149 Facts About Lewis Hamilton

Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton was born on 7 January 1985 and is a British racing driver currently competing in Formula One, driving for Mercedes.

In Formula One, Hamilton has won a joint-record seven World Drivers' Championship titles, and holds the records for the most wins, pole positions, and podium finishes, among others.

Lewis Hamilton has been credited with furthering Formula One's global following by appealing to a broader audience outside the sport, in part due to his high-profile lifestyle, environmental and social activism, and exploits in music and fashion.

Lewis Hamilton has become a prominent advocate in support of activism to combat racism and push for increased diversity in motorsport.

Lewis Hamilton was listed in the 2020 issue of Time as one of the 100 most influential people globally, and was knighted in the 2021 New Year Honours.

Lewis Hamilton was born on 7 January 1985 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire.

Lewis Hamilton's parents separated when he was two, after which he lived with his mother and older half-sisters, Samantha and Nicola, until he was twelve.

Lewis Hamilton then lived with his father, stepmother Linda, and his half-brother Nicolas, who is a professional racing driver.

Lewis Hamilton's father bought him a radio-controlled car when he was five.

Lewis Hamilton finished second in the national BRCA championship the following year against adult competition.

Lewis Hamilton's father bought him a go-kart for Christmas when he was six and promised to support his racing career as long as he worked hard at school.

Lewis Hamilton continued to be Hamilton's manager until early 2010.

Lewis Hamilton was educated at The John Henry Newman School, a voluntary aided Catholic secondary school in Stevenage.

Lewis Hamilton has said that at the age of five he took up karate to defend himself as a result of bullying at school.

Lewis Hamilton was excluded from school for a period when he was mistakenly identified as having attacked a fellow student who was treated in hospital for his injuries.

Lewis Hamilton began karting in 1993 and quickly began winning races and cadet class championships.

In 1998, Dennis called Lewis Hamilton following his second Super One series and British championship wins, to offer Lewis Hamilton a role in the McLaren driver development programme.

Lewis Hamilton continued his progress in the Intercontinental A, Formula A and Formula Super A ranks, and became European Champion in 2000 with maximum points.

Lewis Hamilton ended the final in seventh, four places behind Schumacher.

Lewis Hamilton began his car racing career in the 2001 British Formula Renault Winter Series, finishing fifth in the standings.

Lewis Hamilton remained with Manor for another year, winning the championship ahead of Alex Lloyd.

Lewis Hamilton made his debut with Manor in the 2004 Formula 3 Euro Series, ending the year fifth in the championship.

Lewis Hamilton won the Bahrain F3 Superprix and twice raced in the Macau F3 Grand Prix.

Williams had come close to signing Lewis Hamilton but did not because BMW, their engine supplier at the time, would not fund him.

Lewis Hamilton first tested for McLaren in late 2004 at Silverstone.

Lewis Hamilton moved to the reigning Euro Series champions ASM for the 2005 season and dominated the championship, winning 15 of the 20 rounds.

Lewis Hamilton won the Marlboro Masters of Formula 3 at Zandvoort.

Lewis Hamilton moved to ASM's sister GP2 team, ART Grand Prix, for the 2006 season.

Lewis Hamilton won the GP2 championship at his first attempt, beating Nelson Piquet Jr.

Lewis Hamilton secured a dominant win at the Nurburgring, despite a penalty for speeding in the pit lane.

At his home race at Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton overtook two rivals at Becketts, a series of high-speed bends where overtaking is rare.

Lewis Hamilton won the title in unusual circumstances, inheriting the final point he needed after Giorgio Pantano was stripped of fastest lap in the Monza feature race.

Lewis Hamilton is the first and, as of 2022, the only black driver to race in the series.

Lewis Hamilton's success continued in 2008 as he amassed five victories and ten podium finishes.

Lewis Hamilton won his first title in dramatic fashion in the last race of the season, the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix, overtaking Timo Glock for fifth position in the final corners of the last lap to become the then-youngest Formula One World Champion in history and to deny race-winner Massa the title by one point.

