The year was 2008, and Lewis Hamilton was still just a fresh face in Formula 1. Now, we might know him as a global athlete whose fame has grown way out of the bounds of the F1 world, but it started way back. In just his second year as a McLaren racer, Lewis’ reputation had already started spreading to other forms of sports. So, he got an invitation to take part in a sailing competition for Hugo Boss, one of his sponsors. Accompanying the future seven-time F1 World Champion was Ben Ainslie and Alex Thomson. Ainslie is a four-time Olympic gold medalist who competed for Britain between 2000 and 2012. On the other hand, Thomson is a famous British yachtsman in his own right, having participated in several transatlantic races.
With such great company, Lewis Hamilton had set out on the HUGO BOSS yacht for a 55-mile race around the Isle of Wight. His yacht was the world’s fastest 60 ft monohull at that time, and his sailing companions had said, “[Lewis Hamilton] was fine on his own [at the helm of the yacht] and that focus and concentration that he uses so well in F1, it is a similar technique for sailing these boats around.” However, the start turned into a mess for the first-time sailor since his boat crashed into another one even before the cannon went off to mark the beginning of the race. With Lewis at the helm, the HUGO BOSS yacht had collided with a smaller 45-footer called ATOMIC. Hamilton’s debut sailing race was such a disaster that his team got disqualified because of the incident.
Now, 16 years later, Lewis Hamilton has come clean about his experience sailing for the first time. While recollecting that incident, the Briton told Performance People, “I got to experience everything on that 4-hour ride–I was definitely feeling very sick ’cause it was very choppy that day. And we crashed at the beginning, but, uh, to see the technology evolve to what it is today–I mean, when I go around the boat, I see I’m like, “Oh my God, that’s from my engineers!” Thus, even though Lewis was bummed that he crashed out of the sailing race even before it began, he was happy to learn about the technology that went into the sailing boats.
The Briton also said that Mercedes engineers had manufactured some parts for the HUGO BOSS boat and he recognized them. He commented, “Our designers back at the factory have designed a lot of those mechanisms that are inside the boat–it feels like, finally, [it is] the Formula One of the racing world but back in 2008, it didn’t have any of that technology.” Thus, the Silver Arrows racer might want to return to the sailing world once again to test the new technology. But who is the former rivals of Hamilton who has also announced his entry into the sailing world?
Lewis Hamilton’s ex-rival Sebastian Vettel enters sailing after F1 exit
Sebastian Vettel walked away from his Formula 1 career at the end of the 2022 Championship by retiring from his role at Aston Martin. However, in mid-2023, the news outlets gave out reports on Vettel’s participation in the SailGP tournament. Apparently, Sebastian Vettel joined hands with Eric Heil (who is a two-time Olympic sailing bronze medalist) and team owner Thomas Riedel to start the first-ever German SailGP team.
While announcing the happy news that he would come out of retirement and take part in a racing series that is not very different from F1, Sebastian Vettel said, “I see a lot of potential as SailGP starts its fourth season and for the first time with a German team. Parallels between sailors and Formula 1 have long existed.” The four-time World Champion has been a rival of Lewis back when the two were vying for the 2014 World Championship in F1 that the Mercedes racer had eventually won. However, both of them mutually respect each other a lot and thus, there might come a time when Lewis Hamilton will get another chance at sailing if Sebastian Vettel lets him race for his Germany SailGP team.
But sailing career aside, Lewis Hamilton seems to be shining bright in Formula 1 right now. But do you think he might be equally legendary as a sailor as he is as an F1 star? Let us know in the comments.
