First Official Lewis Hamilton Rookie Card

[F1Historian]

When I was clearing out my apartment recently I made a discovery which might be of interest here.

Most collectors consider that the 2006 Futera Grand Prix is Lewis Hamilton’s rookie card but actually this isn't the case. In 2006 F1's junior series (which was then called GP2 but is now called F2) produced an official card of Hamilton as part of a set featuring all of the drivers. I know this because I found it in the depths of my cupboard!

The collection was produced and distributed by GP2 and was given as a gift to journalists with the annual media kit. My partner was one of them which is how I got it and until I cleared out the apartment I had completely forgotten about it. It didn't seem special when we got it but 18 years makes a world of difference!

Unlike the Hamilton Futera card from the same year, this one features the GP2 series logo because it is official. It is the first ever Hamilton card produced by the league and it was never sold at retail so it is extremely rare. 2006 was Hamilton's first year in GP2 and he won the championship that year before moving up to F1 so it's not just the first ever official Hamilton rookie card but also the only one!

Couldn't find any mention of the collection online which is probably because it wasn't sold in shops and there were so few journos writing about GP2 then (around five or six regular writers from what I remember). This may be the only set out there and my eyes popped out when I found it in mint condition in a rock solid box. Not just the Hamilton card but the entire collection of 26 cards featuring one per driver in a plastic container attached to the media kit which at the time (a year or so before it was moved to USB!) was a chunky binder with a page for each team and another for the two drivers.

Until I unearthed this collection I thought that the Topps 2020 cards were the first official cards for F1 or its junior series but that's not the case! It's off for slabbing right now and will be up for sale next month. In the meantime here are some pics that I took before it was sent off. Enjoy!

[F1Historian]

More photos of the cards in this set on the TCDB link below. The Hamilton card has been graded Gem Mint 9.5 POP 1 of 1 by Beckett and there's an entry about it on the Cardbase Hamilton rookie list.

https://www.beckett.com/grading/pop-...wis%20Hamilton
https://getcardbase.com/blog/the-bes...ous-collectors
https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid...006-GP2-Series