Lewis Hamilton to change name to honour his mother

Lewis Hamilton has announced that he will change his name to honour his mother’s surname Larbalestier.

The 37-year-old, who begins his quest to win back the Formula 1 title from Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in Bahrain this weekend, spoke at the 2022 Dubai Expo.

And the Mercedes star confirmed he is now in the process of changing his name as he does not believe a woman should lose her surname after marriage.

“I’m really proud of my family’s name, Hamilton,” said the seven-time world champion.

“Actually, none of you might know that my mum’s [sur]name is Larbalestier. And I’m just about to put that in my name.

“Because I don’t really fully understand the whole idea of why, when people get married, the woman loses her name. I really want her name to continue on with the Hamilton name.”

When quizzed on whether the change would be in time for this weekend’s race, Hamilton laughed. “It will be soon. No, I don’t know if it will be this weekend. But we’re working on it.”

Hamilton’s parents Anthony and Carmen separated when he was a young boy, with the F1 star spending most of his childhood with his father and stepmother Linda.

After the controversial circumstances surrounding Hamilton losing out in the title race in Abu Dhabi last year, Martin Brundle has urged the Briton, “don’t get angry, get even”.

“It’s don’t get angry – get even!” Brundle told the Mail ahead of the new season. “I can understand why he went on the missing list for a while on social media but I do think he’s back, he’s 37 years old but from what I saw of his driving last year, he was driving as well as I’ve ever seen him.

“Clearly fitness is not an issue, the drivers don’t get so many big shunts these days with the knocks on the head. He is physically in great shape and I think he’ll be a force of nature when he comes back.”

After completing testing in Bahrain last weekend, Hamilton confirmed he fears he will not be in contention to battle for a record-breaking eighth world championship.

“It is too early to have those kind of thoughts about the world championship, but at the moment I don’t think we will be competing for wins,” said Hamilton.

“I am sure everyone can figure out that we are not the quickest. Ferrari look to be the fastest, and perhaps Red Bull and then maybe us, or McLaren. We are currently not at the top.”