A farewell for Lewis

It's 17 years since Lewis Hamilton approached McLaren Group executive chairman Ron Dennis at the Autosport Awards and said the fateful words, "I'm going to drive for you one day…"

How right he was. With support from the much-missed Martin Hines, Lewis proved himself in the Zip Young Guns kart team, then joined the McLaren-Mercedes ‘family’ in the late 1990s and we watched his career blossom in karts, from domestic to international championships and then into cars at the end of 2001.

He won the Formula Renault UK series in 2003, the Formula 3 Euro Series in 2005 and the GP2 Series in 2006, before stepping up to Formula 1™ with Vodafone McLaren Mercedes in 2007 and winning the World Championship in only his second season. Lewis has demonstrated how far passion and commitment can take you when you have a talent for driving, but we’ve also had a lot of fun over the years. Here’s a short video of a few of the guys who’ve worked with Lewis on the ground who he’s had some fun with along the way...