Yahoo Autos David Letterman and F1 Star Lewis Hamilton Hit the Track Together for Netflix
The full title of David Letterman's Netflix interview series is My Next Guest Needs No Introduction with David Letterman. For a general audience in America, though, that phrase may not exactly apply to Lewis Hamilton, one of five celebrities featured in the second season of the series that began streaming May 31. Letterman, the longtime Late Show host, acknowledges as much in the episode when he, yes, introduces Hamilton as the five-time F1 world driving champion. The audience is no doubt more familiar with the names of the other guests this season: Kanye West, Ellen DeGeneres, Tiffany Haddish, and Melinda Gates.
Auto racing nerds who don't need the "world champion driver" descriptor to identify Hamilton will know much of the story that follows in the episode, which clocks in at 44 minutes-coincidence, perhaps, but maybe a subtle reference to the number Hamilton insists on having on his car, even when he's been entitled to wear the numeral 1 five times now.
It starts with how Hamilton's father, Anthony, recognized his young son's talent behind the wheel of a go-kart and supported his efforts by working three and four jobs at a time while wrenching on the youngster's kart, amply illustrated with family photos and video from the champ's early years. And how, when he was the British national karting champ, age 13, he met McLaren's Ron Dennis and boldly told him that his goal was to drive for the team in F1 because his hero Ayrton Senna had done so. And how Dennis stepped up to sponsor the teen's continuing career and put the rising star under contract long before he was old enough to qualify for a road license, let alone the FIA Super License required to enter the top professional ranks.
Letterman puts much of his emphasis on the father-son relationship, which was strained in 2010 when Hamilton fired his father as his personal manager. Anthony, interviewed trackside at a karting venue, is more forthcoming than Lewis about the period that followed, during which the Hamiltons did not speak to each other for a long time. Letterman doesn't dive as deeply into the split as did Charlie Rose for a 2015 episode of CBS's 60 Minutes but is reassured by both men that the relationship is healed.
The in-studio banter between Hamilton and Letterman-the latter still sporting a giant beard that looks a little better-groomed than it did when he sported the mountain-man look on-screen in the initial season of My Next Guest . . .-is supplemented with segments during which the host gets soundly thrashed on-track by a couple of young, ambitious kart drivers, and a ride-and-drive experience with Hamilton at Silverstone. Sadly, there's no evidence in the episode that the youngsters actually got to meet Hamilton himself, who takes a few laps in his new-for-2019 W10 Mercedes F1 car and then wheels Letterman around the British GP circuit in a Mercedes-AMG E63 S.
It's a car similar to one Letterman says he once had and found undrivable in winter (Hamilton recommends snow tires), although he describes it as a "700-horsepower station wagon," overstating its output by a mere 97 horses. Hamilton, amusingly, says he is unfamiliar with the term "station wagon," confusing the reference with an SUV. Asked about his own car collection, Letterman says he "has some cars" but notes wryly that he's "no [Jay] Leno."
Letterman, an Indianapolis native and co-owner of the Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing team, clearly enjoys it all, going all weak in the knees in response to the sound of the 2019 F1 car at speed. If his fellow racing fans are unlikely to learn anything new here, it's entertaining enough to be worth the short time investment, and a good way to educate friends or family who may be barely aware of Hamilton's story. Consider it a full introduction.
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