His fans: Hamilton last year at the United States Grand Prix in Austin, Texas
Image: Getty
Lewis Hamilton hasn’t won a Formula 1 race in a year and a half. The shadow he casts on all other pilots has grown even larger. Why is that?
Lewis Hamilton once said that the easiest thing in life is to give up. As a child, in the dreary suburbs of London, he would have had many good reasons to do just that. Every day anew. But he couldn’t give up. He wasn’t even allowed to cry. The father forbade it. Lest his enemies take the six-year-old’s tears as weakness. The enemies were his classmates. They threw bananas at him. Lewis was one of the few black children at his school.
Sonke Sievers
Deputy Head of Department for Sport Online.
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The enemies were his teachers. They claimed he’d never get anywhere. Lewis is dyslexic. His classmates shouted the N-word and beat him. He didn’t want to reveal himself to the white mother. She didn’t know what it meant to suffer racism. He didn’t want to burden the black father. He was often alone with his grief. It’s hard to believe that it didn’t break him. Anyone who carries such experiences in their backpack like Hamilton can no longer be afraid of anything in this life. Except spiders. He’s afraid of them.