Lewis Hamilton British race-car driver

Lewis Hamilton, in full Lewis Carl Hamilton (born January 7, 1985, Stevenage, England) British race-car driver who was one of the most successful Formula One (F1) Grand Prix racing drivers of the early 21st century. In 2008 he won his first F1 world drivers’ championship, becoming the first black driver to capture that title.

Hamilton began his driving career when he was eight years old. He won the British Kart Championship when he was 10. Three years later Hamilton was signed to the McLaren and Mercedes-Benz Young Driver Support Programme, where he was given the support and backing he needed to train and develop his skills. From 1998 to 2000 he won European and world karting championships, and at age 15 he became the youngest-ever driver to be ranked number one in the sport.

Hamilton progressed to car racing, and in 2003 he captured the British Formula Renault race series championship by winning 10 of the 15 races he entered. The following year he competed in the Formula Three Euroseries championship. He won the championship in 2005, and in 2006 he joined a team competing in GP2 (Grand Prix 2)—a race series designed to help drivers prepare for F1—and won the GP2 title in his one season in the series.


In 2007 Hamilton joined the McLaren F1 team. In his rookie season he came in second in the world drivers’ championship, only one point behind the winner, Finland’s Kimi Räikkönen. His four race victories that year tied Jacques Villeneuve’s F1 record for most wins in a rookie season. The following year, at the age of 23, he won five races to secure the drivers’ championship. (Hamilton was the youngest person to have claimed the title, until Sebastian Vettel won the championship in 2010.)

In subsequent seasons with McLaren, Hamilton continued to be one of the top drivers on the F1 circuit, winning two races in 2009, three in 2010, three in 2011, and four in 2012. In September 2012 Hamilton decided to leave McLaren to join the Mercedes-Benz F1 team. He had some difficulty adjusting in his first season with Mercedes-Benz, winning just one race in 2013, but Hamilton nevertheless managed to rack up enough points to finish in the top five of the drivers’ championship standings for the seventh consecutive season.

Hamilton dominated the F1 season in 2014, winning a career-high 11 races to capture his second drivers’ championship. He was just as dominant in 2015, when he won his third drivers’ championship one month before the season ended. In both seasons Hamilton’s performance, combined with that of teammate Nico Rosberg, enabled Mercedes-Benz to win the F1 constructor’s championship.

Lewis Hamilton seeks positives after 'horrifying' race

Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton cast around for a silver lining after a "horrifying" Chinese Grand Prix weekend and found some solace in the numbers.

"Not as bad as I thought," the Briton told reporters after discovering he was 'only' 36 points behind Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg with 18 rounds remaining.

Rosberg has now won six races in a row, the last three of 2015 and first three of 2016, and the German is in the form of his life.

"It's been awkward but these things happen and these things are sent to try us," Hamilton said after starting from the back of the grid in Shanghai.

"Of course I don't sit here at all with an amazing feeling but I have the utmost confidence in this team," added the triple champion, whose five-place grid drop for an unscheduled gearbox change was compounded by power unit problems in qualifying.

Contact with another car at the first corner then damaged his Mercedes and wrecked his chances of what could have been a remarkable drive to the podium. He finished seventh.

"It was a horrifying race, really," he said.

"But there were some good experiences, obviously the overtaking. At one point when I went around someone on the outside through turn seven and then through the outside of someone at turn eight.

"I love doing that stuff, you know ... so there were some proud moments for sure."

Hamilton can take heart from the 2014 season, when he trailed Rosberg by 29 points at one stage before coming back to take the title with six wins from the last seven races, and his mindset is different now too.

"Definitely don't feel the dark cloud that I've had in the past over me right now," Hamilton said. "Of course it's a trying time and for sure lots of different emotions and thoughts are going through my mind.

"But there's a long, long way to go, lots can happen. It's just that I have no more jokers available, really."

Eighteen multi-millionaire Formula One drivers go out for £50-a-head Chinese meal... and insist on splitting the bill between them (even though champion Lewis Hamilton offered to pay it all)

With a £33million pay packet, you would think that Lewis Hamilton would have no problem footing the bill for a meal in China with his fellow Formula One drivers.

But when the motorsport champion offered to fork out for the group dinner, the other 17 competitors all insisted that they wouldn't let him pay their share.

So the group ended up splitting the bill 18 ways, throwing 18 credit cards on the table and dividing a tab worth around £900 into just £50 each.



Meal: F1 drivers (clockwise from bottom left) Nico Rosberg, Daniel Ricciardo, Fernando Alonso, Nico Hulkenberg, Valtteri Bottas, Max Verstappen, Daniil Kvyat, Esteban Gutierrez, Esteban Ocon, Marcus Ericsson, Felipe Nasr, Pascal Wehrlein, Felipe Massa, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel, Carlos Sainz, Sergio Perez and Lewis Hamilton went for dinner on Wednesday night

Hamilton complained afterwards that it would have been simpler for one or two drivers to pay for the whole group - while his colleague Nico Rosberg joked that as champion, the British star had a duty to take care of the bill.

The 18 drivers, from nine different Formula One teams, headed to The Kitchen Salvatore Cuomo in Shanghai on Wednesday night ahead of this weekend's Chinese Grand Prix in the same city.

The stars showed that despite their fierce competition on the track they can still get along off it as they posed for a good-natured photograph which was later posted on social media.

After the meal Hamilton revealed that the other drivers had overruled his suggestion that just one or two of them pay, despite the hassle of getting all of them involved.





Teammates: Hamilton, left, offered to pay for the whole meal and Rosberg, right, joked that the champion should have the footed the bill

'I did say, "Why don’t I just get it now, or two of us do it,"' he told the Daily Mirror. 'And they are like, "No, no, no. I want to pay individually."

'We all got a receipt, 18 receipts, 18 credit cards, it was the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen.'

He claimed that his Mercedes teammate Rosberg was the brains behind the elaborate plan - but the German denied the suggestion, and joked that he thought Hamilton had a duty to pay the whole thing.

'From what I can remember, the hidden agreement usually is that the world champion pays,' he said.



Practice: Hamilton pictured on the track where the Chinese Grand Prix will take place on Sunday

The restaurant's manager, Giovanni Wong, insisted that the establishment knew in advance that they had to prepare 18 separate bills and described the drivers as 'very polite'.

The eatery in the centre of Shanghai specialises in pizza and other Italian food, despite the city's status as one of the best places to eat gourmet Chinese cuisine.

Hamilton, 31, the overall Formula One champion for the past two seasons, will be hoping to land his third consecutive Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday after winning the race in 2014 and 2015.

He has yet to record a win this year, having come second in the Australian Grand Prix and third in the Bahrain race.

The Stevenage-born star has become one of Britain's wealthiest sportsman thanks to his three Formula One titles, and was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in 2014.