“We didn't have a lot of money… it was a struggle”: Lewis Hamilton reminisces about his first-ever championship win back in 1995

Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton mentioned that he won his first-ever championship in 1995 by defeating a very wealthy family despite not having a lot of money himself.

The seven-time world champion's journey to F1 is filled with inspiration and real-life struggles. Hamilton and his family did not have a lot of money as his father worked multiple jobs to fund his career. They even struggled to buy new equipment but the Brit's natural talent helped him emerge as one of the greatest drivers of all time.

In a video posted on social media by FIA, Lewis Hamilton reminisced about his first-ever title in 1995. He said:

"This picture is from 1995, just won the championship so this is just putting No.1 on the car for the first time. I think it is just really a proud moment for me and my dad. We started racing for fun but we were naturally very competitive and we didn't have a lot of money so we were really lucky that people helped us by giving us free tires and fuel but it was a struggle the whole journey just to keep racing each weekend."

"We were racing against a really wealthy family. Everything they had we were in awe of everything they had. We beat them with so little so it was a very proud moment for us as a family."

F1 pundit picks Lewis Hamilton as her favorite for P2 in 2023

Sky Sports F1 pundit Natalie Pickham picked Lewis Hamilton as her favorite to finish runner-up behind Max Verstappen in the 2023 driver's championship.

Appearing on the Sky Sports podcast, Pickham said:

"I'm going to say that Lewis Hamilton will finish runner-up because I fear Aston Martin's decent run of form is over. Whether it is to do with this Flexi-wing being out ruled or they have just gone down a bit of a cul-de-sac in terms of development and it's been exaggerated by the fact that others have done well, like McLaren."

However former world champion Damon Hill disagreed and went with Sergio Perez, stating:

"I don't think Lewis can get Checo. I'd be amazed if he could overturn his performance. We don't want Checo to have another nightmare middle part of the season like he's had and I think he's turned a corner a bit."

Lewis Hamilton is currently 41 points behind Sergio Perez and sitting in P4 in the championship. So it would be a bit difficult to get past the Mexican in arguably the second-fastest car on the grid.