From McLaren Mishap to F1 Great: How Lewis Hamilton's accidental data leak shaped his legendary career?

Lewis Hamilton is one of the greatest drivers in Formula 1 history. Many experts keep him with the same stature as Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, and Niki Lauda. There was a time when Lewis Hamilton out of maturity accidentally leaked confidential data about McLaren in a simple tweet.

Hamilton was given his first chance of Formula 1 at McLaren and in his debut year he was a title contender but finally lost it to Kimi Raikkonen. In 2008 Lewis Hamilton won a thrilling Drivers championship against Felipe Massa. 

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Accidental Leak of data

In 2012, he was in his final McLaren Season and he accidentally leaked key telemetry data about his car via tweet. At the 2012 Belgium Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton was out-qualified by his teammate Jenson Button who clinched the Pole position during qualifying.

Hamilton who is P8 posted a tweet thinking it was the telemetry data of Jenson Button’s car. That was originally the data from the simulator session which contains McLaren car's Acceleration, braking, and ride height which could be a watch treat for the rival teams. 

Matt Bishop McLaren’s Communications chief then went running into Hamilton’s room where the British racer was casually looking at his iPhone. He immediately asked him to delete the post. Young Hamilton hesitated initially but understanding the nature of the issue he deleted it after that.

Lewis Hamilton moved to Mercedes the next year after Michael Schumacher announced his second retirement from the sport. In 2014, New engine regulations were announced and Mercedes made full use of that and they became world champions 8 times consequently. Hamilton won 6 championships at Mercedes and 1 for McLaren which he won in 2008. He will now be aiming for his eighth world title after he moves to Ferrari next year with a multi-year contract.

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