Lewis Hamilton’s Early Triumphs and the Road to Formula 1 Glory
Back at the 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton made history by securing his first of a record 105 grand prix victories in Formula 1. This race marked the beginning of a legendary career that would see him become one of the most successful drivers in the sport’s history. Hamilton had already made an impact on the F1 scene with McLaren, achieving podium finishes in his first five races. His performance in Montreal was particularly impressive, as he started from pole position and won a chaotic race, briefly losing the lead only after his first pit stop.
At the time, Hamilton was competing with his teammate Fernando Alonso, who had won the previous two world titles. However, Hamilton felt he was at a disadvantage when it came to fuel loads during qualifying. The rules at the time required cars to be prepared for the first stint of the race ahead of Q3, which meant that a longer opening stint resulted in a heavier car. This situation led Hamilton to believe he was getting the short end of the stick compared to Alonso.
“I got to Formula 1 and being a rookie to a world champion was tough,” Hamilton reflected during a press conference at the 2026 Montreal race. “Fernando being so talented and so fast. But I’m so competitive, so rather than thinking, ‘I’m a rookie, just be happy finishing second,’ I could never accept it. And I’d always want to be pushing myself, I want to be competing. I wanted to win, and that was an overpowering feeling.”
Hamilton recalled how, in the first five races, the fuel load was often lighter for Alonso, giving him an advantage. “It always felt to me that I had to do the work twice as hard, if not more, because Fernando was so quick. I always had to be at least a tenth quicker than him or more, tenth and a bit, to be able to be ahead of him.”
He also mentioned that he pushed hard to get equal fuel loads. “I was like, ‘Just give me the chance and I’ll show you what I can do.’ And they gave us equal fuel in this race, and I qualified pole and then I won. And they did it for this one and Indianapolis afterwards. So, I think it was a real special moment for me because I fought for something I truly believed in and when they gave us the opportunity, I affirmed that belief. And then the rest was history.”
Hamilton indeed made a significant impact in Montreal qualifying that year, setting pole with a 0.456s gap to Alonso. While it is difficult to fact-check his claim about consistently receiving more fuel due to the lack of publicly available data, pitstop statistics largely support his account. For example, Hamilton stopped one to three laps later than Alonso in Australia, Malaysia, Spain, and Monaco. The latter race particularly frustrated him, as qualifying was crucial in Monaco, and the extra fuel—estimated at 9kg—was a substantial burden in the fight for pole.
However, at the Bahrain GP, Hamilton stopped three laps earlier after outqualifying his teammate for the first time, suggesting that this might have been the first time he had less fuel, not Canada. Nonetheless, this does not discredit Hamilton’s overall account.
A Moment That Changed Everything
In the same press conference, drivers were asked to recall their first “welcome to F1” moment. For Hamilton, it was the 2006 Italian Grand Prix. This was the day Ferrari announced it had signed McLaren driver Kimi Raikkonen to replace the retirement-bound Michael Schumacher, just 24 hours after Hamilton won the GP2 title as a dominant rookie.
Alonso had already been signed to one of the vacant McLaren seats, but Hamilton was believed to be in contention for the second drive alongside recurrent stand-in Pedro de la Rosa. “My moment was Monza 2006,” Hamilton said. “Just won the GP2 championship. It’s on the grid, Kimi was on pole and I had the privilege of going onto the grid, and I was standing in front of Kimi’s car, and Ron [Dennis, McLaren boss] put his arm around me and he told me, looking up to Turn 1, he says, ‘I’m going to give you a chance.’ That was the moment.”
In that moment, Hamilton couldn’t quite believe it and didn’t know what the “chance” would entail. “I didn’t know if he was like, ‘I’m going to give you a chance’… I didn’t know what it was going to be a chance at, if it was really… That’s what I was thinking when I left. But obviously that was the moment that he had decided that he was going to give me a chance for 2007.”
