Formula One champion Sir Lewis Hamilton is at the top of his career, but there’s one thing he hopes his future includes: Parenthood.
“One day. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do to the level that I do it today with that,” Hamilton, 39, told The Sunday Times in a profile published on Sunday, September 29. “One of my best friends has just had a kid and I’m seeing how manic it is — and my nieces and nephew are a handful.”
He continued, “There will be a time and a place for it, and I can’t wait for that part. But right now I have some work to do.”
Hamilton, the first and only Black F1 driver, confirmed to the outlet that he is currently single. He does, meanwhile, enjoy bonding with his young nieces and nephew.
“I’m really good with the kids,” Hamilton mused. “With them, I feel like I am able to be the kid that I am.”
According to Hamilton, he had a less idyllic childhood as the product of divorce in a middle-class family.
“I am grateful I had that experience. I remember not having any money,” he recalled to The Times. “I remember the struggle of my parents. I feel that’s an advantage.”
Hamilton has used that struggle as motivation to succeed on the racetrack. He won his first race at age 10, two years after he received his first go-kart.
“That was really empowering for me,” he recalled. “Because I was competing against a lot of wealthier families.”
Three years later, Hamilton was offered a place on the McLaren driver development team. His father became his manager to help oversee the financials.
“Even when I got to Formula 1, at 22, I had no comprehension of money,” Hamilton, who made his F1 debut in 2007, quipped. “It wasn’t until I’d had some wins that I started to put my toe out of the box. Each time it was, like, you make one step and that rock’s safe, but that next one was wobbly or would fall away. You’d get criticism about how you were presenting yourself. But I kept punching and kept fighting.”
Hamilton has been on the Mercedes team for 12 years, where he’s amassed more than 100 victories. At the end of the season, he will move over to Ferrari.
“It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions from the moment I signed the contract —telling my boss, that was terrifying,” he added in Sunday’s profile. “But it is so exciting because I remember as a kid watching Michael [Schumacher, an F1 legend]. Every driver watches that car and you’re like, ‘What would it be like to sit in the red cockpit?’”
