At the tender age of 13, Lewis Hamilton was signed as a young driver for McLaren on April 3rd 1998.

The legend goes like this: Lewis Hamilton drives his first kart on a family holiday in Ibiza. The boy enjoys it so much that his father later buys him a kart and he not only takes part in races but also wins.

At the age of 9 years Hamilton is said to have met former McLaren Racing boss Ron Dennis and announced to him that he would one day compete against the McLaren cars in Formula 1. Dennis’ answer back then: “Come back in 10 years and we’ll see what we can do.”

The 10 years turned out to be only four and on April 3rd 1998 Lewis Hamilton became official junior driver of McLaren, allegedly at that time with a 10-year contract, the rest is history.