Lewis Hamilton Digs Deep to Share Traumatic Incident as a 9-Year-Old: “The Next Thing I Knew…”

Even outspoken people like Lewis Hamilton have memories they rarely talk about. These spine-chilling memories are of incidents we don’t wish on anybody. Sadly, such memories are triggered by similar events, and that was exactly the case for Hamilton as well. The Briton recalls this horrible incident from his life after the tragic accident of Jules Bianchi in 2014.

Jules Bianchi, in an extremely wet Japanese GP, lost control of his car and collided with a recovery vehicle. The Frenchman underwent emergency surgery and was put under a medically induced come. However, Bianchi never fully recovered and succumbed to his injuries in July 2015 at the age of 25.

This led Hamilton to reveal, for the first time, a traumatic event he encountered during his karting days.

Hamilton narrates, “When I was nine years old, I saw a young driver die when I was racing in karts.” And added, “That was a very traumatic time for me as a kid. Even now, I can remember standing on the bank beside a track with him with our suits on just before a race, all laughing and joking. And then the next thing I knew, I was at his funeral.”

“It is very hard to put that out of my mind at the moment, after what happened to Jules.”

“But it does not make me rethink wanting to be a formula one driver,” further added Hamilton.

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Bianchi’s tragic incident opened up the debate for further driver safety as his incident was the first fatality since Ayrton Senna’s death in 1994. The driver safety debate yielded results, and the updated safety feature has proven itself worthy, especially in recent years.

Lewis Hamilton is among others who can credit their lives to this safety feature

The safety device in question is the Halo. The halo is a wishbone-shaped titanium bar that is placed in front of the driver’s head. Designed to sustain 12 tonnes worth of load, the halo is the unsung hero of driver’s safety.

Following Bianchi’s incident, safety concerns gave birth to the halo, which was trialed in 2016 and became mandatory in 2018. Initially, the halo faced a backlash from the F1 fraternity. However, the perspective surrounding it has completely changed now with Hamilton even crediting it for saving his life during the 2021 Italian Grand Prix incident.

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We don’t need further proof of halo’s importance, especially after the 2022 British GP. It is safe to say that the introduction of the halo is one of the most advanced milestones in the safety aspect of Formula 1.