A race to the top - Spotlight Online
Transcrição
A race to the top - Spotlight Online
LEWIS HAMILTON Corbis SPORT The man to beat: Lewis Hamilton is the defending world champion of Formula One Always racing: Lewis today, in his Formula One car, and as the boy karting champion with very big dreams A race to What it takes Driving style: Drivers must be keen to take risks that will put them ahead of other drivers. Lewis Hamilton often drives close to the racetrack’s outside wall, which is exciting to watch, but also very dangerous. He’s good at braking later than other drivers when entering a curve, which can give him a strategic advantage. McLaren Mechanics: Drivers must listen to their car’s engineers, and understand enough about the car to communicate with them. These fantastic machines have more than 20 buttons just on the steering wheel. Tyres make a big difference in Formula One, and rules about them are always a source of controversy. Von Null auf Hundert in zwei Jahren: Lewis Hamilton ist der jüngste Formel-1-Weltmeister in der Geschichte des Sports. MAJA SIROLA berichtet über seinen Weg zur Poleposition. young man stands in the pit lane at Albert Park in Melbourne, a yellow helmet in his hand. It’s a perfect late-summer day, with the fast circuit of the Australian Grand Prix to look forward to. The young man is eager to climb into his car, but stops to share a laugh with the other drivers. He’s got a reason to smile. He’s Lewis Hamilton, at 24 the youngest world champion ever of Formula One — the most elite form of automobile racing — and the sport’s first black driver. The year 2009 marks Formula One’s 60th anniversary. Australia is usually the first location of the season’s 17 races, with the others taking place in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and South America. Normally, ten teams, each with two drivers and sponsors like Ferrari, BMW and Vodafone McLaren Mercedes, race vehicles that cost millions to build. They drive at speeds of up to 360 km/h in front of 55 million television viewers. It’s a stressful job, but for now, the A 22 Spotlight medium p lu s drivers are relaxed. The season’s just beginning. Even a champion like Lewis can afford to take it easy. Two years ago, things were different: Lewis stood in the very same place, facing his first Formula One race. Back then, though, he was an unknown young man from Stevenage near London, driving for the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes team. Without his father, Anthony Hamilton, who recognized Lewis’s talent early and dedicated his life to his son’s dream of becoming a racing champion, Lewis might not be here at all. “My principles are to listen to my dad, cherish my family, compete hard and never give up,” Lewis writes in his autobiography, Lewis Hamilton: My Story. He adds, “My approach to things is: do not waver; do not give up. My dad reminds me of that nearly every single day, and I am always aware of how much work we have put in to get where we are today.” 4/09 Exercise: Drivers need lots of energy: driving a Formula One race is often compared to running a marathon. A typical day’s training for Lewis Hamilton includes swimming two kilometres, cycling 80 kilometres and spending two hours at the fitness studio. A driver needs to develop strong neck muscles to support his head and helmet when braking or turning at extreme speeds. Training: Simulators prepare the drivers for races. The driver sits in a full-size Formula One car in front of a large screen that shows the exact racetrack for which the driver is training. The car, which has no wheels or engine, is connected to a hydraulic system that moves according to how the driver uses the steering and pedals. When Lewis became the 2008 world champion, no one was prouder than his dad. Anthony Hamilton discovered his son’s talent and wanted him to pursue it. It was a love of speed he’d seen in Lewis’s grandfather, who used to race his motorbike around the Caribbean island of Grenada. It’s easy to speculate that Lewis’s driving talent is in his genes; but hard work and luck have played important roles, too. For the Hamilton family, it all began when Anthony, a black railway worker, married a white factory worker named Carmen. The mixed-race marriage caused some talk around the council estate where they lived. It was into this working-class background that Lewis Carl Hamilton was born on 7 January 1985. Anthony had very high hopes for his first-born, who is named after the African American Olympian Carl Lewis. 4/09 A few years later, his parents split up. Lewis stayed with his mother, but he still spent lots of time with his dad, who was a big fan of motor sports. Lewis loved playing with radio-controlled cars, perhaps the first sign of his passion for racing. When Lewis was five, his father noticed how well he manoeuvred a dodgem at an amusement arcade. So Anthony started to take Lewis karting. The boy loved it, and Anthony supported his son’s hobby with every extra penny he could earn. t McLaren the top amusement arcade [ə'mju:zmənt ɑ:"ked] approach [ə'prəυtʃ] brake [brek] button ['bÃtən] champion ['tʃ{mpjən] cherish sth. ['tʃerʃ] circuit ['s«:kt] compete [kəm'pi:t] controversy ['kɒntrəv«:si] council estate ['kaυnsəl "stet] UK dedicate sth. to sth. ['dedket tə] dodgem ['dɒdZəm] UK eager: be ~ ['i:gə] helmet ['helmt] karting ['kɑ:tŋ] manoeuvre sth. [mə'nu:və] pit lane ['pt len] pursue sth. [pə'sju:] radio-controlled ['rediəυ kən"trəυld] screen [skri:n] split up ["splt 'Ãp] steering wheel ['stərŋ "wi:əl] tyre ['taə] vehicle ['vi:kəl] waver ['wevə] A C L O S E R überdachte Vergnügungsmeile Einstellung bremsen Knopf, Schalter Sieger(in) etw. wertschätzen Rundkurs gegen die Konkurrenz kämpfen Auseinandersetzung Siedlung mit Sozialwohnungen etw. einer Sache widmen Autoscooter es kaum erwarten können Helm Gokartfahren etw. manövrieren/lenken Boxengasse etw. verfolgen ferngesteuert Bildschirm sich trennen Lenkrad Reifen Fahrzeug nachlassen L O O K Carl Lewis, born on 1 July 1961 in Birmingham, Alabama, is an African American star of athletics. He won 10 Olympic medals in the 1980s and 90s, nine of which were gold. He retired from sports in 1996. Spotlight 23