book, I can learn that no matter what conditions, if people work hard, dreams will come through. I know all of this is not something that can be achieved in one year, as it takes time to evolve – especially if you are striving to become the best in the world. And then I went to Jerez to test again, and gradually, after not such a fast start, I was into it and doing the laps. Nothing is left to chance, no stone left unturned, in pursuit of greater speed, efficiency and effectiveness in all areas of a racing team. I absolutely loved reading about his past and his upbringing his struggles and his successes, the true of history would be his dad.

Hamilton is not only outstandingly gifted as a racing driver, he is genuinely articulate and charming. One of the most interesting parts of this season was the inter team battle with Fernando Alonso and the spygate saga so to read about that is good.

You can just tell how much he has grown over the years just by the simple language he uses and the experiences he has shared at the time. In all honesty, at the end, I just felt it had been a really intense, crazy year and, truly, I did not feel gutted by the outcome.