McLaren junior teams

I remember a famous picture of the late 1990s (1998 I think), of the West Competition-McLaren Mercedes teams. Eight men (better: six men and two boys), three silver-red-black painted cars and one go-kart

Mika Hakkinen and David Coulthard were in the center, alongside the McLaren Formula 1.

On the left side a Dallara-Opel Formula 3 with Nick Heidfeld and Norbert Simon.

On the right side the Formula 3000 Lola-Zytek (painted in the same colours) with Ricardo Zonta and Nicolas Minassian.

And in the foreground, a go-kart (Mobil-1 West Mercedes sponsored) with two baby-drivers. One was a very young (now well known) Lewis Hamilton. The other is a bespectacled , red-hair British young boy, by the name of Wesley Graves.

Whatever did happen to him? did he progress in his racing career? What did he do?

An article from the Guardian website two years ago...:

Ten years ago, two boys were splashed over the newspapers when they became the youngest drivers signed by McLaren. Lewis Hamilton was 13 and already had a certain cool about him. Wesley Graves was 12, wore outsized spectacles and looked rather geeky. Today, Hamilton is said to be the most valuable commodity in British sport; Graves is unemployed, lives at home with his parents in their Leicester council house and hasn't raced for seven years.

http://www.guardian....eatures.comment

The article continues from that point on with an interview with Wesley and his parents. He sounds (understandably) bitter about the whole thing.

Edited by Paul Taylor, 03 May 2009 - 16:47.

An article from the Guardian website two years ago...:



http://www.guardian....eatures.comment

The article continues from that point on with an interview with Wesley and his parents. He sounds (understandably) bitter about the whole thing.

A very interesting article. The young man seems to be very aggrieved, and bitter about how Hamilton was favoured over him. No doubt there are countless stories like this throughout the history of the sport.

That article didn't give me any reason whatsoever to pity him, other than he and his family brought this over themselves.