Formula 1’s greatest-ever driver has only ever crossed the line twice in an F1 race in a lower position than his first ever time in a car.
Like most of his career, Lewis Hamilton‘s first ever run in a single-seater car has become the stuff of legends – but his first race, less so.
The seven-time world champion’s rise through the racing ranks is well known, having made his name as a karting prodigy.
He caught the eye of McLaren boss Ron Dennis during the televised Champions of the Future event held in 1996.
Then five years later at Mallory Park in Leicestershire on October 17, 2001, a 16-year-old Hamilton made the jump from karting to racing cars.
He was tasked with following in Kimi Raikkonen’s footsteps by being placed at Manor Motorsports, with the ‘Iceman’ mopping up the 2000 Formula Renault UK series with the team 12 months prior.
“You’ve got to bear in mind that this guy had never driven a car before, even a road car,” then Manor team manager Tony Shaw told Motorsport Magazine.
“I remember [Manor driver coach] Marc [Hynes] having to drive him around and teach him how a clutch worked! It was really in at the deep end for him, especially using the gear lever and all that sort of stuff.
“You could tell straight away he wasn’t scared of it. It was a fairly bumpy experience at Mallory, especially into the first corner – there was a big old jump into there that set the car leaping about a bit.”
Hamilton had an off at the high-speed Gerard’s Bend on his first day of testing, but nevertheless, signed with Manor for the two-round Formula Renault UK Winter Series.
F1’s future GOAT was straight into competitive action weeks later, where proven Formula Ford racer Rob Bell topped qualifying in his first official race in round one at Rockingham.
Newcastle-born Bell, who had raced an FR2.0 car once before, bested Formula 3 racer Julien Piguet to win while Hamilton was classified 15th.
Only twice has the latter ever crossed the line in F1 in a lower position.
That was when he took 18th at the 2009 German Grand Prix, and 16th at Silverstone the same year in McLaren’s uncompetitive MP4-24.
He was classified 19th in the 2012 European Grand Prix but hadn’t been running at the end, with his 16th place at Azerbaijan 2021 upgraded a spot thanks to Nicholas Latifi’s penalty to match that first outing at Rockingham.
Hamilton’s second-ever race saw him just miss out on a podium in fourth, but again it was Bell who crossed the chequered flag first.
It was the same story during the title-deciding second round at Donington Park a week later as Bell took another double win.
The champion then defended the title the following year in 2002 as well, but the pair never had the chance to share the F1 grid together.
Bell finished fifth in the 2004 Formula Renault V6 championship, but his single-seater career came to an end after failing to secure sponsorship to claim his place on the grid for the F1-supporting GP2 campaign.
“Having had a good year at a high level last year I had high hopes,” he said, as per Chronicle Live in 2005. “But I could not find enough sponsorship to do the GP2 and that has left me with a big problem.
“I don’t want to drop back down a level. But it doesn’t leave me much. I have been looking hard at taking a new direction, perhaps in sportscars or touring cars, and I hope I can do something towards the end of the year.
“The next big race I’m hoping to do is Le Mans. In terms of profile, that’s second only to F1, and it would be a step forward for me.
“The sport has become so political these days that it’s hard to get anywhere. It is very frustrating.”
Bell switched to sportscars and ultimately carved out a different career in motorsport before hanging up his helmet after 13 seasons as a McLaren factory driver last year.
The winner of two Le Mans Series class titles has since taken up a management role within McLaren Automotive’s motorsport arm.
“I’m stepping down as a McLaren factory driver and definitely retiring from professional racing, though I’m not ruling out the odd one-off,” Bell told Autosport.
“I’m really happy with my decision: I’ve had some good times, enjoyed it a lot and had some decent success, so I’ve ticked a lot of boxes.
“I always said to myself that 45 would be a good age to stop, so long as I had something else to do.
“The stars have aligned at McLaren to allow it to happen the way I wanted.”
McLaren famously were the team Hamilton made his F1 debut with and where he won the first of his seven world championships.
He made the move to Mercedes in 2013 but still described his old team as his ‘original family‘ last July.
The Brit now has a new family with Ferrari, where ironically defending constructors champions McLaren are set to be his chief rival in his bid for an outright record eighth title.