Lewis Hamilton entered the final round of the 2010 season with a chance of winning the title, but ultimately finished fourth as Sebastian Vettel won the race to take his maiden drivers' crown.

Lewis Hamilton achieved four race-wins in the 2012 season as he finished fourth in the standings.

Lewis Hamilton dominated the 2015 season, winning ten races finishing on the podium a record seventeen times as he matched his hero Ayrton Senna's three World Championships titles.

The rivalry between him and Rosberg intensified, climaxing in a heated battle at the US Grand Prix where Lewis Hamilton won in an action-packed, wheel-to-wheel battle with his teammate to clinch the title with three races to spare.

The team's policy of letting the pair fight freely led to several acrimonious exchanges both on and off the track, culminating in Lewis Hamilton defying team-orders at the season finale in Abu Dhabi and deliberately slowing to back Rosberg into the chasing pack at the end of the race in an unsuccessful bid to encourage other drivers to overtake his teammate, which would have allowed him to win the title.

Lewis Hamilton registered 11 pole positions that season as he took the record for the all-time most pole positions, and his consistency, as well as a lack of a serious challenge from his new teammate Valtteri Bottas, saw him record nine race victories and secure his fourth World Drivers' title as he overturned a points deficit to Vettel in the first half of the season, ultimately wrapping the title up in Mexico with two races to spare.

However, Vettel's season unravelled with a number of driver and mechanical errors, while Lewis Hamilton's run of six wins in seven in the latter half of the season saw Lewis Hamilton clinch the title in Mexico for a second year running as he set a new record for the most points scored in a season.

Lewis Hamilton led the drivers' standings for the majority of the season, fending off title challenges from team-mate Bottas, the Honda-powered Red Bull of Verstappen and Ferrari's recently promoted Leclerc, to clinch his sixth drivers' crown at the 2019 United States Grand Prix with two races remaining.

Lewis Hamilton's total of 413 points for the season was a new all-time record, seeing the Briton finish 87 points clear of second-placed Bottas.

Lewis Hamilton won his seventh drivers' title in 2020, equalling the record set by Schumacher, in a season heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Lewis Hamilton missed the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix after contracting COVID-19, his first race absence since his debut in 2007.

Lewis Hamilton clinched the title at the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix with three rounds to spare and ended the season 124 points clear of his team-mate, Bottas, who finished second in the standings.

Amid Formula One's We Race as One campaign and growing global support for the Black Lives Matter movement, Lewis Hamilton took the knee ahead of every race he entered and wore t-shirts bearing the Black Lives Matter slogan.

Lewis Hamilton was partnered by George Russell for 2022, in place of the departing Bottas.

The Mercedes W13 suffered with extreme porpoising early in the season which limited the car's potential; at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton deemed the car "undrivable".

Lewis Hamilton scored more podium finishes and championship points than Russell during the second half of the season.

Lewis Hamilton finished in sixth place in the drivers' championship, 35 points behind Russell, who finished fourth.

Lewis Hamilton is regarded as one of the most complete drivers on the grid, excelling across a wide range of areas.

Lewis Hamilton has been praised for his ability to adapt to variances in the car set-up and changing track conditions; throughout his career, he has typically used less fuel than his teammates as a result of his ability to carry momentum through corners despite instability in the car.

Lewis Hamilton has been praised for his consistency, especially in his time at Mercedes.

Lewis Hamilton is regarded as one of the best wet-weather drivers in the sport, with some of his best performances occurring in those conditions.

Lewis Hamilton's performance was contrasted with that of his team-mate Bottas, who spun four times and finished a lap down in 14th place.

Lewis Hamilton cited the race as his "stand-out" performance of the season.

Lewis Hamilton has been described as the best driver of his generation, and one of the greatest Formula One drivers.

Lewis Hamilton is far broader than purely a driver in [Formula One].

Lewis Hamilton has opinions about the environment, young people, fashion and music.

