01/03/2008
NEWS STORY
Having allowed Nico Rosberg, Sebastian Vettel and Timo Glock to slip through its fingers, it appears that BMW may have missed out on another major talent, Lewis Hamilton.
It has been revealed that Williams could have signed the English youngster in 2004, when he was racing in the F3 Euroseries, however, the Grove outfit's (then) engine partner, BMW, turned down the offer.
Speaking to reporters just two weeks ahead of the start of the 2008 season, Williams co-founder Patrick Head revealed that he was contacted by Anthony Hamilton, who had fallen out with McLaren, his son's primary backer since his days in Karting. Apparently, McLaren wanted Hamilton to remain in the F3 Euroseries for 2005 while the youngster wanted to move up a series.
"They rang up and said 'can we come and see you?'" said Head. "And they came in and said 'Ron Dennis has dropped us'.
"We were with BMW at the time," Head continued, "and I think Frank rang Mario Theissen and said 'look, this guy looks as if he could be pretty good and whatever and he has come to us saying can we help him. And I think Mario said they weren't prepared to provide any support and we weren't in a position financially where we could finance his racing.
"So much to Frank's annoyance (now), he could have had Lewis in a Williams," sighed the Englishman.
Eventually, Hamilton took McLaren's advice, remaining in the F3 Euroseries but switching to ASM. He won the title, courtesy of 5 wins, 10 fastest laps and 13 Pole positions, indeed, he won the series with four races remaining. In 2006 he moved up to GP", winning the title at the first attempt, moving up to F1 just a year later.
Having watched Hamilton closely, Head feels the English youngster share numerous characteristics, not with his great hero Ayrton Senna, but Michael Schumacher.
"I have to say he's got quite a few characteristics, not unexpectedly, quite similar to Michael," said Head. "He knows that to beat Kimi Raikkonen he's got to be absolutely at his top level and he's pushing himself as hard as he can do, out of the comfort zone and into the zone where's he really almost just about to fly off the track every lap. But then, Michael was like that as well."