Lewis Hamilton recalls life-changing Ron Dennis conversation 20 years on

Lewis Hamilton has recalled the memory of when his life changed forever, with the F1 2026 season marking 20 years since he was informed by then-McLaren boss Ron Dennis of his promotion to Formula 1.

Having briefly lost his McLaren junior deal in 2005, a time which Hamilton described as “one of the most challenging periods of my life”, he regained his backing and was eventually promoted to partner Fernando Alonso for the 2007 season.

Lewis Hamilton remembers F1 promotion, 20 years on from Monza decision

Hamilton was informed by then-team principal at McLaren, Ron Dennis, on the grid at the Italian Grand Prix in September 2006 that the team would be choosing him alongside Alonso for the 2007 campaign, with the 21-year-old having also secured the GP2 title that year.

The now-seven-time World Champion also worked with current Ferrari team principal, Fred Vasseur, through both his time in Formula 3 and GP2, driving for the ART Grand Prix outfit.

However, Hamilton had lost his deal with McLaren after wanting to go straight into GP2 (now Formula 2) for the 2005 season.

Martin Whitmarsh, the team’s chief operating officer who was also charged with overseeing Hamilton’s development, revealed in 2020 that a “massive row” between himself and both Lewis and Anthony Hamilton took place, after believing another season in Formula 3 would be more beneficial to his development.

“Lewis was getting a bit of traction and his father felt there were other options,” Whitmarsh said to the BBC in 2020. “In the end, I took the contract out and tore it up.

“It was about six weeks before Lewis rang me and we re-signed.”

Having had that brief blip in rising through the categories, Hamilton recalled his longstanding working relationship with Vasseur and the difficulty of thinking he had lost his McLaren opportunity.

“I worked with Fred obviously in Formula 3, 2005, I think it was,” Hamilton told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets at the recent Dutch Grand Prix.

“It was an interesting period of time for me and my life. I was obviously, as every young kid [was], in a rush to get to Formula 1, hoping that I could potentially get there, and never known when that chance would come and I would call Martin Whitmarsh every week, asking him when I can get in the car.

“So, in 2005, when GP2 came out, I was pushing to go to [the series] because I thought there’s an opportunity to win it in the first season, being that it was a new class, and we actually came out of contract, which was kind of crazy.

“I lost my deal with McLaren at that time, which was one of the most challenging periods of my life, and managed to get to the next races in Formula 3 and won them, and got the contract back.”

That work with Vasseur continued as he won the Formula 3 Euro Series title, graduating to GP2 and in the knowledge that Dennis was likely to be seeing how he was getting on.

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Hamilton went on to win the GP2 title and, with the Briton now driving for Ferrari as a seven-time champion, being on the grid at Monza will mark 20 years since he was told he would be a Formula 1 driver.

“I remember the first test with Fred in Jerez, and coming back in and seeing his reaction was obviously really positive, and I knew that everything he saw would go back to Ron,” he said.

“I don’t really remember much of the season, obviously Silverstone was mega, and Turkey was – it was a special race to come back from that spin.

“Then just standing with Ron. I just always remember standing with Ron in Monza, on the grid, in front of Kimi [Raikkonen’s] car, and that was kind of the moment my life really changed.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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