Lewis Hamilton / 刘易斯·汉密尔顿

Lewis Hamilton is a British racing car driver who competes in Formula One races across the world. He has won 7 Formula One World Drivers’ Championship titles. The only other person to achieve this feat is Michael Schumacher. In addition, Lewis Hamilton holds the record for the most race wins (107), the most pole positions at the start of a race (104) and the most times a driver has achieved a podium finish (207).

刘易斯·汉密尔顿是一名英国赛车手，他在世界各地参加一级方程式比赛。他已经赢得了7次一级方程式世界赛车手锦标赛冠军。唯一与他有相同成就的人是迈克尔·舒马赫。此外，刘易斯·汉密尔顿还保持着最多比赛胜利（107场）、最多杆位（104次）和最多领奖台次数（207次）的纪录。

Lewis Hamilton was born on the 7th January 1985 and started racing go karts at the age of six. However, Lewis was competing even before he was six. When Lewis was five his father bought him a radio controlled model car and he competed in radio controlled car competitions. Lewis even won second place in a national competition competing against adults.

刘易斯·汉密尔顿出生于1985年1月7日，六岁开始参加卡丁车比赛。不过，刘易斯在六岁之前就已经开始比赛了。五岁的时候，他的父亲给他买了一辆遥控模型车，他参加了遥控车比赛。刘易斯甚至在全国比赛中获得了亚军，还要和成年人竞争。

Lewis Hamilton’s father recognised his competitive spirit and promised to support him in his racing career. Lewis’s father left his job as an IT manager to become a freelance worker so that he could support his son and attend his races. At times his father was working up to four different job at the same time in order to pay for his son’s racing career.

刘易斯·汉密尔顿的父亲看出了他的竞争精神，并承诺支持他的赛车生涯。刘易斯的父亲辞掉了信息技术经理的工作，成为自由职业者，这样他就可以支持儿子并去参加他的比赛。有时候为了支付儿子的赛车费用，他的父亲会同时做多达四份工作。

As a child Lewis Hamilton suffered racist abuse and was bullied at school. Although his mother was white, his father was Afro-Caribbean. At school, Lewis liked to play sport and later said that if he had not become a racing car driver he would have liked to become a professional football or cricket player.

小的时候，刘易斯·汉密尔顿遭受过种族歧视和校园欺凌。虽然他母亲是白人，但父亲是非洲加勒比民族。在学校时，刘易斯喜欢运动，他后来表示，如果没有成为赛车手，他想成为职业足球或者板球运动员。

Lewis quickly began to win go karting races. At the age of ten, he became the youngest person to win the British cadet karting championship. However, Lewis’ real ambition was to race Formula One cars. His potential was recognised by the racing community and he was offered a place in the McLaren-Mercedes Young Driver Programme.

刘易斯很快开始赢得卡丁车比赛。十岁时，他成为赢得英国少年卡丁车锦标赛的最年轻选手。不过，刘易斯真正的目标是驾驶一级方程式赛车。他的潜力得到了赛车界的认可，并被邀请加入迈凯伦-梅赛德斯青年车手计划。

As Lewis became older, he started to race bigger and more powerful cars. At each stage, he continued to win race after race. Lewis Hamilton’s big break came in 2007 when he signed for McLaren as the team’s Formula One second driver. In his first season driving for McLaren he drove exceptionally well and broke several racing records. Lewis Hamilton would have won the championship if it was not for a series of misfortunes that left Lewis one point behind the eventual winner.

随着刘易斯长大，他开始驾驶更大更强的赛车。在每个阶段，他都连续赢得比赛。路易斯·汉密尔顿的重大突破是在2007年，当时他签约迈凯伦，成为车队的一级方程式二号车手。在为迈凯伦的第一个赛季，他的表现非常出色，并打破了几项赛车记录。如果不是一连串的不幸让刘易斯落后最终冠军一分，他本来可以赢得总冠军。

Lewis Hamilton has continued to drive successfully up to the present day. However, as a mixed race driver he has suffered racist abuse from some racing fans and the news media. He has also had some well publicised confrontations with other drivers and racing team members. Some people complain that he avoids paying income tax in the U.K. and he has twice been caught speeding and driving in a dangerous manner on public roads.

刘易斯·汉密尔顿一直以来都开得很成功。不过，作为混血赛车手，他遭受过一些赛车迷和新闻媒体的种族歧视。他也曾与其他车手和赛车团队成员有过一些广为人知的冲突。有些人抱怨他在英国逃税，他还两次因在公共道路上超速和危险驾驶被抓。

Despite these negative incidents, Lewis Hamilton is still a very popular figure. In both 2014 and 2020, he won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.  Because of the racist experiences that he has endured, Lewis has become involved in anti-racism, human rights and environmental issues. He is also known to have made donations to a variety of charities and visits sick children in hospital.

尽管有这些负面事件，刘易斯·汉密尔顿仍然是非常受欢迎的人物。在2014年和2020年，他都赢得了BBC年度体育人物奖。由于他经历过种族歧视，刘易斯参与了反种族主义、人权和环境问题的活动。他还经常向各种慈善机构捐款，并探访住院的生病儿童。