LEWIS HAMILTON can equal Michael Schumacher’s record of seven Formula One titles today at the Turkish Grand Prix.
Having already passed the German’s record of race victories, he can rightly lay claim to being F1 greatest-ever racing driver.
His on-track achievements aside, he has juggled them with his quest to promote diversity, challenge racism and raise awareness to environmental issues – and has consequently been dubbed “Marcus Rashford on wheels”.
Here, SunSPORT quizzes those people who have worked closest with the 35-year-old to discover his extreme competitiveness that has helped him win all those titles – plus we can reveal a compassionate side that few people get to witness.
We go back to his debut F1 season in 2007 with McLaren where on a team bonding exercise at the Finnish Olympic Institute, he showed his determination to be a champ.
McLaren’s Number One Chief Mechanic at the time, Marc Priestley, was on that week-long team building exercise where Hamilton surprised the team by taking part.
Priestley said: “We went away for a team building week at the Finnish Olympic Institute, which was a thing we did with the race team and the drivers used to come.
“But on this occasion, we knew that Fernando Alonso, who was the other driver, was not scheduled to attend and we did not know who the other driver was going to be.
“So we went to Finland but the next day after the announcement was made Lewis surprised us to turn up in Finland.
“He had taken it upon himself to integrate himself in the team. It was an important thing to do but it was also brave, because we were a well-established group of pretty boisterous, macho guys and he was just a young boy.
“So to step into that world was a brave thing. I remember him being very polite. He went around shaking everyone’s hand and introducing himself.
“But the one thing that stuck out on that trip was just how competitive he was and how desperate he was to win.
“We went tenpin bowling and Lewis was just incredible. He was getting strike after strike, spinning it down the lane, and we were like ‘have you done this before?’ and he was like ‘nope’.
“However, as it turns out, the night before we did the bowling, he had gone in for some private lessons.
“He had taped up this expert and had been having one-on-one coaching. It was all in an effort to ensure he was the best and the next day he smashed everyone.”
Matt Bishop, currently Communications Director at W Series, held the same title at McLaren from 2008 to 2017 and worked closely with Hamilton.
He is able to pick out many standout achievements on track, pointing to his nine successive podiums in his debut season, as one.
But it was two phone calls 12 months apart that Bishop recalls that give his truest insight into what Hamilton is really like.
He added: “Some people think Lewis is a wannabe rapper. Rich as croesus but he is a good human. These stories don’t get told, but they show what a great heart he has.
“In 2012 my mother was dying of terminal cancer and I was giving Lewis a media briefing. I was called away but left my phone on the table.
“While I was out of the room, my mum called my mobile and he saw it flash up that she was calling me.
“He took it upon himself to answer the phone and said “hello Mrs Bishop, this is Lewis, you son’s away from the phone at the moment”.
“He then went on to say, ‘you know you should be very proud of him, he does a great job and I know you are not well and I am saying, stay strong, keep fighting and that we are thinking of you here’, and put the phone down.
“I came back and I did not even know he’d done that. It was not until I spoke to my mum some days later that she told me that story.
“Part two is that in 2013, when he was not even at McLaren anymore, so there was nothing to be gained with me, and my mother died.
“It was 10pm, Lewis was at the German GP so 11pm where he was, and my phone rang.
“It was Lewis and he said, ‘I have just heard this moment your mother had passed away and I wanted to call you immediately to say that if you are with your family, please pass on my condolences to all of them. I will remember your mother in my prayers tonight’.
“He didn’t need to do that but it shows what a thoroughly decent person he is.” Bishop admits that there were times when he was difficult to manage.
His relationship with pop-star Nicole Scherzinger made him front and back page news either side of the Atlantic.
But Bishop says those days were all part of his growing up process to the figure he is today.
He said: “It is since those days we have seen him grow into this statesman like man who stands for Black Lives Matter and is Marcus Rashford on wheels.
“Lewis’s maturation from sports boy to statesman was an unstoppable evolution.
“I think not only the sport but the world should be grateful for what Lewis does and what he stands for and for what he is yet to achieve.
“It has now got to a stage where F1 needs Lewis Hamilton more than Lewis Hamilton needs F1.
“When he does retire, the sport will miss him and we won’t realise how much we miss him until he has gone.”
Hamilton, of course, has yet to sign a new deal with Mercedes, but he is loving his life with the Silver Arrows.
And while he might always come across in a positive light when he has not won a race, he is a different character when he is away from the race track.
Mercedes’ Trackside Engineering Director, Andrew Shovlin, who also worked with Schuamcher, said: “For any famous drivers – when you look at Michael he was exactly the same – the reason they can appear a bit standoff-ish or rushing and not having time for people is because they cannot get away from this constant pressure to sign autographs and pose for a selfie.
“But Lewis has a very compassionate side to him and when you see the real Lewis, which with all drivers, when you see them at the circuit it is not what they are really like as a person.
“You can see it is not out of any sense of obligation it is just that he enjoys their stories and speaking to them and if he can inspire him, then he will.
“At the circuit, that’s the time you really see him fully relax because all other times he has a job to do as an elite sportsman.”
