Brother of Hamilton makes debut in Mercedes F1 simulator

After the season was over, Lewis Hamilton arranged for his brother Nicolas to see Mercedes' Formula 1 simulator at Brackley.

Lewis Hamilton in a file photo. (Image: Twitter)
By Mahaksh Chauhan | Dec 13, 2022 | 2 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

A touring car racer in his own right, Nicolas is seven years younger than his seven-time world champion brother. He first competed in the Renault Clio Cup UK before moving up to the British Touring Car Championship, where he has been actively competing since the beginning of this year. The younger Hamilton competes in the BTCC with a modified vehicle to accommodate the challenges brought on by his cerebral palsy. Mercedes also made modifications to his full-motion rig’s cockpit to make it easier for him to use. After the session, which happened roughly two weeks ago, Hamilton shared many images of his brother at Mercedes on social media and provided some background information.

Read More- Ferrari names Vasseur as its next Formula One executive

Hamilton View ?

Hamilton stated, “Earlier this year, Nicolas and I asked my staff if we could make this day a reality, and here we are. Being able to spend time in the sim is really difficult for someone like my brother. To make this possible, the seat, steering wheel, and pedals have to be individually modified. He was the first person with a disability to ever spend the entire day in it. He has always been a fighter, thus it is an honour to witness him on this day. He always had this smile on his face, as you can see. Can’t wait to tell more about this special day; many thanks to Mercedes for all of her efforts in making my brother’s dream come true.

Before 2019, when a number of recommendations from the FIA’s Disability and Accessibility Commission were put into practise, including a new Certificate of Adaptations for vehicles driven by disabled drivers, the process for disabled drivers to get race licences was extremely challenging. High-level touring car championships are now more accessible to drivers like Hamilton, Robert Wickens, and Alex Zanardi because to these changes. Billy Monger collaborated with the FIA at the end of 2017 to overturn the rule prohibiting disabled people from operating any single-seater vehicles. He won the Pau Grand Prix before moving on to compete in Formula 3.