What Lewis Hamilton did during his debut F1 season that ‘annoyed’ a lot of drivers

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Lewis Hamilton will enter his 19^th Formula 1 season next year when he signs for his third different team in the sport.

After a successful start at McLaren, Lewis Hamilton has gone on to dominate F1 at Mercedes.

However, after several years of relatively mediocrity, Hamilton has decided to continue his storied journey in Formula 1 with Ferrari.

Hamilton has achieved so much since 2007 when he nearly won the championship during his debut campaign.

Paddy Lowe was already a veteran at McLaren when Hamilton was promoted into the team having won the GP2 title the year before.

Lowe was speaking on the James Allen on F1 Podcast about Hamilton and spoke about his first year in the sport.

The British star missed out on the title that year to Kimi Raikkonen at the final race of the season.

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Hamilton and Alonso clashed in 2007 as McLaren teammates and he forced the Spaniard to leave the team to return to Renault the following year.

Lowe has now described how Hamilton annoyed many drivers on the grid that year although his reputation has only been enhanced since then.

Paddy Lowe explains how Lewis Hamilton annoyed his rivals during his debut F1 season

Speaking about the 39-year-old during his first year in F1, Lowe said: “You’re never going to worry that Lewis won’t get the most out of the car, he’ll wring its neck.

“Lewis is an incredibly good race driver, which is not only about speed.

“I think the most extraordinary statistic there is from Lewis’s first season, where he was on the podium for the first nine races.

“The 10th race, he came 10th, actually, and he called on the radio on the way in and said, where do I go? Because he didn’t actually know where you drive if you’re not in the top three, which kind of sums it up.

“I don’t think we’ll ever see that statistic broken. Lewis was a racer from day one and I know that actually sort of annoyed a lot of the other drivers because he didn’t take any prisoners.”

Anthony Davidson predicts Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes to continue winning ahead of his Ferrari exit

Mercedes didn’t look like they would be in contention to challenge for victories this year but that’s all changed in the last couple of months.

Hamilton went nearly 1000 days without a win before his emotional victory at his home race at Silverstone.

He then inherited victory from George Russell at Spa before the summer break after his teammate was disqualified.

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Hamilton nailed his last team change when he swapped McLaren for Mercedes and will hope his move to Ferrari is just as successful.

On the face of how this season is progressing, it’s hard to tell whether either team will be challenging for championships next year.

But with Hamilton and Charles Leclerc behind the wheels of their cars, Ferrari will have high hopes for the future.