Nic's formula for success

As the brother of motor racing star Lewis, he finds that having the name Hamilton has both an up and a down side. But as he doesn’t put his talent on show on the Formula 1 circuit, Nic Hamilton tells Sunil Peck, he’s happy to take the rough with the smooth and is glad of the inspiration his older brother gives him

It was probably the toughest and worst weekend of my life because I crashed on the Friday morning testing. I crashed into a tyre barrier and it ended up being a very bad crash. I hit the wall at 100mph, 110 maybe, and ended up hitting it sideways, being flipped into the air, flipped around a bit and then I landed on my side and destroyed the car.”

The crash that Nic Hamilton is describing happened at the race course in Thruxton while he was preparing for his third race in his debut season as a racing driver in the Renault Clio Cup in 2011. Although he wrote off his car, Nic, who has cerebral palsy, finished a “difficult” season on a high.

“I hadn’t done any testing beforehand so it was a difficult championship to go into because it’s just one step down from British Touring Cars. It took the whole season to learn the tracks and the car and learning how to race. I got my best result in the two races at the end of the season finishing in the top ten.”

Born in March 1992, Nic passed his driving test in February 2010 but only received his racing licence a few weeks before he took part in the 2011 championship. The people he now competes against have been behind the wheel since the age of eight, but Nic’s experience of racing comes from playing computer games online and remote control cars.

Now winning plaudits for applying the skills he’s developed off the track to handling a proper racing car, Nic is in the early stages of what looks set to be a successful career. Not bad for someone who once vowed that he would never be a racing driver.

“I always wanted to race go-karts and I never got the opportunity until I persuaded my dad that I wanted to have a go when I was seven years old. My dad said we’ll be in a car park where there’s nothing to drive into. But I found something to drive into and it was a kerb! I couldn’t brake in this kart because the muscle in my leg wasn’t developed enough and it wasn’t strong enough to hit the pedal, so I hit the kerb, going in the air and landing in a ditch with a drop of about six feet and it had six inches of water in it. It scared my mum, scared my dad and scared me and I was never even going to try racing again.”

But motor sport has always been in Nic’s blood and he’s been an avid fan as long as he can remember. In fact Nic, brother of 2008’s Formula 1 champion Lewis, was brought up at racetracks and would be studying for a qualification to manage racing drivers if he wasn’t racing himself.

“Lewis started racing when he was eight years old and I was aged one and we were going to a different track each weekend. You saw the same friends, and it was really good fun – a real family affair. I always loved it.”

Nic’s racing career began in September 2010 when he had the chance to drive a BMW M3.

“My brother bought me a personalised helmet for my 18th birthday and I said to my dad that I wanted to try and race in real life because I was pretty quick at doing it online. We went to a driving experience day in Bedford where you learn to race with an instructor. We thought I would be quite slow. I didn’t know what to expect because I’d never driven a racing car in real life. But I ended up being a second quicker than the instructor. It shocked everyone. I was just trying to drive as quick as possible and I wasn’t expecting to be that quick or comfortable. I think that my dad had been expecting me to have fun, pootle around, get it out of my system and get on with the rest of my life.”

So obvious was Nic’s talent that his dad Anthony started discussing the possibility of competing in a championship.

“I said to dad if we’re going to race, I don’t want to race in some not very good championship with little kids or slow cars. If we’re going to race I want to do it properly and race in a prestigious championship where there are good drivers because there are a lot of championships I could probably go into and win. But then you move up and you get destroyed because the pace is completely different. So I wanted to start high because for me to learn as quickly as possible I need to be racing the best in the country.”

After a few weeks mulling over whether or not he was ready to compete at a high level, Nic finally decided to compete in the Renault Clio Cup in February 2011. That left him with a few weeks to satisfy the authorities that his impairment would not hamper his ability to race safely and make the necessary adaptations to a car before the season got under way in April.

“On the road I drive a Mercedes A-Class and it’s not modified. So I wanted my race car to be like my road car in terms of that movement because I didn’t want to be hurtling down a straight at 130mph and worrying about braking. If you accelerate, you push the pedal and extend your leg away from yourself. But I don’t use my ankles or my toes because all my power comes from the top of my leg. So instead of extending my leg to accelerate, we’ve changed it so that I push the pedal to the floor. My brake pedal is a lot wider so there’s more surface area to put my foot and instead of a clutch pedal we have a hand clutch on the steering wheel. It took three or four weeks to do.”

As a disabled driver and brother of Lewis, Nic is conscious that he attracts more media attention than his competitors. He’s comfortable with that, but the only downside is the media’s tendency to go overboard when he slips up.

“When I crashed at Thruxton it was in the press within five minutes. I hadn’t even got off the track and it was already in the headlines. A dramatic headline that didn’t need to be put like ‘Hamilton Survives Crash’ or something. Then some people make silly comments, but that’s life. I think that’s the worst thing I have. There have been a lot of people who have made mistakes and nobody else knew about it because they’re not really that well-known. So they can make a mistake and hit a wall and no one really cares. If I make one mistake, the whole world knows about it.”

Lewis interrupted his preparations for the Malaysian Grand Prix to fly to Brands Hatch to support Nic in his first race. He is, says Nic, an inspiration as a racing driver. But is Nic fed up of people asking him about Lewis?

“To start with it was okay and then obviously you want to start building up your own profile and people just talk about your brother. It gets quite annoying but you have to smile about it. At the end of the day we worked as a family to get Lewis where he is so obviously it makes you proud as well to be talking about it to people, so it’s not too bad.”

David Butler, a former disabled racing driver and Chairman of the British Motorsport Association for the Disabled, gives advice to disabled drivers applying for racing licences about adapting their cars so they can get in and out quickly and safely.

He gave Nic a physical assessment as part of his application and says that the younger Hamilton has the inherent skill and balance to drive at high speed and that he has performed “remarkably well” during his debut season.

“He picked a very competitive championship with lots of young Turks who are after a British Touring Car Championship drive and is equipping himself extremely well. He’s done hundreds of laps in a kart racing against his brother. It’s a big step from that to saloon car racing but the cornering and positioning skills are learnt in a kart.”

According to David, the guidance of his father and good sponsorship deals will propel Nic beyond the level of “a highly competent disabled driver”.

Nic says that his family has a celebrity status but he is keeping his feet on the ground and success isn’t going to his head. As he gears up for his second season in the Renault Clio Cup, he’d like people to recognise that he’s doing well for someone at a physical disadvantage competing against more experienced drivers. But he’s more concerned about what he still wants to achieve rather than what he’s already achieved.

“I feel like I’ve achieved good things, but I’m only at the start of it so I can’t stop and think about it when I’ve got a job to do this year. I’m trying to keep myself grounded and focused for what I have to do in the future. My ambition is to be in the German Touring Car Masters; it’s basically the F1 of touring car racing, the pinnacle of saloon car racing. Then hopefully I’ll retire as a racing driver.”