Sir Lewis Hamilton is a British Formula One driver racing for Scuderia Ferrari. He holds the all-time records for most F1 race wins (105), most pole positions (104), and most podiums (202). His seven World Championship titles are tied with Michael Schumacher for the most in history. He is the first Black driver to compete in Formula One and the first Black driver to win the World Championship.

He is 41 years old, in his second season at Ferrari, and pursuing an eighth world title that would stand alone in the sport's history.

Profile at a Glance

Early Life

Anthony Hamilton and the Family Sacrifice

Hamilton was born in Stevenage, a town in Hertfordshire roughly 30 miles north of London, to Anthony Hamilton and Carmen Larbalestier. His parents separated when he was young and he was primarily raised by his father. Anthony Hamilton worked multiple jobs simultaneously to fund his son's karting career, including as a double-glazing salesman and in IT management. The family did not have money to spare. Anthony has spoken about how close they came, multiple times, to not being able to continue.

Lewis began karting at age eight in 1993. At ten he won the British Kart Championship. He was immediately different in ways that were difficult to ignore: fast, focused, and determined in a way that went beyond his age. His hero was Ayrton Senna. He wanted to reach Formula One.

Karting and Ron Dennis

In 1995, at an awards ceremony for young kart racers, Hamilton approached McLaren principal Ron Dennis directly. He told Dennis he wanted to race for McLaren one day and asked for his number. Dennis gave it to him and said to call in a few years. In 1998, when Hamilton was thirteen, Dennis made good on the invitation. He signed Hamilton to the McLaren-Mercedes Young Driver Programme, making him the youngest driver ever contracted by a Formula One team. Anthony Hamilton was told he no longer needed to fund the karting career alone.

The partnership between father and son during those years became one of the most recognisable stories in F1. Anthony served as Lewis's manager until 2010, when they mutually agreed to separate business and family roles. The relationship has remained close.

Karting Records (1993-2001)

Hamilton progressed through British and European karting with consistent success. He won the Formula Cadet championship in 1995, the Super One Series, Champions of the Future, and the STEP karting title. In 2000 he won the Karting World Cup and the European Championship with maximum points. In 2001, Michael Schumacher made a one-off return to competitive karting and raced alongside Hamilton and other future F1 drivers. Schumacher said afterwards: "He's clearly got the right racing mentality."

Hamilton completed his karting career as one of the most decorated junior karters Europe had produced. He was ready for cars.

Junior Career

Formula Renault and Formula Three (2002-2005)

Hamilton made his car racing debut in Formula Renault UK in 2001 and 2002 with Manor Motorsport, finishing fifth in the championship in his second year. He moved to the Formula Three Euro Series in 2003 with Manor, finishing third. He stayed for 2004, finishing fifth, before dominating the 2005 season with ART, winning the title with victories at the Nurburgring, Monaco, and Silverstone. His rivals that season included future F1 drivers Nelson Piquet Jr and Timo Glock.

GP2 Champion as a Rookie (2006)

Hamilton moved to GP2 with ART in 2006 and won the championship in his first season, becoming one of a small group of drivers in the history of the series to do so as a rookie. His teammate in Formula Super A karting years earlier had been Nico Rosberg. McLaren now had enough evidence to put him in a Formula One car.

Formula One Career

McLaren Debut-The Rookie Who Nearly Won It All (2007)

Hamilton made his F1 debut at the 2007 Australian Grand Prix with McLaren alongside the reigning double world champion Fernando Alonso. He was 22 years old. The season he produced was one of the most remarkable rookie campaigns in the sport's history.

He scored points in his first nine consecutive races, a record. He won four Grands Prix. He led the championship going into the final round in Brazil. A gearbox failure dropped him to seventh. He needed fifth. Going into the final lap, he was seventh. He overtook Timo Glock at the last corner of the last lap to move to fifth. It was not enough. Kimi Raikkonen won the title by a single point.