Lewis Hamilton has been praised for disregarding convention and public opinion and has been described as one of the last superstar drivers.

Between race weekends Lewis Hamilton has on several occasions travelled around the world to explore a variety of interests, such as in 2018 where, after winning the Italian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton flew to Shanghai and New York where he released his own designer clothing line with Tommy Hilfiger, before flying immediately back to, and winning, the next race in Singapore.

Lewis Hamilton was able to win with a dominant car, with a good car like 2010 or 2012, or with bad cars like 2009 and 2011.

Lewis Hamilton continued to run a predominantly yellow design for the early stage of his Formula One career, but in 2014 decided to change to a mostly white approach.

In 2017, Lewis Hamilton selected his helmet design from fan submissions.

Lewis Hamilton has worn specially designed one-off helmets for several weekends throughout his career.

At the 2015 Malaysian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton brought with him a striking blue-and-green design in honour of team sponsor Petronas but was prevented from using the helmet by the FIA.

Lewis Hamilton has sported gold coloured helmets three times in his career.

Lewis Hamilton wore a gold helmet at the 2018 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix after sealing his fifth world title, towards which he made reference with five stars on either side of the design, and did so again at the 2019 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, this time with six stars following his sixth World Championship title.

Lewis Hamilton has used one-off helmet designs to pay tribute to influential figures in his career.

Lewis Hamilton switched into a different design in 2020, which used black as base colour with purple details, in support of Black Lives Matter, he continued to use the same design in 2021.

Lewis Hamilton wore a rainbow helmet at the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix, 2021 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, and 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in support of the LGBTQ+ community.

Ahead of the 2022 season, Lewis Hamilton reverted to using a yellow helmet design for the first time since 2013, it used purple details.

Lewis Hamilton used one-off designs for the 2022 Monaco Grand Prix, 2022 Japanese Grand Prix and 2022 Sao Paulo Grand Prix.

The first tensions surfaced after Lewis Hamilton finished second behind Alonso at Monaco in 2007.

Tensions surfaced again at the 2007 Hungarian Grand Prix, where during the final qualifying session Lewis Hamilton went out on track ahead of Alonso and ignored requests from the team to let him through: the two drivers had been taking turns on a race-by-race basis to lead during qualifying, which gave the leading driver an edge due to the fuel load regulations then in place, and Alonso was due to lead in Hungary.

Lewis Hamilton was then delayed in the pits by Alonso and thus unable to set a final lap time before the end of the session.

Alonso was relegated to sixth place on the starting grid thus promoting Lewis Hamilton, who had qualified second, to first, while McLaren was docked Constructors' Championship points.

Lewis Hamilton said he thought the penalty was "quite light if anything" and only regretted the loss of points.

Lewis Hamilton was reported to have sworn at Dennis on the team radio following the incident.

British motorsport journal Autosport claimed that this "[led] Dennis to throw his headphones on the pit wall in disgust: a gesture that was misinterpreted by many to be in reaction to Alonso's pole"; however, McLaren later issued a statement on behalf of Lewis Hamilton that denied the use of any profanity.

Lewis Hamilton had 4 victories, 12 podium finishes and qualified ahead of Alonso 10 times.

When Lewis Hamilton joined Mercedes in 2013, he was paired alongside old karting teammate and friend Nico Rosberg.

Lewis Hamilton has had to fight from the back of the field time and again and yet he hasn't overworked his tires, he hasn't used too much fuel.

Lewis Hamilton has learned how to drive these new cars, and to extract the most from them using the least.

Lewis Hamilton had 32 victories, 55 podium finishes and qualified ahead of Rosberg 42 times.

Lewis Hamilton describes his rivalry with Sebastian Vettel as his favourite, believing their battles helped bring them closer together.

Vettel, who was then driving for Ferrari, enjoyed an early lead on points, but Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton fought back and ultimately won the championships in both seasons.

The first and, as of 2023, the only black driver to race in Formula One, Lewis Hamilton has been subject to racist abuse throughout his career.

