Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton first sat in a kart in 1993, aged 8, in Stevenage — a town in Hertfordshire that had produced no particular motorsport tradition. Within two years he had won the British cadet karting championship, becoming at 10 the youngest driver to claim that title. The achievement was notable enough to bring him to a British motorsport awards ceremony, where he approached Ron Dennis, then the principal of [McLaren](/en/teams/mclaren), not for an autograph alone but with a proposition: that one day he would drive for the team. Dennis, by the account that has since become part of the sport's folklore, smiled, gave the boy his number, and told him to call in nine years. Hamilton did not wait nine years. By 1998, at 13, his results in European karting had become impossible to ignore, and he signed with McLaren's driver development programme — a formal commitment, backed also by Mercedes, that would fund and structure the next phase of his career.

The transition to single-seaters came in 2001 with the British Formula Renault Winter Series, where he finished fifth. The following year, in the main British Formula Renault season, he placed third overall — 59 points behind champion Danny Watts — collecting 3 wins and 7 podiums across the campaign. In 2003, his second full year in the category, he converted that promise into a title: 10 wins and 13 podiums from 15 races. From there the progression was deliberate and rapid. The 2004 Bahrain Super Prix, the 2005 Masters of Formula 3, and then the Formula 3 Euro Series that same year, where he was dominant in a way that left little room for debate — 13 pole positions, 15 victories, 10 fastest laps, and 17 podiums across 20 rounds.

The journey from Stevenage kart tracks to a Formula One grid started in 1993, when an eight-year-old Hamilton first climbed into a kart. By the age of 10 he had become the youngest British cadet-class karting champion on record. The number he raced under, 44, came from his father's Vauxhall Cavalier registration plate — a detail that would follow him all the way to Ferrari four decades later.

The door to professional motorsport opened at a British awards ceremony, where Hamilton approached [McLaren](/en/teams/mclaren) principal Ron Dennis and asked, bluntly, for his phone number. Dennis wrote it down and told the boy to call in nine years. Hamilton called in three. By 1998, aged 13, he had signed with McLaren and Mercedes as a junior development driver — an almost unheard-of commitment to a karting prospect.

The transition to single-seaters came in 2001 with the British Formula Renault Winter Series, where he finished fifth. The following year, in the main British Formula Renault season, he placed third with 3 wins and 7 podiums, trailing champion Danny Watts by 59 points. In 2003 he returned to the same category and dominated it: 10 wins and 13 podiums across 15 races, taking the title at his second attempt.

Formula Three followed. After winning the 2004 Bahrain Super Prix and the 2005 Masters of Formula Three, Hamilton claimed the Formula Three Euro Series that same year with a margin of dominance that was difficult to argue with — 13 pole positions, 15 wins, 10 fastest laps, and 17 podiums from 20 races.

In 2006 he moved to GP2 with ART Grand Prix, then run by Frédéric Vasseur. His teammate was Alexandre Prémat; his primary title rival was Nelson Piquet Jr., racing for his father Nelson Piquet's own team. Hamilton sealed the championship at the final round in Monza, finishing on the podium while Piquet could manage only sixth. Five wins, seven second places, and two thirds — a points haul that left no room for debate and no reason for McLaren to wait any longer.

Hamilton arrived in Formula One in 2007 with [McLaren](/en/teams/mclaren) already written into his contract — the same team whose principal, Ron Dennis, had handed a teenage kart racer his phone number nearly a decade earlier. The debut season was an immediate statement: Hamilton finished second in the championship, one point behind [Kimi Räikkönen](/en/drivers/raikkonen_kimi), after leading the standings for much of the year. Twelve months later, at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix in São Paulo, he claimed his first title by passing Timo Glock on the final corner of the final lap, snatching the single point he needed from [Felipe Massa](/en/drivers/massa_felipe), who had crossed the line believing himself champion. The margin was one point.

His five seasons at McLaren produced that first title and a series of performances that established his reputation as one of the most complete drivers of his generation, but the machinery began to fall behind. In 2013 he made the move that defined the second and longer chapter of his career, joining [Mercedes](/en/teams/mercedes). The partnership coincided with a regulatory revolution: the hybrid turbo era that began in 2014 placed Mercedes at the front of the field, and Hamilton won four championships in five seasons — 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2018 — with a fifth and sixth following in 2019 and 2020. His teammate through much of that run was [Nico Rosberg](/en/drivers/rosberg_nico), whose rivalry with Hamilton inside the Mercedes garage grew sharp enough that Rosberg retired within weeks of beating him to the 2016 title. [Valtteri Bottas](/en/drivers/bottas_valtteri) then partnered Hamilton from 2017 onward, providing pace without the same internal friction.

The 2020 season, run largely without crowds due to the pandemic, saw Hamilton equal Michael Schumacher's record of seven world championships. He also surpassed Schumacher's win total, ending his career with 105 victories, 104 pole positions, and 203 podium finishes across 384 starts — each figure the highest in the sport's history. His closest modern rival for sustained excellence, [Max Verstappen](/en/drivers/verstappen_max), beat him to the 2021 title in Abu Dhabi under circumstances that generated months of controversy, a defeat that visibly affected Hamilton through the seasons that followed.

