Lewis Hamilton arrived at the Canadian Grand Prix paddock on Thursday carrying rather more than the usual pre-race weight.
On May 19, Arsenal were crowned Premier League champions with a game to spare, ending a 22-year wait – and for Hamilton, it wasn’t just another football result scrolling past on a phone screen.
Speaking ahead of the Montreal weekend, the Ferrari driver was spoke about what the moment meant to him on a deeply personal level.
“I think for like for everyone very emotional, I shed a tear to be honest because I remember I was five years old um and I used to play in the local in Stevenage in Peartree way, used to play around the corner football with friends. And to be, you know, I was the only black kid in the area and out of the people that I was playing with, and I remember trying to fit in and all of them supported different, West Ham and Tottenham and Manchester. So I was bouncing between all these when I was like four or five years old dependent on who I was with.”
The origin of his Arsenal love, it turns out, came with a bit of fraternal persuasion. “And my sister, I remember exactly like the, I messaged her the other day like she was walking me home and I told her, she asked me what team I supported and she she gave me a dead arm back then, you know she gave me a little dig in my arm and says you have to support Arsenal. So we had a laugh yesterday about it but um and then we’ve just, it’s we’ve had so many near close moments and to finally get it, you know it was wow, a lot of emotion came up for me and as I’m sure for so many people.”
A 22-Year Wait That Hit Close to Home
The last time Arsenal won the title, Hamilton was a 19-year-old aspiring racer competing in Formula 3.
Arsenal’s success this season follows three consecutive years finishing as runners-up, including 2023/24 when Manchester City edged them out by just two points.
Years of near-misses don’t make the eventual payoff smaller – they make it considerably larger.
Hamilton, never one to undersell a feeling, made his appreciation for Mikel Arteta’s project clear: “Just so happy and proud of the of the team and um obviously Arsene was was great. I think the direction they’ve gone in the past couple of years has been just fantastic, so a lot, very inspired by what they’ve done, really really proud of the team. And I think they can go from strength to strength from here and only get stronger.”
Mikel Arteta becomes the first Arsenal manager to claim England’s top prize in 22 years, following in the footsteps of Arsène Wenger’s Invincibles side of 2003/04. Over £260 million was invested in the squad over the summer of 2025, bringing in Martín Zubimendi, Eberechi Eze, Noni Madueke and Viktor Gyökeres – and this time, the spending translated into silverware rather than another heartbreaking second place.
Arsenal still have a Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain on May 30 ahead of them, meaning a historic double remains very much on the table.
For Hamilton, a man who knows something about chasing a title across multiple near-misses, the parallel isn’t hard to feel. His team in red finally got theirs. Now he just needs his to do the same.