Lewis Hamilton overruled Ron Dennis in hilarious ‘Top Gear’ stand-off

Lewis Hamilton twice got behind the wheel of the ‘Reasonably-Priced Car’ as part of the hit TV show ‘Top Gear’. The first time only came about after he had put his foot down with Ron Dennis.

The former McLaren team boss, Dennis was insisting that Hamilton did his lap in a Mercedes, which would have defeated the whole purpose of the segment. According to former ‘Top Gear’ executive producer Andy Wilman, it took Hamilton telling Dennis that he was going on the show, and that’s that, to end their stand-off with Dennis.

Lewis Hamilton told Ron Dennis: ‘I’m doing Top Gear’

The ‘Star in a Reasonably-Priced Car’ segment was one of the most popular parts of the Top Gear UK show. It eventually evolved to feature a specific category just for racing drivers, who did their lap in a Suzuki Liana.

Only, according to Wilman, Dennis was not prepared to allow Hamilton to go on the show and lap in the Liana.

Hamilton first appeared on Top Gear in 2007 during his rookie F1 year with McLaren. The team at that time had strong ties to engine supplier and technical partner Mercedes, and so, Dennis wanted Hamilton to represent the brand.

“The first time he came down, I think it was when he just lost that rookie season, the championship, by two points,” Wilman recalled on Hamilton via the Midweek F1 podcast.

“So, McLaren is still Ron Dennis days. So, we’re getting all Ron Dennisishness coming down the phone.

“He’s in a Suzuki Liana, and then, I think Matt Bishop was the PR at the time, Matt Bishop rings and he goes, ‘Ron wants him to do it in an SLR’. And we’re like, ‘It’s not the point… like, same car…’, and he went, ‘Yeah, you know what Ron’s like’.

“And then Ron’s going, ‘Yeah, but he’s a Mercedes man.’ And we’re like, ‘Ron, is anybody going to go, ‘Well, I’m going to buy a Liana now. I won’t buy that S Class’. It’s like, let it go!

“And then I think Lewis stepped in, even as a kid, and went, ‘I’m doing Top Gear’, because he’d grown up watching it, so it was a red letter day for him.

“Now, obviously, he’s stratospheric, and everything bows to him. But back then, he was like, ‘I’m coming down’.

“So he comes down, it’s a wet track, and he was amazing. I remember watching him in that second to last corner. He was incredible. He seemed to get it better than anyone else.

“But it was a wet time, so he wasn’t top of the board.”

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But, Hamilton got another chance in the Liana in 2013, as he returned to the show. Ironically, that was his first year with the Mercedes F1 works team after leaving McLaren.

“So he had, I think, four McLaren days for the next time he came down,” Wilman continued. “The drivers get these days that they have to give to the team, and he took one, and we had a deal with him. He said, ‘If it rains, I won’t come. If it’s dry, I’ll be there’. And he was, and then he blitzed that time. So yeah, he really wanted to do it.

“And I remember afterwards, when we had a break from recording, and me and Rowland French [producer], [French] and Lewis were talking about spinners that they were buying to put on their Mercs.

“He was such a little kid. There was no like, Beyonce, or any of that sort of stuff. He was a kid from Stevenage. So we had the best of him in terms of accessibility, and that wide-eyedness.”

Hamilton’s second attempt was enough to place him second on the final leaderboard, seven-tenths behind Daniel Ricciardo.

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