Center Stage

Lewis Hamilton

Interview by Stephen Pope - October 1, 2009

“Those last couple of laps it felt like my whole life kind of flashed before my eyes. I’ve worked since I was eight years old to be world champion, and to finally get it was so incredibly special.”

An afternoon drizzle fell over the grounds of the Grande Prêmio do Brasil as the banshee wail of the fastest racecars in the world ricocheted through the team paddocks. It was November 2–the final lap of the last race of the 2008 Formula One season.

Ferrari’s Felipe Massa, the race leader the entire day, gingerly negotiated the last succession of turns, clawing through a capricious mist onto the front straightaway. As he broke across the finish line, an impressive 13 seconds separating him from the rest of the field, his teammates exploded in a frenzied embrace. With the victory in the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, Massa had reclaimed Ferrari’s rightful spot atop Formula One.

Or so the Italians thought.

When it rains, a racecar driver must adjust what he knows about the theoretical limit of a curve, then accelerate to it as close as he dares. For the last three Formula One seasons, no one has been better on a rain-soaked racetrack than 24-year-old Lewis Hamilton. Any remaining doubts were put to rest after last year’s spectacular finish in Brazil.

As the celebration over Massa’s victory grew in intensity, a lone member of the Ferrari pit crew peeled away from the group. “No,” he muttered, staring at the screen showing the official race results. “No! No! No!” he shouted, frantically slapping the others–on their arms, shoulders, anywhere to get the team’s attention. “No!” he implored. While it was true that Massa had won the race, he’d lost the championship–by one point, it turned out–to Hamilton, the young racing phenom from arch-rival team McClaren-Mercedes.

The disbelieving Italians fell silent, left only to wonder how it had happened. Then, an eruption of shattered glass as a team member threw his fist into a sign emblazoned with Ferrari’s iconic rearing stallion.

Across the track, the McClaren-Mercedes team waited for the results to post. Hamilton had been the Formula One driver’s points leader before the start of the race and needed to finish only fifth to become the youngest world champion ever. The watchword for this contest was caution–just finish it in one piece, the team instructed. But as Massa’s Ferrari blasted past the waving checkered flag, Hamilton was stuck in sixth place–a spot that would hand the second-year driver a second-place finish in the world championship by a single point for the second agonizing season in a row.

A late-race rain shower, however, proved to be the difference maker. A few laps from the finish, just as the drizzle was starting to soak the track, Hamilton roared into the pits for a changeover to rain tires. Then it was back on the course in a desperate bid to regain lost ground. Wheel to wheel, Hamilton and the driver ahead of him battled through the final series of bends. They were inches apart as Hamilton cut round the last turn as close as possible, flicked a gear and accelerated past the other car–barely, breathlessly–to claim the world championship by the slimmest of margins.

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