Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton, born on 7 January 1985 in Stevenage, England, began his motorsport career in karting in 1993 at the age of eight. At ten he asked then-McLaren team boss Ron Dennis for an autograph and told him he wanted to race for his team one day; in 1998 McLaren duly signed him to its own young driver programme, including an option on a Formula 1 seat.

Via British and European Formula 3 (champion in 2005 with 15 wins from 20 races) and the GP2 Series (2006), Hamilton made his Formula 1 debut for McLaren in 2007 and missed the title in his rookie season by a single point. In 2008 he won his first World Championship, becoming the first Black driver to top Formula 1. From 2013 to 2024 he raced for Mercedes, taking six further titles between 2014 and 2020 to match Michael Schumacher’s record of seven World Championships; his 106 race wins and 107 pole positions remain the best marks in Formula 1 history.

In February 2024 Hamilton stunned the motorsport world by announcing he would leave Mercedes after twelve years to join Ferrari for 2025. His first year in Maranello turned into what he himself called a nightmare: for the first time in his career he went a whole season without a podium, surpassing a 43-year-old unwanted record held by Didier Pironi.

The 2026 season brought the turnaround: at the Chinese Grand Prix he took his first Ferrari podium, making him the only driver to date to have stood on the podium for McLaren, Mercedes and Ferrari, and at the Spanish Grand Prix in Barcelona in June 2026 he took his first win for the Scuderia at age 41, the oldest Grand Prix win since Jack Brabham in 1970. He carries his life motto “Still I Rise” as a tattoo and on his helmet; away from the track he is a co-owner of the NFL’s Denver Broncos.