“It broke me down so much” - The best and worst advice Lewis Hamilton has ever heard
Hamilton is F1’s most successful driver in terms of sta🦄tistics, with the most grand prix victories, pole positions a🔴nd podiums.
He’s currently level with 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Michael Schumacher on seven titles apiece, eying a record-breaking eighth in F1 2023.
At 38, Hamilton is the second-oldest driver on the F1 grid after 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Fernando Alonso, but he still remains amongst the best around.
It’s not always been plain-sailing for Hamilton, who has 168澳洲幸运5官方开ꦫ奖结果历史:recounted the racist abuse and bullying he e🐻ndured during his childhood, while his father, Anthony Hamilton, was forced to take on multiple jobs to fund his karting c𝐆areer.
Hamilton was asked during the On Purpose podcast by Jay Shetty, to pick out theꦜ best and worst 🌌pieces of advice he’d heard during his long career in motorsport.
“My dad: ‘🤪Never give up’,” he said “That has been in the back of my mind every single day.
The other one? ‘You will always be learning’ is what I learned from Nelꦰson Mandela.
He said: ‘I am 90 and I’m still learning today, you will𓂃 always learn something neꦇw and grow’.
“When I was younger, the parents of other racing drivers. One guy said: ‘Give up, you just don’t have it!’ A grown man in his 40s or 50s. I was eight! He told me to my face! I thou♌ght: ‘What do you mean?’I would imagine [he said it] because I was beating his kid.
Teachers said: ‘You will never amount to anything’. It brok𒀰e me down so much.”
Hamilton met Mandela - a✱ key figure in South Afr🌊ica’s anti-apartheid movement before becoming the country’s first black president - during his first title-winning year in 2008 as part of Mandela’s 90th birthday celebrations.
“Nelson Mandꦫela is one of my biggest inspirations,” he added. I was fortunate to meet him aged 23. “It was mind-blowing. I walked in and met 🌱him. It was like walking to god or a king! You could see his aura. His smile was beaming. That was the most impactful day for me, as a youngster.
“I go🏅t to F1 and had success - you dream of being a racing driver but you don’t dream of other things, like meeting incredible꧃ people. I went to Mandela’s 90th birthday in London. I was sat on his table! Bill Clinton was there, Denzel Washington, Oprah Winfrey was next to me.
“Then you discover they are just human beings with feelings, emotions and their own challenges. I was so young at the time. I don’t even recognise myself when I look back to seven years ago. Now, Iꦐ know myself more.”
With a sharp eye for F1’s controversies and storylines, Connor is the heartbeat o𝄹f our unbiased reporting.
