Driving Formula 1 cars for a living isn’t an easy job. While the mental and physical demands of the sport are aspects of it, the sheer angle of danger and a dalliance with death are at the very core of F1 racing. The thrill of competition and driving some of the most sophisticatedly fast cars on this planet is something that motivates each and every driver who has graced our sport. That being said, for 7x champion, Lewis Hamilton, his passion for motorsport may have been fueled by a lifelong delusion.

One can just carry on through life and, by societal norms, be happy. But the 38-year-old British racing hero has never been one to conform. What defines him as a racing driver and a person off of it is that innate thirst for breaking boundaries and taking risks. While that has worked wonders for Hamilton on track, as he has wracked up an unforgettable legacy in this sport, sometimes, it can legitimately be the death of him!

How Lewis Hamilton almost lost his life chasing adventure

F1 drivers are difficult to deal with. They just can’t take no for an answer. If someone can do something, they can always do it better. And Hamilton may be the most extreme example of their kind. During the 2023 off-season, the Brit was posed with such a challenge. Safe to say, without a care of life or limb, he dived headfirst into it.

While speaking to Robb Report just before the Dutch GP, Hamilton narrated an incident he encountered whilst holidaying with legendary surfer Kelly Slater. He began, “When someone says ‘you can’t climb that tree,’ I’ll climb it, even if I’ll almost certainly fall out of it.” This is exactly when Slater irked the Brit’s inner racer.

“Kelly was like, ‘there’s no way you’re going out there’,” said the Brit as he reminisced about a massive 25-foot wave he encountered while they were out surfing. Hamilton replied, “Kelly, I’m going out.”

“This thing was massive, a huge tunnel, and I could see Kelly coming right down it in front of me. And I just had to make sure I didn’t get sucked in. So I dived down and grabbed the reef and prayed. I could hear the thing land behind me, like a bomb going off. My board got ripped off and snapped in half. I was very close to the end. But that excites me for some reason,” Hamilton chillingly concluded.

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You’d think him to be mad! But he is as human as us, after all.

Hamilton’s pathetic fears come to light

Diving headfirst into a killer wave and driving around fragile race cars at obscene speeds is something that Hamilton revels in doing. On the face of it, he’s fearless. But if you ever come across Hamilton checking into a hotel room, that’s when you’ll see the human side of the legend.

Last year, for a piece of Vanity Fair, Hamilton revealed his phobia of spiders. He just can’t stand them! He even asks the hotel staff to allot him a room on the topmost floor so as to avoid a chance encounter with his eight-legged fiend. What does the Brit have to say for himself? “It’s pathetic, but I do.”

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Would you rather spend a day surfing with Hamilton or dodging cobwebs in some posh suite?