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.