A winning formula 297x297 28/11/07 12:57 Page 145
brake wear, hydraulics and the driver’s performance, such as bond together. ‘They are a great bunch of lads,’ he says.
the angle he takes into a corner and the moment he lifts off the ‘There is nothing worse than those guys working, and then all I
throttle. As the car goes round the circuit, the sensors beam do is turn up, get in the car, get out and bugger off. I think they
this data – known as telemetry – to the garage in the pit lane, have had that with other drivers in the past. They feel free to
to the Communications Centre and to the McLaren factory. speak to me when they want. I know they will give 110 per cent,
At Woking, they do all sorts of clever things with the even if they have had a whole week with no sleep. There is
telemetry. It can be fed into a replica of Hamilton’s car, which is nothing better than having that belief in a team.’
then subjected to the forces of a full Grand Prix distance to test Lewis Hamilton’s uncanny hand-eye co-ordination was
each component. If any widget needs altering, the team can evident early on when, aged six, he appeared on Blue Peter
redesign an improved version – with a picomillimetre added on to show his skill with remote-control cars. When he was about
or shaved off – then machine it and fly it out in time for the race. eight, his father took him to a kart track on a whim. When Lewis
For the Monaco Grand Prix, McLaren reserved seats on flights crashed, Anthony Hamilton thought that would be that.
from London to Nice on the Thursday, Friday and Saturday Instead, Lewis leapt back in, and began to race in earnest in
nights before the race, in case a component needed to be 1993 in a series for novice kartists called the ‘black plate’
rushed out. category. Drivers are required to complete six races before
They also feed the telemetry to the Strategy Room. progressing. Hamilton won all six. To fund Lewis’s racing,
This room contains an exact replica of the pitwall gantry where Anthony Hamilton, who then worked for British Rail, took a
Ron Dennis watches each race. The data is fed into a computer second job, and at one point was also being paid £15 a go to
that uses it to run through different scenarios of what might put up For Sale signs in Hertfordshire.
happen during the race, in order to project possible outcomes. ‘As a kid,’ Hamilton says, ‘you look up to your dad. We have
All sorts of ‘what ifs’ are introduced, such as what if it rains, come from nothing. We lived in a one-bedroom flat in Hatfield,
what if the safety car comes out, or what if a satellite spins out and in a council house in Stevenage. I went to a normal school.
of control and hits Alonso on the head on lap 37, and so on. We didn’t really have any money. My family have sacrificed a
The computer produces the best race strategy, which is then lot. They gave me an opportunity and I grabbed it with both
communicated to the track. Having the Strategy Room in the hands. I didn’t waste it.’
sequestered quietude of Woking ensures that no racing The story of how Hamilton caught Ron Dennis’s eye at an
I suspect McLaren’s factory
decision is ever made on an ad hoc basis in the heat of the awards dinner in London in 1995 has already gone down in the
moment at the track side. annals of motor-racing history. Dressed in a dinner jacket and
doubles as Ron Dennis’s
Hamilton is wise enough to know that his relationship with his clip-on bow tie, Hamilton, 10, the youngest ever winner of the
tomb. Somewhere here,
engineers must be every bit as close as between him and his British cadet karting championship, went up to Dennis and
car. In order to extract the most from his car, he must consider asked for his autograph.
he will be laid to rest,
himself part of a team, and not just a driver who pitches up ‘It was 12 years ago,’ Dennis said, speaking preseason.
every now and then. Pre-season, Hamilton and some 30 team ‘He just walked up to me, not that I’d noticed at the time
surrounded by his trophies
members went on a training camp to Finland to get fit and because he was probably only three or four feet tall, so he
didn’t come into my sight line, and there was this young chap
with his hand out.’
When Hamilton asked if one day he could drive for McLaren,
Dennis gave him his number and told him to ring back in nine
years’ time. Three years later, it was Dennis who rang,
having watched Hamilton’s astonishing karting career.
‘There are some traits there that you see in the greats,’
Dennis said. ‘By and large, all the great Grand Prix drivers
are from karting. It is the right place to start.’
Anthony Hamilton broke the news about Dennis’s phone
call when Lewis got home from school that day. ‘That changed,
to a degree, our whole lives,’ Anthony Hamilton said. ‘All of a
sudden, Lewis has got an opportunity – he never expected to
make a career in motor sport. Even at that time, we never
thought he’d become an F1 driver. There is this nice guy,
Ron Dennis, who said, “I’ll look after Lewis and help him
through school and everything else”.’
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