In 2007, Lewis Hamilton suffered racist abuse from Spanish Formula One supporters at the Chinese Grand Prix.

In 2021, Lewis Hamilton was subjected to online racist abuse following a dramatic win at the British Grand Prix.

In 2014, The Guardian journalist Joseph Harker highlighted double-standards in Lewis Hamilton's treatment compared to other British drivers by British newspapers, suggesting that his skin colour has played a factor in a perceived lack of acceptance among the British public.

In 2019, footballer Rio Ferdinand described media scrutiny of Lewis Hamilton as having "racist undertones" and contrasted Lewis Hamilton's treatment to that of fellow British driver Jenson Button.

At the start of his Formula One career, Lewis Hamilton said that he "tried to ignore the fact [he] was the first black guy ever to race in the sport" but later stated that he had since grown to "appreciate the implications", and changed his approach to promote equality within the sport.

Lewis Hamilton is a prominent advocate against racism and for increased diversity in motorsport.

Lewis Hamilton has questioned racial politics in Formula One on several occasions.

Lewis Hamilton took the knee before every race he entered in the 2020 Formula One season in support of the Black Lives Matter movement and wore t-shirts bearing the Black Lives Matter slogan.

Ross Brawn, managing director for Formula One, said that the organisation "supports [Lewis Hamilton] totally", describing Lewis Hamilton as "a great ambassador for the sport".

Lewis Hamilton acknowledged that Hamilton's comments "are very valid" and that the sport "can give greater opportunity for minority and ethnic groups to get involved in motorsport".

In June 2020, it was announced that Lewis Hamilton had established The Lewis Hamilton Commission with the Royal Academy of Engineering.

In May 2021, Lewis Hamilton become the first recipient of the inaugural Laureus Athlete Advocate of the Year Award for his involvement in the fight against racism.

In December 2020, Lewis Hamilton confronted the Bahrain's human rights abuses and spoke out on the allegations of sportswashing.

Lewis Hamilton said he "won't let it go unnoticed" after an 11-year-old boy, Ahmed Ramadhan, wrote a letter to Lewis Hamilton, asking him to save his father, who was facing the death penalty, after a confession was allegedly extracted through torture for the death of a policeman.

Lewis Hamilton spoke with Bahraini officials about the country's human rights.

Lewis Hamilton has repeatedly discussed environmental issues and animal rights at conferences, in interviews and in documentaries.

Lewis Hamilton uses his social media platforms to gather support for his initiatives, which range from urging China to reclassify dogs as pets instead of livestock, and backing charities which fight the illegal wildlife trade, to calling for the protection of the Amazon rainforest.

In 2012, Lewis Hamilton began working with the United Nations Children's Fund.

In March 2012, Lewis Hamilton travelled to the Philippines where he made a short film about Manila's street children.

In October 2012, while in India for the Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton visited a UNICEF-funded newborn care unit and nutrition centre.

In 2014, Lewis Hamilton travelled to Haiti where he made a short film about child malnutrition.

In June 2017, Lewis Hamilton joined the Super Dads initiative, a special UNICEF campaign that highlighted the critical role played by fathers in early childhood development.

Lewis Hamilton is a GOAL 4 Ambassador, focusing on the fight to provide quality education to all children.

Lewis Hamilton has invited fans, young people, and their families to join him at Grand Prix races and social events.

Two years later, Lewis Hamilton became the first ambassador for the Invictus Games Foundation, supporting wounded, injured, and sick servicemen and women.

Lewis Hamilton often donates personal and professional paraphernalia for charity auctions.

Lewis Hamilton frequently attends charitable functions and has supported projects and charities such as the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Comic Relief, Rays of Sunshine, Children in Need, and Stevenage's Keech Hospice Care Children's Service, among others.

Lewis Hamilton is involved in charitable work through the creation of his Lewis Hamilton Foundation.