After twelve years and six constructors' championships with Mercedes, Hamilton signed with [Ferrari](/en/teams/ferrari) ahead of the 2025 season, joining [Carlos Sainz](/en/drivers/sainz_carlos)'s former seat in a move that the paddock read as both a sporting gamble and a deliberate reinvention. He was 40 years old at the start of that campaign, racing alongside Charles Leclerc, with his total of 384 starts already the most in the championship's history.

The six seasons between 2014 and 2020 represent the most statistically dominant stretch any driver has produced in the hybrid era of Formula 1. Hamilton won six World Drivers' Championships across those seven years, missing only 2016, when [Nico Rosberg](/en/drivers/rosberg_nico) edged him by 5 points after a season that went to the final race in Abu Dhabi. In the four consecutive titles from 2017 through 2020, Hamilton was rarely threatened across a full campaign: the 2019 season, for instance, ended with him accumulating 413 points against [Valtteri Bottas](/en/drivers/bottas_valtteri) in second on 326, a margin of 87 points with [Mercedes](/en/teams/mercedes) machinery that had no peer in the paddock.

The 2018 German Grand Prix at Hockenheim illustrated what separated Hamilton from the field even in adversity. Rosberg had retired by then, and with Bottas as his new teammate, Hamilton faced no internal challenge of the same weight. [Sebastian Vettel](/en/drivers/vettel_sebastian), leading the 2018 championship with Ferrari, crashed out of the lead in wet conditions at Hockenheim while Hamilton, starting from 14th after a power unit penalty, recovered to win. That result effectively broke Vettel's title challenge; Hamilton won 5 of the next 7 races to close out his fifth championship.

The 2020 season, compressed to 17 rounds because of the pandemic, produced perhaps the clearest statement of peak form: 11 wins, 13 poles, and a seventh title that drew level with Michael Schumacher's all-time record. He was 35 years old. At the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul, Hamilton clinched the title with three races to spare, crossing the line 31 seconds clear of [Sergio Pérez](/en/drivers/perez_sergio) in second. By the end of that season, his career win total had reached 95, with [Max Verstappen](/en/drivers/verstappen_max) still two years away from mounting a sustained challenge.

Hamilton has lived outside the United Kingdom since 2007, when he moved to Luins, in the canton of Vaud, Switzerland, citing privacy as his primary reason for leaving. He later acknowledged on the television programme Parkinson that taxation was also a factor. In 2010 he relocated to Monaco, purchasing a property reportedly worth £10 million. He also owns an apartment in Manhattan, acquired for US$40 million, and an estate in Colorado, which he has described as his intended home after retiring from racing.

The number 44 he has carried throughout his Formula One career traces back to his father's Vauxhall Cavalier, whose number plate read "F44" when Hamilton first sat in a kart. It was his father's idea to adopt it, and Hamilton kept it when the sport introduced permanent driver numbers ahead of the 2014 season, choosing 44 over the champion's prerogative of running number 1.

From November 2007 to February 2015, Hamilton was in an on-and-off relationship with Nicole Scherzinger, lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls. In 2017 he told the BBC he had adopted a vegan diet, citing both environmental concerns around livestock emissions and opposition to animal cruelty; PETA named him its Person of the Year in 2018. A practising Catholic, he has said he prays regularly and believes his faith guides him on track.

In September 2024 Hamilton disclosed publicly that he had been dealing with depression since the age of 13, linking it to the pressures of competitive racing, difficulties at school, and bullying. He described "some difficult phases" in his twenties. In March 2022 he revealed he was legally adding his mother's maiden name, Larbalestier, as a middle name. On 9 June 2022 the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies, on a proposal by politician André Figueiredo, granted him honorary Brazilian citizenship.

105 wins. 104 pole positions. 203 podiums. When Hamilton crossed the line at the 2020 Portuguese Grand Prix to surpass Michael Schumacher's all-time wins record, he did so in a sport that had spent a decade insisting Schumacher's 91 victories were unreachable. Hamilton reached 91 first, then kept going — and the records he now holds across all three of those categories belong to him alone, shared with no one.

The statistical case is settled. The contextual one is more interesting. Hamilton arrived at [McLaren](/en/teams/mclaren) in 2007 as a rookie who nearly won the championship on debut, then won it the following year. He moved to [Mercedes](/en/teams/mercedes) in 2013 when the team was not yet dominant, and the six titles that followed were built, not inherited. His seven championships tie him with Schumacher, a number that once seemed like a ceiling for the sport rather than a floor.

What those numbers reshaped is the frame of reference for every driver who came after. [Max Verstappen](/en/drivers/verstappen_max), who ended Hamilton's run of four consecutive titles in 2021 at Abu Dhabi in circumstances that remain disputed, has spoken of Hamilton as the standard against which his own career is measured. [Valtteri Bottas](/en/drivers/bottas_valtteri), Hamilton's teammate at Mercedes for five seasons, was consistently outscored by a driver who made elite pace look routine.

Beyond the paddock, Hamilton's decision to use number 44 throughout his career — drawn from his father's Vauxhall Cavalier plate — became one of the sport's most recognizable symbols. His honorary Brazilian citizenship in 2022 reflected something real: a following that extended far beyond Britain, built race by race across 384 starts on five continents. In 2025, at 40, he joined [Ferrari](/en/teams/ferrari), the sport's most storied team, still racing.