Lewis Hamilton: The Biography

by Frank Worrall

The biography of the record-breaking world championAfter equalling Michael Schumacher's records in both race wins, and world titles, in 2020, Lewis Hamilton became the joint-most successful racing driver of all time - and the most dominant and successful Briton ever to drive in Formula 1.Hamilton's debut season in 2007 won him fans around the world, and his place in Formula 1 history was sealed the following year when he became the youngest ever world champion. In the years since, he has created headlines on and off the track with his rivalries with Max Verstappen, Nico Rosberg and Sebastian Vettel and relationships that have landed him on the front pages of the tabloids. However, despite the media glare, he has continued to prove his incredible talent and tenacity and remains utterly dominant in his sport.In this insightful biography, bestselling sports author Frank Worrall traces the slipstream of Hamilton's incredible career as the fastest driver on the planet. This is the story of the young man who went from being the rookie Sir Jackie Stewart said 'has rewritten the rule book' to a world champion many times over, and become Britain's greatest ever sportsman in the process.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

372 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 30, 2018

Reviews

[Sophie Rupp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Barely finished. Very superficial. I could have read the stats on his race wins and gotten the same info I did from this book. Was hoping for more in depth story of his struggle and impact on F1 but was disappointed.

[Aimée Cuny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oef ik ben echt blij dat ik dit boek uit heb... Als je een fan bent van f1 is het op zich wel interessant, maar de manier van schrijven is bijna vermoeiend. Er wordt met cijfers en citaten gegooid en de schrijver refereert iets te vaak naar Lewis als 'het wonderkind van Formule 1', 'de beste coureur van de wereld' en 'degene die de Formule 1 heeft gered'. Hij is overduidelijk groot fan van Lewis dus het boek is frequent erg eenzijdig geschreven. Wel geeft het een uitgebreid overzicht van de prestaties van Lewis in f1.

[Sunshine ✨ · Rating 2 out of 5]

This biography was written so badly. I expected to find out more about Lewis, and it turns out to be a subjective book in which everyone, except Lewis, is a bad figure. I also didn't like the fact that the author was quoting articles and interviews instead of talking with Lewis himself - it'd make the lecture much better to see a lot of situations from Lewis' perspective when emotions would cool down.
Hopefully one day we will get a biography that will do the justice to the story of this extremely talented racing driver. Sadly I cannot say this about this one.

[Majorie · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good biographies in my opinion need to be about interesting people who have lead interesting lives, they also need to be informative, entertaining and well written. Lewis Hamilton definitely ticks the first two boxes, unfortunately Frank Worral falls short with the last three. His biography of Lewis is dry, poorly constructed and reads like an over long magazine article.

He jumps around a lot which affects the flow of the story and delivers stats on Lewis’ achievements in an encyclopedic way. It is unfortunately a bit boring and I struggled at times to finish it. There is very little here of his own research or interviews, most of the quotes are taken from other people’s articles or interviews. There’s nothing new from Lewis. When he did touch on an interesting point he seemed to gloss over it, especially if it was contentious. I never felt I got to know Lewis any better or learnt anything about him that I hadn’t already read before.

On the plus side there are some nice potted histories of the people around him and of McLaren and his racing team also the analysis and descriptions of his first season and the races is quite good. In fact the section on that first season is the best part of the book and also takes up a considerable portion of it. But again the flow is spoiled by putting chapters regarding ethnic minorities or how he rates amongst the all time greats in between each race. These are totally valid subjects and need to be included but I think the way it is structured doesn’t help. Oddly though after a detailed account of his first season he skims over his first championship winning season. What then follows is a season by season account of his races written in the same encyclopedic way quoting stats such as times and points, it’s not very entertaining. Also bizarrely the last chapter pertaining to the 2021 season, ends abruptly mid season. On whole the book feels light, it lacks depth. You can’t just spend over 300 pages just saying how brilliant someone is, no matter if the reader is a huge fan or not it all gets a bit repetitive.

In conclusion Worral’s book provides a glossed over fact filled account of Lewis’ career, however that isn’t enough to fit the criteria I mentioned for a good biography. Is it informative? - Well the facts are there. Is it entertaining? - Not really, it is as I have said a tad boring. Is it well written? - no unfortunately, it is repetitive, jumps around too much and doesn’t flow, and it tells us hardly anything about the man himself, Lewis Hamilton, therefore it fails to engage the reader, well this reader anyway. Lewis Hamilton is a phenomenal talent and I would love to read a more informative detailed version of events with opinions from the antagonists as well as the protagonist in his story

One of the points that Worral makes repeatedly is that Lewis transformed formula one racing, which by its own admission had become boring, into an exciting spectacle again attracting larger audiences outside of the normal petrol heads. It’s a pity his book doesn’t achieve the same.