The year also produced serious tension with Alonso, who left McLaren at the season's end. It was already clear that Hamilton would not be a number two driver for anyone.

First World Title-Brazil 2008

Hamilton went into the 2008 season with Heikki Kovalainen as his new teammate and a point to prove. He won five races. Going into the final round in Brazil, he needed fifth place to beat Felipe Massa to the title.

He was seventh with one lap remaining. In the wet and rapidly changing conditions, Timo Glock on dry tyres was losing time. Hamilton passed him at the final corner of the final lap. He crossed the line fifth. Massa won the race. Hamilton won the championship by one point.

At 23 years and 300 days, he was the youngest Formula One World Champion in history at the time. He was also the first Black driver to win the World Championship, a moment that carried cultural significance far beyond Formula One.

McLaren Final Years (2009-2012)

Hamilton remained at McLaren for four more seasons. He won one race in 2009, had a title challenge in 2010, and won four races in 2012. The car was increasingly unable to match Red Bull's dominant machinery. Hamilton finished fourth in 2012, the best he could manage. He had already made his decision. He was leaving for Mercedes.

The Move to Mercedes (2013)

In January 2013, Hamilton announced he was joining Mercedes, replacing Michael Schumacher in their line-up alongside Nico Rosberg. The move was widely questioned. Mercedes had not won a race. Hamilton was trading a McLaren with heritage for a project that had yet to deliver.

He won once in 2013. He built a relationship with a car and a team that was quietly building something extraordinary. By the following year, the question looked redundant.

The Silver War and Back-to-Back Titles (2014-2015)

The 2014 Mercedes W05 was the most dominant car in F1 since the peak of Red Bull's run. Hamilton and Rosberg won almost everything between them. The rivalry between the two friends turned fierce and became known as the Silver War. Hamilton won eleven races and the championship. He defended his title in 2015.

The relationship between Hamilton and Rosberg produced some of the most intense racing of the era. At Spa 2014, Rosberg ran into Hamilton's tyre and was fined by the team. At Monaco 2014, a qualifying incident cost Hamilton. By 2016, when Rosberg won the title in the final race of the season and then retired five days later, the rivalry had consumed both of them in different ways.

Four More Titles (2017-2020)

Hamilton won the championship in 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, the most concentrated stretch of dominance the sport had seen since Schumacher's peak. Across the four seasons he had to come from behind in the standings in 2017 and 2018, erasing mid-season deficits against Sebastian Vettel in what was framed at the time as the defining rivalry of the era.

In 2020, in a COVID-affected season raced largely without spectators, Hamilton broke Schumacher's all-time win record at the Portuguese Grand Prix, his 92nd victory. He won the championship a seventh time, tying Schumacher's title record. He did so at the Turkish Grand Prix, stepping out of his car and falling to his knees on the track.

He also used his platform in 2020 more publicly than any F1 driver had before, wearing a Black Lives Matter T-shirt on the starting grid, taking a knee before race starts, and speaking at length about racial inequality in sport and society.

Abu Dhabi 2021-The Disputed Final Lap

The 2021 season produced the most contested conclusion in Formula One history. Hamilton and Verstappen went into the final race in Abu Dhabi tied on points. Hamilton was leading the race with five laps remaining when Nicholas Latifi crashed and a safety car was deployed.

Race director Michael Masi made the decision to allow only the lapped cars between Verstappen and Hamilton to unlap themselves, leaving Verstappen directly behind Hamilton on fresh soft tyres. On the final lap, Verstappen passed Hamilton to win the race and the championship.

The decision was immediately controversial. The FIA conducted an investigation, admitted to "human error" in the safety car deployment, and subsequently removed Masi from his role as race director. The championship result was not changed. Verstappen was champion by the margin of those final eight kilometres.

Hamilton did not attend the FIA prize-giving ceremony. He was largely absent from the sport's media cycle in the weeks that followed. He returned for 2022.

