SAO PAULO, REUTERS: Lewis Hamilton needs two more Formula One championships to get his hands on the $8 million car of his dreams.
The 23-year-old McLaren driver, looking relaxed and considerably more bright-eyed than the reporters around him after becoming the youngest champion in Sunday's Brazilian Grand Prix thriller, said on Monday that records and riches mattered little to him.
However, sitting in a comfortable armchair in a hotel suite, he made clear that he would do everything in his powers to become a triple champion.
McLaren team boss Ron Dennis promised the Briton before he entered Formula One last year that he would give him a rare McLaren F1 road car, currently on display at the Woking factory, if he won three titles for him.
"I want to win this car, I want to get this car off Ron," Hamilton said. "I will definitely work as hard as I can to get to number three.
"We made a deal, three world championships. It's a car that I've always wanted. I got a car book, a nice book for Christmas years and years ago when I was about 10, and it had the orange McLaren F1 LM on the front of it.
"And that was my dream car then.
"Then I got signed up by McLaren, I went to the factory and saw it and ever since I've gazed at it every time I've walked past it," he added.
"Still today, it's the only car I ever really stop by apart from Ayrton (Senna's) 1989 car.
"I stop by it and I always open it up and just smell it - carbon, fresh, new. It's number one out of five and the most expensive and beautiful car in the whole world. It's the one that I want."
A 1997 McLaren F1 road car, one of 64 examples built by the company, was sold at auction by Sotheby's in London last Thursday for 2.53 million pounds ($4.11 million).
When new, they retailed at 634,500 pounds.
"This particular car is the rarest of the F1s, it's an LM," said Dennis of the Woking example. "So I would say it was worth at least double that (auction price).
"At least I don't have to give it away for a couple of years but it will be a small price to pay for three world championships."
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