In 2021, Lewis Hamilton was named the most influential Black Briton in the 14th Powerlist, for his sporting success and his advocacy in the Black Lives Matter movement.

Lewis Hamilton was one of several figures whose tax arrangements were singled out in a report by the charity Christian Aid in 2008.

That year, Lewis Hamilton received criticism from UK members of parliament for avoiding UK taxes.

Lewis Hamilton made a guest appearance in Cars 2 in which he voices an anthropomorphic version of himself.

Lewis Hamilton then voiced a voice command assistant in Cars 3.

Lewis Hamilton is credited as an executive producer for the 2018 documentary film The Game Changers.

Lewis Hamilton has revealed he was offered a role as a fighter pilot in the film Top Gun: Maverick by Tom Cruise, but was forced to decline due to his Formula One commitments.

Lewis Hamilton was served as the "maestro" of the Gran Turismo series since Gran Turismo Sport in 2017 and his Time Trial Challenge DLC pack was released in that said game on 28 November 2019.

In 2018, Hamilton launched the clothing line TOMMYXLEWIS during New York Fashion Week with American fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger alongside models Winnie Harlow and Hailey Baldwin.

In September 2019, Lewis Hamilton launched a vegan restaurant named Neat Burger.

Lewis Hamilton became an Ambassador for the luxury watch company IWC, owned by Richemont.

In September 2020, Lewis Hamilton launched X44 to compete in the all-electric SUV off-road racing series Extreme E from the 2021 season on.

In 2018, Lewis Hamilton said in an interview that he gave up drinking "a while ago".

Lewis Hamilton's racing number has always been 44 because when he started racing at age 8 his father's red Vauxhall Cavalier had the number plate "F44" and it was his father's idea to use it.

Lewis Hamilton is a fan of art and has said that one of his favourite artists is Andy Warhol.

From November 2007 to February 2015, Lewis Hamilton was in an on-and-off relationship with Nicole Scherzinger, the lead singer of the American girl group Pussycat Dolls.

Lewis Hamilton is a Catholic; he says that he prays regularly and is guided by his faith.

Lewis Hamilton believes that he has the "hand of God" resting over him when racing in Formula One.

Lewis Hamilton is a supporter of LGBT rights, and strongly criticised the Hungarian government before the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix, while calling out the "terrifying" Saudi Arabian LGBT laws before that Grand Prix.

On 14 March 2022, Lewis Hamilton revealed that he is in the process of legally changing his name to include his mother's maiden name, Larbalestier, as a middle name.

On 9 June 2022, Lewis Hamilton was made an honorary citizen of Brazil after a proposal made by politician Andre Figueiredo was passed in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies.

Two days before the 2010 Australian Grand Prix, Victoria Police witnessed Lewis Hamilton "deliberately losing traction" in his silver Mercedes-AMG C63, and impounded the car for 48 hours.

Lewis Hamilton immediately released a statement of apology for "driving in an over-exuberant manner".

Lewis Hamilton moved to Luins, Vaud, Switzerland in 2007, citing privacy as his main reason for leaving the UK.

Lewis Hamilton later said on the television show Parkinson that taxation was a factor in his decision.

Lewis Hamilton debuted at the 2007 Australian Grand Prix becoming the first black driver in Formula One.

Lewis Hamilton has the most career wins, most pole positions, most podium finishes, most career points, and most laps led, among other records.

When Lewis Hamilton won the 2008 F1 World Championship, after finishing fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix, he had become the youngest driver ever to win the championship at age 23 years and 301 days, a triumph that was beaten by Sebastian Vettel in 2010.

Lewis Hamilton won the Laureus Breakthrough of the Year Award in 2008 and the Sportsman of the Year Award in 2020.

Lewis Hamilton won Pride of Britain Awards, Best Driver ESPY Award, BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award, L'Equipe Champion of Champions, and Gazzetta World Sportsman of the Year, among others prizes and awards.

Lewis Hamilton was elected FIA Personality of the Year four times, and was inducted to FIA Hall of Fame in 2017.