Kelly Slater bestie Lewis Hamilton wins first race in shiny new Ferrari!

"The amount of critics and people I've heard yapping along the way just clearly not understanding..."

Europe’s Grand Slam, the MEO Rip Curl Pro Portugal, did not run yesterday, not that anyone would have watched. The event, which began in Autumn 2023, has been neither good nor fun. Surf fans, thus, have found other adjacencies by which to be entertained. In the United States of America, March Madness is entering its first weekend. In Great Britain, the teenage dart phenomenon Luke Littler too down Michael Van Gerwen in a “180-crazy Cardiff thriller.”

And over in China, Lewis Hamilton absolutely crushed the 19-lap sprint in a lights-to-flag victory. It was the Great Britain’s first ever sprint win but, more notably, also his first behind the wheel of a shiny new Ferrari.

Hamilton used to race for Mercedes, of course, and shocked the world when he traded German engineering for Italian chaos. While the Australian premier did not go well, the Chinese win gave the diminutive racer a good opportunity to say “see-I-told-you-so. “The first race was difficult and obviously,” the 40-year-old declared. “I think I really do feel a lot of people underestimated the steep climb it is to get into a new team, to become acclimatized within the team and understanding communication and all sorts of things. The amount of critics and people I’ve heard yapping along the way just clearly not understanding, maybe they’ve never had the experience or just unaware, so it’s felt great to come here and feel comfortable in the car, because in Melbourne I didn’t feel comfortable in the car.”

Important to surf fans is the very close relationship between Hamilton and the 11x world surf champion Kelly Slater. He probably doesn’t know this but Kelly changed my life for the better,” Hamilton wrote after a Surf Ranch session, continuing, “I want you all to know how great of a human being this man is. I am forever grateful for the time you have given me, for the insight and your passion for the waves. Thank you @kellyslater! Can’t wait until we can hit the waves again.”

Unfortunately, Kelly Slater once almost had him killed, Hamilton sharing, “Biggest wipeout I had I was with Kelly Slater, on Pipeline. It was like 20ft waves (at Pipeline) and Kelly was like ‘there’s no way you’re coming out there. You’re crazy.’ I turn around and see this set of four waves coming and that for me was like: “it’s over, it’s all over.’ As I threw my board, I dove down and grabbed the reef and I could hear this wave crash behind me. My board got ripped and snapped in half. I came back up, obviously gasping for air and the next one was coming so back down, grabbed the reef again as another wave comes over. So I did that three times. I got up, I’d nearly run out of air. I’d nearly drowned, but managed to swim back from there.”

20-foot Pipe.

Yikes.

The Chinese Grand Prix is on tonight, midnight, California time. Hamilton 5th on the grid.