January 7 is the day that the entire Formula 1 community celebrates the birthday of Lewis Hamilton, which turns off today 37 candles after having established some of the most emblematic records of this sport, with the awareness of being able to establish more in the coming season. The English Mercedes driver, born in 1985, in fact holds the absolute record of 103 victories in the Circus, with seven world titles won from 2007 to today, equal only to those obtained by Michael Schumacher. It’s been a while since, in 2001, The Hammer made his absolute debut behind the wheel of a single-seater right in his England, where he was born to a British mother and a father of Caribbean origins. On October 17 of that year, on the Mallory Park track, the then 16-year-old took part in the test of the championship of Formula Renault 2.0 with Manor Motorsport, becoming the youngest ever to take part in that category. Hamilton himself, at the time already part of the McLaren Academy – with whom he would make his debut in F1 in 2007, immediately touching the victory of the world title – was thus able to comment on his arrival in the new series, where he arrived after the experience with karts: “Formula Renault looks fantastic – She said – and I can’t wait to get on track. “.
Tony Shaw, team manager of Manor, recently underlined the qualities of the young Hamilton who immediately emerged during the tests in the Formula Renault 2.0 UK Winter Series: “I remember it was really cool – He admitted – there were many quite experienced drivers, who had all been in Formula Ford or Formula Vauxhall Junior, and were used to handling a certain type of car. He was really very good, also considering the fact that other top karters were coming along with him. We didn’t have much time to prepare for his debut, perhaps because he was back from his last karting event. In any case, he wasn’t afraid to attack right away. It was very, very easy to get along with him, and he quickly stored all the data “. The first outing at Mallory Park was not entirely positive for Hamilton, who closed only in 15th place, but surprisingly made up for it already in Race-2: after a good battle in the mid-high ranking positions, the future driver of McLaren and Mercedes conquered the 6th place, thus obtaining the first points in the category. He did even better in the next round at Donington, where, at the end of a long challenge to conquer the podium, he crossed the line in 4th position, further attracting the attention of McLaren. Not surprisingly, after the first placements in the top 3 obtained immediately in 2002 (with three wins), Hamilton graduated category champion, again with Manor, in 2003. Before arriving in F1, the Englishman was able to win an F3 Euro Series title in 2005 and, above all, a GP2 title in 2006, precisely in his season since rookie.
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