Final Mercedes Seasons (2022-2024)

The Mercedes W13 of 2022 was one of the worst cars the team had produced in the hybrid era. Hamilton finished sixth in the championship without a race win. It was the first winless season of his F1 career. He was 37 years old and there were questions, for the first time, about whether his peak had passed.

2023 was marginally better but still winless. He finished fourth. In February 2024, Mercedes and Hamilton jointly announced they would be parting ways at the end of the year. Ferrari confirmed his signing shortly after: a multi-year deal to join Charles Leclerc at F1's most historically significant team.

He won the 2024 British Grand Prix at Silverstone, his ninth at that circuit, an all-time record for wins at a single circuit. He ended his Mercedes career with twelve seasons, six World Championships, 84 wins, and five Constructors' titles as a contribution to the team that rebuilt him.

Ferrari-First Season (2025)

Hamilton's move to Ferrari was one of the most anticipated driver transfers in the sport's modern history. He tested at Fiorano in January 2025. He won the Chinese Sprint Race in March, his first competitive result in red. The result was later disqualified for a technical infringement.

Ferrari stopped developing the SF-25 at the end of April to redirect all resources toward the 2026 regulation changes. Hamilton finished the season without a grand prix podium for the first time in his F1 career. He finished sixth in the championship. He described it as a year of learning the team, the car, and the processes.

He was also actively involved in shaping Ferrari beyond just driving: holding meetings with team principal Frederic Vasseur, head of car development Loic Serra, chairman John Elkann, and CEO Benedetto Vigna, presenting written documents outlining structural and technical suggestions. By the end of 2025 he described feeling a "new energy" and "winning mentality" within the team.

2026-The Pursuit of Eight

Hamilton enters 2026 describing the new Ferrari SF-26 as having more of his "DNA" in its design after a year of direct technical input. He has said he is personally in the best place he has been in a long time. The technical regulations reset the entire grid. If he wins an eighth World Championship, he will stand alone in the sport's history as its greatest champion by the only metric that has ever mattered.

He is 41 years old. He has been here before.

Beyond Racing

Activism and Identity

Hamilton has been one of sport's most prominent activist voices for racial equality, LGBTQ+ rights, and environmental causes. He established the Hamilton Commission in 2021, a research initiative examining the underrepresentation of Black people in UK motorsport. He has spoken repeatedly and publicly about racism he experienced in the sport from an early age.

His personal motto, tattooed across his shoulders and written on the back of his helmet, is "Still I Rise" from Maya Angelou's poem of the same name. It is not a coincidence or a design choice. It is a statement about who he is and where he came from.

He has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has used his commercial platform to fund and raise awareness for causes including the eating disorder charity Beat and environmental organisations.

Business and Culture

In 2022, Hamilton founded Dawn Apollo Films. Its debut production was the F1 movie starring Brad Pitt, directed by Joseph Kosinski, which Hamilton co-produced. The film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture, won awards at the Critics' Choice Awards and the British Academy Film Awards, and its soundtrack won a Grammy Award.

He launched the TommyXLewis clothing collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger. He has appeared in Fortnite as a player skin, with his dog Roscoe also added to the game. He has been listed on Forbes's highest-paid athletes list multiple times and described as one of the most commercially powerful figures in global sport.

He is the most followed active Formula One driver on social media and has used those platforms consistently as an extension of his activist voice rather than purely as a marketing channel.

Personal Life

Hamilton lives in Monaco. He has spoken openly about his upbringing, his relationship with his father, and the sacrifices made on his behalf. His dog Roscoe, a bulldog, has become something of a public figure in his own right.

He has been in a number of high-profile relationships over the years, most prominently with pop artist Nicole Scherzinger between 2007 and 2015. He is generally private about his current personal life.

He describes his faith, his meditation practice, and his plant-based diet as central to how he manages the pressure of competing at the highest level across two decades. He has spoken about therapy and mental health with unusual candour for a sportsperson of his generation and profile.

Career Statistics

Career totals: 105 wins, 104 poles, 202 podiums, 380+ race starts

Last updated March 2026