Lewis Hamilton reveals “the moment” he knew he was going to be in F1

Lewis Hamilton has opened up on how he found out he was going to a Formula 1 driver for the first time.

Hamilton is statistically the most successful F1 driver of all time, sitting first on the list for most wins and pole positions, while he is level with the great Michael Schumacher on seven world championships.

The Ferrari driver made his F1 debut back in 2007 with McLaren, a year after winning the GP2 championship.

The 41-year-old Briton recalled that he was on the grid ahead of the 2006 Italian Grand Prix at Monza when McLaren boss Ron Dennis told him he would be driving the following season.

“My moment was Monza 2006, I’d just won the GP2 championship,” Hamilton explained.

“It’s on the grid, Kimi [Raikkonen] was on pole and I had the privilege of going onto the grid, and I was standing in front of Kimi’s car, and Ron [Dennis] put his arm around me and he told me, looking up to Turn 1, he says, “I’m going to give you a chance.”

"That was the moment. In the moment, I couldn’t quite believe it and I didn’t know if he was like, “I’m going to give you a chance”… I didn’t know what it was going to be a chance at, if it was really… That’s what I was thinking when I left. But obviously that was the moment that he had decided that he was going to give me a chance for 2007.”

Hamilton narrowly missed out on winning the F1 world title in his rookie campaign, but would go on to clinch the championship for the first time in 2008.

Following a switch to Mercedes at the end of 2012, Hamilton enjoyed a dominant period of success, winning a further six world championships between 2014 and 2020 before his run was ended in controversial circumstances following defeat to Max Verstappen in 2021.

At the end of the 2024 season, Hamilton completed a blockbuster switch to Ferrari.

Asked what he defines as success, Hamilton replied: “I’ve never really thought about how you would define success. I think success can be perceived in lots of different ways.

"I think waking up every day and trying again, always trying to be better than your previous self, evolving into the person that you feel comfortable in, who you want to be, overcoming adversity, proving people wrong that try to hold you back or bring you down, the way you show up.

"I think of course from the outside world results are what people call success, but I think internally for me it’s just progress. If you’re progressing, you’re succeeding.

“That’s why I’ve always said I’m really grateful for the records and those sorts of things, but they’re not things I ever think of. The things I think of is every day how I tune my brain, because ultimately I’m really focused on… You can tune yourself to believe what you want. And I’m always trying to work on my inner self to programme myself to be moving forward, not looking at what’s behind me.

“It’s a part of the journey but not necessarily the most important thing. The important thing is how you’re getting up, it’s how you’re pushing forward, it’s how you’re trying to evolve, and just looking forward, always looking forward, never looking back.”