Lewis Hamilton’s great successes mainly came about through his period at Mercedes, still Hamilton’s current team. However, Hamilton could just as easily have raced for Williams, There too there was great interest in Hamilton, but the circumstances were not ideal at the time to offer him a contract.
Lewis Hamilton achieved much of his success with the Mercedes Formula 1 team, after choosing to switch from McLaren for the 2013 season, where he made his Formula 1 debut in 2007.
However, it could also have looked completely different. In 2004, a rift emerged between the Hamilton family and McLaren, after a heated discussion about which championship Hamilton would race in that year. Hamilton’s contract with McLaren is said to have even been torn up by none other than Martin Whitmarsch, then still working at McLaren.
After the row, Hamilton’s camp approached the Williams team to discuss a deal. However, negotiations failed because BMW, which was then working with Williams, was unwilling to finance Hamilton’s junior career.
They called us and asked if they could come over, said Patrick Head, co-founder of Williams. They then came to our office and immediately came straight to the point and told us that Ron Dennis had dropped them.
We were working with BMW at the time and they were not prepared to give any support to Hamilton. We at Williams were also not in a financial position to finance his races. That irritated Frank Williams at the time, that he could not offer Hamilton a contract.
The dispute was resolved and Hamilton eventually returned to McLaren after a number of weeks.
It never became a real option for me, says Hamilton. I have always had a great interest in the Williams team. I remember dreaming of driving Nigel Mansell’s car or David Coulthard’s.
It will therefore always remain a big question mark what Hamilton’s career could have looked like at Williams.
Written by Vincent Bogaerts