[Michel Verdonck · Rating 2 out of 5]

4/10
Wat een sof! Alsof het geschreven is door een amateur die tegelijkertijd de grootste fan is van Hamilton, en dan ook nog eens slecht vertaald. Oeverloos geleuter over het "grootste" wonderkind van de F1, herhaalde vergelijkingen met Tiger Woods en eindeloze superlatieven. Talloze voorbeelden van een eenzijdige visie zoals bijvoorbeeld de dominantie van Vettel tijdens de hoogdagen van Red Bull omdat die in de beste auto zat (euh, en what about Mercedes en Hamilton sinds 2014?). De auteur spreekt tot tweemaal toe over de "briljante" Felipe Massa (Felipe wie?), Alonso wordt afgeschilderd als een loser, het kampioenschap van 2016, het enige dat hij niet won in de dominante Mercedes, wordt compleet verzwegen en dan zijn er ook nog al die post-race interviews die moeten aantonen wat voor een prachtkerel die Hamilton wel is maar die er eigenlijk niet toe doen. Dat Hamilton een fantastisch piloot is die vele records heeft gebroken en naar alle waarschijnlijkheid ook nog vele records zal breken, ga ik zeker niet ontkennen, maar de manier waarop is tenenkrullend. Ware het niet dat ik zo een groot F1 fan ben, ik zou het nooit uitgelezen hebben.

[Ruben Lippiatt · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a huge Lewis Hamilton fan and this book covers a good chunk of his career. Over half of the book is his early years which gives the reader a good background of the character he is however, doesn’t leave enough room for the rest of his career after his first championship.

In my opinion, Frank describes Lewis in a very Bias way, belittling the achievements of other drivers. It also skips 2016 title battle against Rosberg which, even though he lost the championship, was a huge part of his career and shaped the character he is today.

If you are an avid Lewis fan then this book is for you as it recaps the best moments of his career and shows just what a talent he is. On the other hand, For other readers who have an interest in formula 1 but aren’t the biggest Lewis supporters this may not be the right title for you.

[Tom D'Roza · Rating 2 out of 5]

A sloppy update to an earlier book. Coverage of the seasons since Lewis' first title in 2008 is rushed. Obviously there's going to be some bias toward Lewis but Nico's 2016 title winning season is completely erased from history! The last couple of seasons are poorly structured and confusing. If you followed Hamilton's career there's little here that you won't already be aware of. Most of the "insights" come from press releases and post-race interviews that you will have seen at the time.

[Павел · Rating 3 out of 5]

2,5. Сомнительно, но окэй...
Было интересно узнать биографию семикратного в подробностях, но, чтобы подсластить пилюлю, наверное, следом стоит читать биографию Нико Росберга. Иначе получается идеализированный образ.
Структура книги похожа на чью-то дипломную работу. Вот корни, вот детство, вот первая команда, а потом мы разберём в деталях несколько уикендов, а на получение пятого титула хватит нескольких страниц.
Если ничего не знаете о сэре Хэмилтоне, стоит потраченного времени.

[Daniii · Rating 3 out of 5]

Als groot Lewis fan kon dit boek natuurlijk niet ontbreken in mijn boekenkast! Wat ik jammer vind, is dat er ondanks dat dit wel aangekondigd was, je maar weinig over zijn "vroegere" privéleven te lezen is. Veel verhalen over de verschillende topprestaties die hij geleverd heeft maken het verhaal toch wel interessant.

[Chris Hinks · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a great story - If you're a Hamilton fan

This biography confirms my views about Lewis. If you rate the guy, you'll find it difficult to put the book down. If you don't like him, I guess you just shouldn't read the book,

[Nienke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heel interessant en leuk om meer te leren over Lewis Hamilton. Ook meer te weten gekomen over de formule 1 in het algemeen. Worden echter wel heel veel cijfers genoemd en ik mis de stukken over zijn mindere jaren. Die horen erbij en komen nu niet echt aan bod.

[Rachael · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sloppy, same lengthy quotes used more than once. Jumps back and forth in time.

[Ryan Morris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was fantastic to read and was great to learn more about my favourite F1 driver. Best F1 driver ever!

[Paul MK · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting and insightful summary of Hamilton’s rise to superstardom, spanning his career to the point of his 5th world title.

Well worth a read!

[Catherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

a little dry

[Olya · Rating 4 out of 5]

игнорирования мерсом достижения нико росберга, а в этой книге целый 2016 год заставляют меня чувствовать себя странно

[serinearakelyan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I hope Lewis Hamilton didn't read this biography