Book Extract: Now that I have your attention by Nicholas Hamilton

and there is the sense that the negative social consequences of bullying have been stripped away by the facelessness of the web. The sheer intensity of the trolling is frankly depressing and sometimes I really wish I had stayed ignorant about the level of negativity out there.

When I announced my first season in motorsport, I was pretty oblivious as to how widespread trolling and cyberbullying were. I knew they existed, of course, and had seen Lewis go through some issues with them, but I was just not prepared for how much of a target my disability, and to a lesser extent my race, would make me. The hate started on day one. Day one! In my mind I was just a kid who wanted to race. Going into it all, I didn’t realize the publicity I was going to have right from the beginning, nor that, no matter what, no matter how lovely and kind you might be, or how difficult or even tragic your circumstances, with publicity in this day and age comes negativity. Immediately I started receiving this barrage of tweets and messages. It would be people posting horrendous comments about my appearance and abilities, terrible things about my family or just about disability in general. When I started making my first mistakes – of course there were going to be mistakes, I was literally practising at the races, after all – I became the easy target again. I would love to say that all my experiences at school meant it didn’t get to me, but it did. Actually, over time, it really ground me down and with every season it got worse.

Even to this day, I continue to get the most criticism online out of all the drivers on the BTCC grid. I understand that I am a particularly appealing target for a troll. I appear weak because of my disability, but I’m also privileged because of my family and connections, and that pisses people off. I’m mixed race, but also very successful on several stages. If you don’t like Lewis or my dad, you won’t like me. You’ve made your decision. If you believe that I’m only here because of Lewis’s money, you’ve made your decision.

If you don’t believe in my determination or my talent, or else my determination and talent make you feel inadequate, you’ve made your decision. However much I progressed, however hard I worked and however much my team believed in me, it could never change what the keyboard warriors wrote about me, because to acknowledge those things would have disrupted their unkind narrative.

We would all love to believe that our fellow human beings want the best for us. But I know that, in too many cases to count, this is just not true. A lot of the grief stems from the fact that I haven’t won a race and that the majority of the time I’m nearer the back of the field. But in most instances, I’m only a few tenths of a second off the pace, for God’s sake. Considering everything else I’m dealing with, it does seem unusual that I receive so much vitriol in comparison to other drivers in similar positions. But you know, they don’t want to hear a story of resilience or of overcoming strife. They just want to see me fail. At the end of the day, I’ve never wanted people to treat me any differently, and trolls are unfortunately part of a successful sporting career. So, I don’t bemoan the fact that I get attacked. What enrages me is how much more intense the attacks are on people with marginalized identities when they are already so overburdened. It’s already a totally unfair playing field and yet our digital culture seeks to double down on discrimination and capitalize even further on any kind of perceived vulnerability. Earlier in my career, the kinds of things that really got to me were comments about how I didn’t deserve to be on the grid. It would be things like ‘I hope the team have plenty of spare parts and an unlimited budget’ or ‘I bet he won’t make turn one’ or ‘Year in, year out, what a waste of a seat on this guy’. ************

Nicolas Hamilton Now That I Have Your Attention: 7 Lessons in Leading a Life Bigger Than They Expect Radar, an imprint of Octopus Publishing Group Ltd., Hachette UK, London, 2024. Pb. Pp.288
Nicolas Hamilton has been exceeding expectations since day one. He is the paternal half-brother of the legendary racing car driver Lewis Hamilton. Born with a form of cerebral palsy, Nicolas was told that he would never walk and would need a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Today he not only walks everywhere but he is the first disabled athlete to ever compete at the top level of British motorsport, The British Touring Car Championship, where he lines up on the grid alongside some of the world's best drivers. He races with a specially-modified car due to his cerebral palsy. Hamilton made his racing debut in the Renault Clio Cup United Kingdom in 2011 driving for Total Control Racing. He last competed in the 2023 British Touring Car Championship. Now That I Have Your Attention follows Nicolas's remarkable journey and shares the valuable, tough, and often surprising lessons learned throughout his life. Nicolas's journey has at times been hostile and has forced him to navigate periods of anger and resentment, but by building his mental strength and pushing himself beyond the physical limits of what anyone had ever expected of him, Nicolas has changed his life - and believes you can too.
His seven lessons are rebel against the rulebook, always walk the hardest path, your bullies are your best motivators, find what works for you, surrender to your fear to set yourself free, I’ve seen rock bottom and I’m not going back and try till you die – perseverance is a true superpower. With each of these 7 Lessons, Nicolas's message is simple and universal: with self-discipline and self-compassion you can defy the limitations imposed upon you.
Nicolas Hamilton is a British racing driver who currently competes in the British Touring Car Championship. Alongside Nicolas's racing career, he is a prolific public speaker and uses his social media platform to reach beyond fans of motorsport. He has been featured in British Vogue and worked with a variety of brands such as Meta, Amazon, and MINI to name a few, sharing his clear vision and understanding of how brands can improve diverse representation. His website homepage defines him as “Limit Defier, Racing Driver, Motivational Speaker”. *The following extract is excerpted with permission from the publisher. It is taken from the section in the book wherein Hamilton discusses bullies being the best motivators.