Lewis Hamilton comes from humble beginnings and his journey to F1 was by no means simple. Hamilton had the chance to make it to F1 with major thanks to McLaren making him a part of their young driver program. Joining them in 1998, he would go on to become the McLaren driver in 2007. However, this partnership was more than stressful for Hamilton.

The Briton, in an episode of ‘Beyond the Grid’, revealed the toll the McLaren partnership took on him. Hamilton said, “Every day was a worry that I could lose it. Particularly my dad would spend hours and hours and hours and hours communicating with McLaren just trying to make sure ‘Are we doing everything you want us to do’.”

Hamilton also added, “We were very very lucky that we got funding. Which we would not have made it to F1 without. Just couldn’t find the money. But we still had to make sure that every weekend we crushed it.”

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Although the journey was extremely taxing, Hamilton made it to the top of the F1 world. His time with McLaren resulted in a Word championship. However, Hamilton went on to make the switch to Mercedes in 2013 and the rest is history.

What led Lewis Hamilton to leave McLaren for Mercedes after 2012?

Lewis Hamilton was McLaren’s golden boy in the late 2000s. His world title in 2008 only added to that reputation. However, his time with the team came to a close in 2012 when he left McLaren for Mercedes in a shock switch for the following season. This left most fans scratching their heads. However, there were some solid reasons as well as some speculation surrounding the move.

Although Hamilton enjoyed his maiden title with the team, his time after 2008 was rather underwhelming. the next 3 years saw him finish highest of fourth in the driver standings. His time was marred by technical issues which let him down at crucial moments. The logical next move for Hamilton seemed to be a fresh start at a new team.

Another major factor in turning the Briton’s head was probably Niki Lauda. The former world champion told Lewis, “If Schumacher couldn’t get the Mercedes team running up front for three years and you next year are doing much better, it makes a huge impact on your personality, and people will rate you much higher.”

He further revealed, “In the end, it convinced him that the challenge is what he wants to do.”

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However, whatever the reason behind the switch, it proved to be super successful for Hamilton. The Briton has now won 6 driver’s titles with Mercedes and will be hoping to add another that will take him past Michael Schumacher’s tally of 7.