My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman

I mean, come on!

Do I go this way?

Oh, yeah. "To stage."

-Hi, how are you? -I'm good.

I'm gonna get the audience ready to go.

-Give a little spiel and get ready. - Okay. Spiel?

Roll a spiel. The old spiel.

I'm doing a spiel.

I'm trying to get them to buy real estate in Florida.

A spiel!

Thank you very much. Thank you.

My name is Ray. I quit smoking with Chantix.

Welcome, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to be here.

And, please, I pray to God you didn't pay to get in here.

Just tell me...

I was at dinner last night with my family,

and I said to my son Harry--

Anybody have kids? You got kids, right? Everyone has kids?

-Any-- -

Wow! The enthusiasm is overwhelming!

"Boy, do we have kids."

And I said to Harry, I said,

"Now, people may ask me about you when I'm there,

so I'm gonna say a couple of things about you, Harry."

And he puts up his hand and he says,

"Those people have no right to know anything about me."

Anybody have a 15-year-old kid?

Are they just loaded with snark and ready to go?

I mean, periodically, he takes a swing at me.

-Does that ever happen at your house? -

So, if you see him, please, dear God,

I don't need any trouble at home.

Boy, this...

Do you know who's here tonight besides me?

No.

Well, the disappointment's about to wear off because...

Now, I know the name of this show is My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,

and I think that's true.

Perhaps not absolutely true here, but around the world.

And at the end of the evening,

if we all haven't had a good time,

you know, I'll fight everybody.

Ladies and gentlemen, do me a favor now,

please welcome Formula 1 five-time world champion,

Lewis Hamilton. Lewis!

- How are you? Good to see you. -How are you?

I'm great, thank you.

-Wow. -Thanks a lot for having me.

-How you doing? -I'm great.

-Please, have a seat. -Thank you.

-This is a thrill for me. -Wow.

I've loved racing... I'm from Indianapolis.

You can't not love racing

-if you're from Indianapolis. -Of course.

Let's talk about the numbers of your career.

Seventy-three wins now?

-Seventy-- -I don't know.

I really don't know. It's something like that.

Five world champions.

-Yeah, I know that one. -Yeah.

When you're in the city of New York, walking down the street,

do people say, "Oh, my God, there's Lewis Hamilton"?

-No! -What do--?

What do they do? Do they have an idea who you are?

Hmm, no, not too many.

Yeah. Well, we have that in common.

Have you ever been pulled over in your road car?

-Unfortunately, yeah. -Yeah.

Well, the thing is, back in the day, you know,

probably in the '80s, it would've been cool.

"Well, no wonder, he's a racing driver. Of course he's gonna speed on the road."

Do that today, you're viewed so much more, there are kids watching you, so...

My dad used to always say, "Don't speed,"

'cause he was always speeding.

Honestly, I'm really chilled on the road.

I don't particularly enjoy driving, so I don't drive a lot.

Racing, I like.

That came out wrong.

No, racing-wise...

I love the racing part,

but there's no competition when you're on the road,

and, also, you know, there's a lot of crazy drivers out there on the road.

You'll see an older person come by, up on the steering wheel like this,

and I'm like, they've got no control up here.

I'm nervous about people's... My surroundings.

It's the old story, a guy gets pulled over,

"Uh, you know how fast you're going?"

"Who do you think you are? Lewis Hamilton?"

-I had that. -Yeah. See?

I swear, I had that in London one time,

but I wasn't speeding, my car just made a lot of noise.

So, I got flashing lights behind me.

And he came to the window, like, "Who do you think you are? Lewis Hamilton?"

And he looked down, and he's like, "Oh, jeez!"

It was really cool.

That's keen.

You're really into the cars, so I know you have a fairly decent collection?

I have some cars.

You know, I'm not Jay Leno, but I have some cars.

In the '60s, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart,

Graham Hill, and all of these other European F1 drivers

came to Indianapolis, and that's really when I fell in love

with all forms of that sport.

Which one is your favorite-- IndyCar, NASCAR, Formula 1?

I don't want to offend people,

but I'm just gonna take NASCAR and set that aside.

Okay.

I appreciate that.

How long have you been racing cars for already, Lewis?

About a year.

-Is it easy to do? -No.

And we have a winner!

My parents separated when I was two,

and I grew up with my mom till I was about eight,

and then I spent the weekends with my dad and he had no idea what to do with me.

Kind of, "What do I do with this kid?"

So, we started racing radio-controlled cars.

I was the youngest there by at least ten, 15 years, and I was beating everyone.

Then my dad had an idea to put me in a go-kart,

so he bought me a go-kart,

which was fifth-hand from the back of a newspaper.

We went to the local DIY store,

drove it around after-hours.

And loved it, naturally,

and we found a race course nearby

and started to go there and practice.

And we had absolutely no idea what we were doing.

I always relate my life a lot to Cool Runnings. It's my favorite movie.

And...

Honestly, that's really my life story.

Basically, we arrived at the track, and like in the movie,

they arrive at the top of this hill with this rusty bobsled,

and the whole paddock goes quiet.

Like, "What are they doing here?" And that was really how I remember it being for us.

We turned up in this car, which my dad took a lot of pride in,

and it looked great.

But the go-kart was hanging out the trunk.

And he was pushing me down,

just like in the bobsled, they get in and the coach pushes them down the hill.

That was my dad.

My first race, I won.

People were a little bit shocked by it, but we just continued to do it.

- -Excuse me, my ride is here.

I knew that would happen.

You're a kid, eight years old.

So, there you are, most kids are on a tricycle or a bicycle.

You're now in a go-kart.

Well, for me, it's quite a deep thing,

because I was a smaller kid.

I struggled at school, I was bullied up until that point.

And I get in the car, and I was good at something.

And my dad, like, recognized that, and he was like...

And he would support me with it, so...

that was where we really truly connected,

and I get in the car, and I could stand up for myself.

Not everyone was particularly welcoming.

You know, we didn't see any other people of color there.

Yeah. And what about now?

If you, when you go back to watch karting events,

is there greater diversity now?

There is. You know, it's...

You know, not just black, there's Asians,

it's a real, real mix, people from different walks of life.

I've got Indian families come up to me and say,

"Oh, my son wants to do what you're doing."

I've got white, I've got Mexicans.

All people come over to me, and I feel like...

perhaps we've kind of broken that mold.

That's tremendous.

So, you're Chloe?

Yes.

-You're Christian? -Yes.

Do you guys know each other?

-Yeah. -Yeah.

-Do you race--? -We race locally together.

Do you win races?

-Yeah. -How many races have you won?

Too many to count.

Whoa!

-Too many to count! - Yeah. There you go.

Man! How about you?

About five, I'd say.

Five? Pretty good.

What is your goal with motor sports?

I want to be in F1.

-Formula 1? -Yeah.

There's more women involved in racing now than ever before.

But there's only 20 drivers, really, active on the Formula 1 grid.

You're aware that this is a long shot, right?

-Yeah. -Yeah.

-But I can do it. -Yeah.

I want to do it.

Who's your favorite driver?

Lewis Hamilton.

Lewis Hamilton?

Go-kart is where he started, you know?

-This is where everybody starts. -Yeah.

This track looks enormous and daunting.