Lewis Hamilton Reveals Most Exciting Year In F1 After Over A Decade

Lewis Hamilton is currently driving his 12th season in Formula 1 after making his debut as a 21-year-old in 2007 with the McLaren Mercedes team.

The British driver, who was nurtured throughout his racing career by McLaren, came into the sport as the GP2 champion and was highly rated among people who had witnessed his rise.

Hamilton did not disappoint, as he immediately went on to challenge much more experienced drivers for race wins and podium finishes. He recently admitted in his autobiography “My Story” that 2007 was the most “exciting and challenging” season of his entire career thus far.

The Briton, who was an unknown quantity at the time, surprised many by instantly getting up to speed and challenging for podium finishes. Hamilton even came close to winning the F1 Drivers’ championship in his debut season after winning four races and finishing second in five races.

The current four-time world champion showed no pressure despite partnering then reigning champion Fernando Alonso. Such was his brilliance that he finished the season in second place just one point behind eventual title winner Kimi Raikkonen.

It became clear that it was just a matter of time that Hamilton became the world champion and it came in the following campaign when a last lap overtake on Timo Glock in the final race of the season delivered him his first world title by the same margin as he had lost in 2007 over Ferrari’s Felipe Massa.

Hamilton admitted that he was desperate to celebrate the season once it had come to an end despite it ending in heartbreak for the team. He said he did not have time to reflect on the emotions that he went through, but made it clear that it remains the most exciting of his career yet.

“2007 was an unbelievable year, easily the most exciting and challenging of my life,” Hamilton said, as quoted by the Express. “From the start in Melbourne, which seems so long ago now, to the finish in São Paulo I travelled through a phenomenal Formula One year, winning four races, finishing as runner-up in five, and battling for podium finishes in a few others, in my rookie season with the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team.”

“So much happened to me in such a short space of time that, when the season ended, I felt like I needed to stop, look back and take stock of what happened,” he added. “But in Formula One there is no time for that.”

“It had been a fantastic season and instead of feeling down, or in any kind of pain, I felt we had a lot to celebrate and enjoy,” he said.

Hamilton has since moved to the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport team and gone on to win three more F1 Drivers’ titles. He is the most successful British driver in the history of Formula 1.