Lewis Hamilton’s Life and Career

Lewis Hamilton is a Formula 1 racer who has driven more laps in first place than any other driver in history. Lewis was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England, in 1985. By age six, he was showing a preternatural gift for racing remote-control cars, so his father bought him a go-kart.

After participating in and winning karting championships, Lewis joined the McLaren Young Driver Programme, securing his place in the Formula 1 pipeline. He ascended the proverbial ladder of open-wheel racing in Europe. In 2007, McLaren promoted him to the Formula 1 team. Since then, he’s won seven Formula 1 World Championship trophies.

Lewis Hamilton has made a mark in and outside the world of racing. Here’s a look at his life and accomplishments:

• Early years: Lewis, who was born in 1985 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, began racing remote-control cars at a young age. He routinely beat his teenage and adult opponents around the miniature courses. Impressed by Lewis’s hand-eye coordination and reaction speed, his father bought him a go-kart.
• Go-kart championships: The British racer proved a precocious talent behind the wheel, winning his first karting championship in 1995 at the age of ten, the youngest driver to do so at the time. After notching two more karting championships, in 1996 and 1997, Lewis joined the McLaren Young Driver Programme.
• European races: As he participated in open-wheel races in Europe, he took home two major series championships before moving into GP2 racing—the feeder series just below Formula 1—for 2006. He won the title there, too, but the prize turned out to be much more than a trophy: McLaren invited him to a testing session at England’s famed Silverstone Circuit. He aced the audition. Eight weeks later, McLaren announced that Lewis would move on to its F1 team for 2007, racing alongside lead driver Fernando Alonso, a two-time World Champion.
• Rookie year: Lewis made his presence known immediately. In his first time racing as a rookie, he finished third, then won his sixth race outright. Under the Formula 1 scoring system, wherein individual drivers earn points according to their finishing order, Lewis spent months leading the World Championship standing—virtually unheard of for a rookie. He eventually finished second, losing to Ferrari driver Kimi Räikkönen by a single point, but set several first-season records.
• World Championship: In 2008, he won the World Championship in dramatic fashion, successfully overtaking another driver on the last lap of the season’s last race. Since signing with powerhouse Mercedes-AMG Petronas team for 2013, Lewis has claimed the World Championship in six of the seven following seasons, tying the career record for Formula 1 titles—and breaking dozens of other records along the way. Throughout his racing career, he has competed against Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Sebastian Vettel, and more F1 drivers.
• Pop culture impact: Lewis has also become a formidable figure in pop culture, appearing on the cover of GQ magazine, releasing a clothing line with Tommy Hilfiger, voicing characters in Disney’s animated film franchise Cars and the bestselling video game Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare, and garnering a massive following on social media. In 2020, Queen Elizabeth knighted him.

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