How Lewis Hamilton's karting success drove him to seven Formula 1 world titles?
Lewis Hamilton's most recent success as the greatest driver of all-time in Formula 1 with 94 race wins and seven world titles was not far from his karting career's success.
The British driver won the national karting championship before he's being called by Ron Dennis as part of McLaren Young Driver Program. And by the age of 13 in 1998, Hamilton drove the 1998 McLaren MP4/13 which led Mika Hakkinen won that year's Formula 1 world championship title.
In his world championship karting debut, Hamilton then met and partnered with German national karting champion Nico Rosberg. He then battled Rosberg for the world karting title between 2000-2002, before the two battled again for the Formula 1 world title between 2014-2016.
Similar to Hamilton and Rosberg, four-time Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel also had a successful karting career. The German has also won the national karting championship when he was part of Red Bull Racing Junior team.
Two-time Formula 1 world champion Fernando Alonso had even more successful karting career, where the Spainard won both national and world championship titles, few years before making his F1 debut with Minardi.
Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc and Lando Norris are the other three rising stars of current F1 drivers on the grid who have experienced the successful karting career, yet to win the Formula 1 world title in the future.
