Hamilton Reveals He Nearly Quit Racing

Lewis Hamilton has spoken of the moment when he considered walking away from Formula One in the aftermath of the Lie-Gate scandal.

The 2008 world champion had been talked into the mistake of lying to the stewards about an overtaking move at the Australian grand prix last year which led to a public apology and headlines about being a cheat.

“It was a feeling of, ‘Shoot, maybe I shouldn’t be in the sport,’ rather than not in my team,” said the McLaren driver. “It was not a desire to leave the team, just stopping racing. For a split second it was, ‘This is too much to take, how do I recover from this?’

“But there was support from my family, team, fans, amazing letters and I thought, ‘You know what? I made a mistake but I am being given a second chance by all these people and their support’.

“Sometimes it is hard to face the music, hard to face people when you know that as soon as you turn your back they are talking about you.

“For a long period of time, for months, I would walk into a room – and I am sure there are some people who walked into the room and they feel cool – but for me I just didn’t feel positive, it was negative energy and I don’t like that.

“Slowly I began to realise that it was not all negative energy and I had a lot of support and respect from people. It made me stronger, a real strong experience.”

With thanks to the Guardian.co.uk

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