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The McLaren team supported Hamilton’s career from
1998, on condition that Hamilton did not neglect his
education. ‘For years, I’d realised that so many drivers,
in their determination to get into motor sport, do so to the
detriment of their education,’ Dennis said, ‘which then gives
them a weakness if and when they get into F1.’
Lewis was supplied with a top-of-the-line kart, plus technical
support and transportation around Europe, amounting to
£100,000 a year. He then progressed to Formula Renault,
backed by McLaren, and won the British championship in
2003, followed by two years in F3, winning the crown in 2005.
All in all, McLaren is reckoned to have plunged some £5 million
into Hamilton’s pre- F1 career. As Dennis put it, ‘He climbed;
we paid.’
In 2006 Hamilton moved up into GP2. Few who witnessed
him race in 2006 at Nürburgring, Monaco and Silverstone
will need convincing of his mystical gifts and animal instincts
behind the wheel. Driving fast is one thing, but a winning driver
must think even faster. Hamilton has an Ayrton Senna-like
instinct for making the right snap decisions.
‘He has developed into a very complete motorracing
package,’ Martin Whitmarsh, the chief operating officer of
McLaren Group, says. ‘He has also been able to carry that
in-born capability through the successive formulae, and has
been able to focus on the capability to grow with the technical
understanding, physical preparedness, mental toughness
and ability to single-mindedly focus and commit. He is quick,
committed, brave, a phenomenal overtaker and he just does
not give up.’
The question of an F1 drive was discussed. ‘His domination
of GP2 in 2006 was outstanding,’ Dennis says. ‘Because we
were a team in transit looking to change one or both drivers,
ultimately all of us decided to give him a chance. He has a
uniqueness and determination that is rarely seen in drivers,
and he is prepared to make personal and emotional sacrifices
[that] you have to be mentally able to accept [in order] to
become the best.’
At the 2006 Monza Grand Prix, where Hamilton was racing in
GP2, he was watching the Formula One cars as they lined up
on the grid. He walked to the front, looked down the track
towards the first corner and imagined what it would be like to sit
in the leading McLaren car, then occupied by Kimi Räikkönen.
Dennis took Hamilton to one side and said, ‘I’m going to give
you a chance. You are going to have to work hard for it, but I’m
going to give you a chance.’ Unsure what Dennis meant – a
race drive or a test or what? – Hamilton put on his professional
smile, but felt ecstatic underneath.
On September 23 2006, Dennis invited Hamilton and his
father to his house in Woking to tell them that Lewis would get a
Formula One drive in 2007 for a salary rumoured to be
€500,000 a year. This pales beside Alonso’s €16 million,
which in turn pales besides Räikkönen’s €35 million.
(But Hamilton was said to have been offered a bonus scheme
that could easily double his salary depending on how many
torque | 146
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