My guest tonight is a Formula One driver who just became a seven time world champion, tying the record held by Michael Schumacher.

Now he finds himself alongside Michael Schumacher as top in the record books.

The world championship record is he called Lewis Hamilton wins the Turkish Grand Prix.

Hey, is that much?

God!

Hey, shit!

That for all the kids out there who dream the impossible, You could do it too, Man, I believe in two guys.

Thank you so much, everyone.

For your support, please welcome to a late show.

Lewis, Hamilton, Lewis.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you so much for having me.

I'm so excited to be here.

Well, I don't know a lot about Formula One, but I am all swept up in your emotions there at the end of this race.

Tell me what's what's going through your head at that moment that we saw on tape just now?

Well, Stephen, I've been racing for 27 years.

I started when I was eight years old.

The dream was to get to Formula One, and I grew up watching Michael Schumacher when although those races and those titles and I'm finally there the last three laps.

I knew that I was coming into the weekend and if I had won the race, I would I would be world champion and you know that.

But there's so many things that could go wrong.

So, you know, you just have to try and stay focused, not drop ball.

And I think, as I was getting closer and closer those last three laps, realizing that it may just be a reality that I'm it's really gonna happen.

I think just Aled the emotions from, you know, ALS, those years of my dad working at one time three or four jobs just to keep me racing and truly believing in me.

I think all those came through, and that's the first time I've cried in the in the car.

So it was really emotional.

Well, that that was gonna be My next question is that while you seem to be letting you know free with your emotions that moment, what is it like when you're actually taking those hairpin turns and doing 230 miles an hour?

What?

What do you have to do with your emotions?

How do you compartmentalize what must be a natural reaction to all that stimulus.

I wouldn't say it's necessarily that there are some natural reactions, like if you're, you know, in terms of controlling the car.

But I mean, at the end of the day, why the reason I've always loved it is the speed, It's the adrenaline.

And I think when I get in the car, though, I literally just get in some sort of his own.

And it's It is, you know, it's like a super power to be able to control that car at those speeds in the trickiest conditions.

I love that challenge because if you'd see the race, there was other people who were struggling.

And um, yeah, I take a lot of pride in the work that I do it.

People see it and think it's easy, but it's, um it's obviously the work that goes on in the background that people don't get to see.

You know, it's obviously not easy.

I mean, I feel the same way about being behind this good desk.

People don't understand the speed or the danger of the danger of face hosting one of these shows.

Any moment.

This whole show could spin out now.

Is there anything you know?

I've I've been in a NASCAR while it was rolling, like a five miles an hour on I wanted to hit the brakes.

Is there anything you could compare?

Like a average person?

Compare what it feels like to be in a Formula One car is like a roller coaster is like a constant roller coaster on a hairpin turn.

Is it like a fighter jet?

What is that feeling like, I guess, Well, our sport is kind of unique in the sense that, you know, like, for all of us, we can go hit a kick, a bull and, uh, maybe score a goal that looks like Christiano Ronaldo did it Or hit a ball like Serena once in a while and think that you're you know, you can't go and get in the in the form of one car ever.

So I think you can compare it to you know, it's like a fighter jet.

It's basically a fighter jet upside down in the sense of ah, fighter Jet of plane has left.

We have something called the opposite, which is down for so our wings of the opposite way.

Andi And the faster you go, the more the car is pushed to the ground.

And that's why we could take the corners at 151 180 miles an hour.

And the more efficient the car.

The foster weaken Do that.

How many GS are you pulling?

If you take a corner 150 miles an hour, about 66 times my body weight sixties I've taken sixties before in the Thunderbirds.

It's an inhuman feeling.

Alright is intense, but you would have felt vertical G.

So that has been this way.

That way.

It was where for me, it's lateral and longitudinal.

Um, let's talk about keeping that car on the ground in this race.

The race track and Istanbul was so slick the drivers were slipping during practice when the weather was fine.

But then there was rain over the weekend.

What were those conditions like for you?

I mean, for the people who understand this sport, people are marveling at a level that I want to be able to appreciate.

Explain to me what those conditions were like.

Yes, so they way hadn't been to this track for nearly 10 years.

Yeah, nine years, and Esso, they resurfaced the circuit.

So it's just new comic that you would have on on a highway.

But there's basically I don't know why.

It was so, so dirty and usually like weekend.

It gets more and more rubber from the tires and it gets better and better.

But this thing was not that wasn't happening.

Maybe they resurface it with Teflon, you know, just to keep it clean as possible.

Maybe a cheap, cheap job don't know, and and then it rains.

And when it rains, it's It's usually, um, it's the hardest conditions to racing in general.

But at this track, it was like ice we've never experience.

I don't think any of us drivers have experienced that in, you know, especially in my from one career.

So the attention to detail, the focus that you needed to have was so intense.

I mean, I've been I've slept most of today, just trying to recover because not only do you lose, you know a lot of energy for mental side.

