Hamilton’s half-brother Nicolas, who suffers from cerebral palsy, made history when he became the first disabled driver to race against able-bodied competitors in the British Touring Car Championship in 2015.But things began to spiral for him two years later when what seemed like an innocent £2 bet on English Premier League side Arsenal scoring became an ongoing habit that saw him spend days at a time gambling online.
It got to the point that Nicolas, who shares a father with Lewis, had to sell a Mercedes C63 that his elder sibling had gifted him in order to settle a burgeoning tax bill.
Hamilton: ‘felt so ashamed’
“I felt so ashamed, using this amazing gift to pay my tax bill,” he wrote in his recent book, Now That I Have Your Attention. “It felt like I had practically stolen the money from my brother and I have never forgiven myself for that.”It destroyed me.
I got a real wake-up call. I had no way of going forward because I’d lost everything. I was stuck. I had a balcony at my flat and I was thinking what would I do if I just jumped off it.”Hamilton has long since recovered from the addiction, and scored his first ever BTTC point after finishing 15th in the final race at Brands Hatch in February 2020.
The last of Lewis’ joint-record seven F1 world driver’s championships was that year, and his most recent race win was in December 2021 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. He will join Ferrari in 2025, with driver and team hoping for an upturn in fortunes.