Following a record-breaking start to his F1 career, Lewis Hamilton tells Oliver Owenof his route to the top and the ambition that drives him.
Silverstone, June 11th, 2006. With England in the grip of World Cup fever, the crowd for the British Grand Prix is expected to be down on recent years. There is little likelihood of any home success in the main event. Still, the stands and spectator banks are starting to fill up slowly as the GP2 race starts at 9am. Lewis Hamilton has started down in eighth place, but he is working his way through the field, with characteristic aggressive driving.
He is soon closing on the squabble for second place. Brazil's Nelson Piquet Junior and the Monegasque driver Clivio Piccione go through Copse side-by-side at around 140mph, but, as they accelerate out of the corner, they are suddenly three wide as Hamilton draws alongside.
The cheers from the crowd are by far the loudest of the weekend as the young driver, then known only to hardcore petrolheads, picks off the leader and cruises to victory. He is no longer unknown: "Lewis Hamilton and Silverstone" is now one of the most popular searches on YouTube.
Had motorsport's latest sporting hero-in-waiting heard the excitement of the crowd?
"I didn't, no," he said afterwards. "It all went silent at that point because we were so close, and I don't know if my body was preparing for something. You know when, if you're going to crash, your body gets ready to protect itself? I felt my body and the adrenaline all building up ready for something, and when I came out it all relaxed, kind of saying, 'Phew, thank God for that'.
"I'm working my arse off," he continued, "not only to do the best job possible, but also to get that seat at McLaren. I really want that. It's an opportunity not many people get. If I can get that seat then I think - and I feel very confidently - that I can make best use of it."
A little under a year later, Hamilton not only has that seat at McLaren but, when we meet soon after his second place in the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona, he is leading the Formula One drivers' championship.
Today, however, he is back doing the unseen graft of testing. Along with the other 10 teams that contest the world championship, McLaren has moved on from Barcelona to the Paul Ricard circuit near Marseille in the south of France.
At the back of a grey McLaren bus, sheltered from the warm Mistral wind, sits Lewis Hamilton. It is 12 hours since testing began and he has driven 98 laps, posted the fastest time by more than a second and been through a two-and-a-half-hour debrief with his engineers.
For a short while he is alone, staring at a computer screen with a diagram of the circuit and a screed of data on it. Not all his work is at 190mph and in front of 140,000 people.
After the excitement of a grand prix, testing must seem like a chore. Does it make him a better racer?
"I don't think so," he says, preparing to close the laptop. "You get that crafting from karting, the wheel-to-wheel racing you have there."
Karting is where most successful racing drivers first turn a wheel in anger; the competition is ferocious.
Hamilton is seeking to improve skills that have seen him make a record-breaking start to his F1 career. He finished third in his first race, the Australian Grand Prix, then second in Malaysia and Bahrain - a record run on the podium for a rookie, which he extended in Spain to become the youngest driver to lead the world championship.
At last month's Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton finished second yet again, this time behind his McLaren team-mate, double world champion Fernando Alonso.
But there were signs of frustration from the young Englishman, as he slipped to second in the title race. Since his debut in Melbourne on March 18th, Hamilton has transformed the popularity of grand-prix racing, not least because he is young, good looking and thrillingly fast.
He is also mixed race in a sport that is overwhelmingly white; inevitably, he has been compared with Tiger Woods. "I've never seen a rookie as good as him," says Damon Hill. "Nobody has. He's coped with everything he's faced. He's been superb."
Triple world champion Sir Jackie Stewart is equally impressed. "I think Lewis is going to rewrite the book," he said recently. "I believe Lewis will create the benchmark for a whole generation of drivers. Lewis Hamilton can become a role model."
Even the unflappable Bernie Ecclestone is excited by Hamilton. "He's got a lot of talent," he says. "The guy's a winner. It became clear pretty quickly that he will win a grand prix some time - sooner rather than later. He'll win the championship - but I don't think this year. It would be asking a bit much."
Hamilton, who was born on January 7th, 1985 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, has been immersed in motor racing since he was eight.
His parents, Carmen and Anthony, separated when he was two, and he lived with his mother until he was 10, before moving in with his father and stepmother, Linda. A day out with his dad to Rye House kart track, a few miles south of Stevenage, changed the path of his life.
He had already been karting and proved to be a natural. Now he decided racing was what he wanted to do. A deal was struck between father and son: if Lewis worked hard at school, Anthony would support his son's karting.
Anthony was working as an IT manager as Lewis began making a name for himself on the kart circuit. Eventually Anthony took redundancy and now his main role in life is working as his son's manager on a daily basis.
Hamilton's physical gifts don't just belong behind the wheel of a racing car. He took up karate after he caught the eye of the school bully. By the age of 12, he was a black belt.
Like all top sportsmen, Hamilton is hugely competitive, whether in a racing car or out ten-pin bowling with his mother. So does he let his mother win?
"I don't ever let anyone win, if I'm honest," he says. "I should let my brother win at some things, but it's very hard for me to do that." He is referring to his half-brother, Nicholas, who is 15 and has cerebral palsy. The two are extremely close. "I always wanted a brother and I remember when my parents [as he always refers to his father and step-mother] first told me they were going to have a boy, I was well excited. It's quite a cool feeling to watch someone grow up, to see the difficulties and troubles he's had, the experience he's had. To go through them with him and see how he pulls out of them.
"I think he's just an amazing lad and I really love to do things for him. This weekend we're going racing remote-control cars. We bought him a new one, then I bought one so we can race together. I love to just take my brother down to the track. He loves a challenge and he's got a lot steeper challenges."
The future for Lewis Hamilton has limitless possibilities.Mc Laren is excessively protective of its new star. Does McLaren fear its superstar might start to feel and act like one?
Perhaps Hamilton should answer that. "I don't understand people who do have that mentality of 'I'm a superstar!' It's just a job. It's a fantastic job, and people just perceive you for some reason as a superstar, but at the end of the day I'm just Lewis. I've always been Lewis, and it's important to me to stay like that because people will take me like that."