You can lose up to £10 in the race.

Um, this one was cold.

So only lost like £5.

And Justin, Justin sweat or other fluids?

Yes.

Wet.

Because I think I would lose some weight Damn quick if I took a corner of 150 miles an hour.

Yeah, definitely way.

Okay.

You said you've been doing this for 27 years.

You've dreamed of doing Formula One.

We were just a kid.

We have a clip here.

I want to show the audience this is Do you know how old you are in this clip?

You're being interviewed because you're a cart racing.

At the time, I was with 10, like, 10 or 10 11 Gymkhana shadows.

I went to Belgium and the Saudi yet to speed that they're doing it was amazing because you don't actually think about it when you're watching TV and my cart.

It feels really powerful when I'm in it.

But imagine being in the phone.

One car must be very powerful.

That what do you What do you think of when you see that footage?

I imagine it's the same for anyone watching back when they were kids.

There it is.

Embarrassing.

No, no, not at all.

You seem pretty self possessed.

Is a 10 year old What would you like to tell that 10 year old kid.

Now that you know, seven time world Champion, I think, um, which speeches just to never doubt yourself and continue to believe in yourself always.

And, you know, ultimately, you know, I'm only human.

And like all of us, we have our ups and downs and and, you know, you're constantly battling the mind in trying to trying to achieve the impossible.

And there are days where it feels like it might not work.

It feels, you know, there's stages through my career that I didn't think that there were days I didn't think I was good enough.

I wasn't gonna make it.

And then I go out for a long run.

I get back in the car, get back on the horse and just keep pushing and never give up.

And, you know, that was something my dad instilled in me and I think a za kid.

And it has been challenging at times.

You're the first black driver in the 70 year history of Formula One.

And, uh, people were not always welcoming to you.

And you've raised, uh, awareness of black lives matter.

You've advocated for inclusivity and you've set up something called Hamilton Commission.

What is that?

Yes.

So you know, I don't know if you've seen the movie.

Cool runnings always bring it up.

But that was one of my favorite movies.

And which one?

What's running?

Cool runnings.

Yes, I have.

You're making bobsleigh team so that when they arrive at the top of the hill the whole Aled, the bobsledders state completely silent and they're like wondering what they're supposed to be doing there.

Um And it was the same for me and my dad.

When we arrived the first time a go cart track, we had the go cart was fifth hand.

My dad bought it from the back of ah newspaper and we arrived scruffy, and people are like, What these guys doing here with, you know, with the only black people there?

And of course, we were not always welcome.

But my dad always just said, Do your talking on the track, and and that's really what we did.

We just stayed, kept our heads down and did what we loved.

And I mean and then I've got a way to form one.

And again there was, you know, there was a on idea of what a Formula One driver would look like and how they should behave and what they should be like.

Andi, I never really felt comfortable conforming to how people would expect.

Um, but when I got to form one, I thought just us being there would help shift and break down barriers and help make the sport more diverse.

But I realized, after 14 years, looking at the lay out of our sport, it is still not diverse.

It is still a male, white dominated sport, and I would ask my team like, Why am I one of the only few people out of 2000 people in our team?

Why am I You know, a handful of minorities there?

And so I put together this helmet commission to try to understand what the barriers are and what the real root of the causes.

So we can, um, ultimate, through those findings, confined away, help encourage young black kids getting into stem rolls into engineering in this industry.

And I hope that that you know, we've got people in the commission that are in politics on the ground that could really change, change the legislation, rules and push on the ground in communities to help encourage these kids.

I wanna we gotta go in just a moment.

But I want to ask you one last question that I'm curious.

Whenever I meet someone who is at the top of their game and whatever the sport is, I'd like to ask this question.

Is there a movie about your sport that gets it right?

Like four vs Ferrari, Talladega Nights, Talladega Nights?

I'm a big fan of Talladega Nights personally when he's when he's on fire and I love that, I don't know.

I think the racing movies always really difficult.

I think they're very, very tricky to for people.

Thio understand, I guess.

I guess it's a hard sport to people for people to relate to.

But the Ford versus Ferrari I think they did such a great job is too great.

Incredible actors.

Eso I personally love that.

It almost encouraged me to potentially go and drive some of those cars, but I'm not going through the month.

Um, well, you got seven world titles now.

Your contract with Mercedes is up this year.

What's next?

I've got to get a new contract.

Uh, I bet I bet Would you like to be sponsored by a CBS talk show.

Uh, I'm interested.

I've got space.

Okay, good.

My face on your hood.

I'll be happy with that.

Hey, kind of thing nights.

He sells his visor, so I mean, you know I'm open.

Well, so nice to meet you.

Thanks for being here, Lewis.

Even Thank you so much for having me.

You can see his next race on November 29th on ESPN.

Lewis Hamilton, everybody.

We'll be right back with the performance by Andrea Bocelli.