Lewis Hamilton
Hamilton, who was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, took up karting at the age of eight, progressed through several entry-level categories and was accepted into the McLaren driver development programme by Ron Dennis in 1998 on the strength of his outstanding talent. After completing his karting years, he entered the British Formula Renault Winter Series in 2001, finishing fifth. The following year, the 17-year-old competed in the main British Formula Renault series and the Formula Renault 2.0 Eurocup in parallel, where he finished third and fifth, respectively. In 2003, in his second year in British Formula Renault, he took the championship title and 12th place in the Formula Renault 2.0 European Cup. In the same year, Hamilton also made brief guest appearances in the German Formula Renault and the British Formula 3 Championship. In 2004 and 2005, he raced in the Formula 3 Euro Series. After fifth place in the first year, he secured the title in a Dallara-Mercedes in the second.
At high speed, Hamilton's career then moved on to the GP2 series, which acted as a direct feeder formula for potential Formula 1 youngsters. Here, too, he left no doubt about his ambitions and won the series outright after five heat victories. Consequently, the McLaren-Mercedes team engaged the Briton as its second regular driver for 2007, alongside the reigning world champion, Spaniard Fernando Alonso. The newcomer achieved a place on the podium in each of his first three races – a record in the history of Formula 1. He won the Grand Prix of Canada, the USA, Hungary and Japan in this season. Hamilton leds the drivers' world championship standings until the season finale in Brazil, but had to concede defeat to Kimi Raikkönen in the Ferrari at the finale, who became Formula 1 world champion for the first time, just one point ahead of Lewis Hamilton.
In 2008, Lewis Hamilton made up for narrowly missing out on this drivers' title: shortly before the end of the last race of the season, he won the championship in the MP4-23 with a one-point lead over Felipe Massa in the Ferrari – as the youngest world champion in Formula 1 history up to that point. The 2009 season was dominated by the Mercedes customer team Brawn GP and the Briton had to settle for fifth place in the drivers' world championship. 2010 marked the beginning of Sebastian Vettel's dominance with Red Bull-Renault. Hamilton could only rarely stand up to the young German star in this and the following two seasons. In the overall drivers' standings, he did not get beyond fourth, fifth and fourth again.
In 2013, a new era dawned with Hamilton's move to the Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 factory team, which had been founded three years earlier. Alongside his German team-mate Nico Rosberg and with only one victory in his debut season – at the Hungarian Grand Prix – the Briton was initially placed fourth in the drivers' standings, just ahead of Rosberg. The new engine regulations with a two-part energy recovery system, which came into force in 2014 and prescribed 1.6-litre V6 turbo units, permanently changed the balance of power in the Formula 1 field. Right from the start, the Mercedes Formula 1 racing cars dominated the scene at will, and Lewis Hamilton took the world championship title in both 2014 and 2015, ahead of Nico Rosberg.
After narrowly beating his German team-mate in the 2016 season, Hamilton became Formula One World Champion for the fourth time in 2017 in superior style after no less than nine Grand Prix victories and four further podium finishes during the 20-round season in total. In the following year, the reigning champion dominated even more clearly – although the first half of the season was quite exciting. However, with an outstanding performance that included a sequence of four consecutive wins, Lewis Hamilton secured his fifth world title at the Mexican Grand Prix with two races to go, well ahead of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen in Ferrari. A total of eleven Grand Prix successes and six further podium finishes contributed to this. In the 2019 season, Hamilton's lead was even more pronounced; after another eleven wins and six more podium finishes, the Brit managed to secure a sixth world title ahead of his team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
The 2020 season, which was marked by the outbreak of the Covid 19 pandemic, did not start until July and only comprised 17 races instead of the originally planned 22, and the exceptional British talent won his seventh world championship title with a further increased lead, once again ahead of Bottas. It didn't become close until 2021, when Hamilton entered the season finale in Abu Dhabi level on points with his strongest rival Max Verstappen after eight wins and nine podiums. Hamilton, who leds until the last lap, lost his lead and the victory he thought was already secure due to a Safety Car intervention shortly before the end of the race, when race director Michael Masi made the controversial decision to reopen the race for the last lap. Verstappen, who had fresh soft tyres fitted during the long safety car phase, took advantage of this, overtook Hamilton and became world champion. As a result of his unexpected and momentous decision, Masi was no longer appointed as race director the following year.
2022 was shaping up to be a very difficult season for Hamilton and the Mercedes-AMG F1 team, with the car not on the fast track as in previous years. Hamilton failed to score a single victory, and in the end the record world champion, who is tied with Michael Schumacher with seven titles since 2020, had to settle for sixth place in the drivers' standings.
The 2023 season was only marginally better for Hamilton and the Mercedes team, even though the Briton finished third in the drivers' championship and the team moved up from third place the previous year to second in the constructors' championship. Unfortunately, the much-anticipated liberating blow also failed to materialise in the 2024 season. Even before the first race, it was unexpectedly announced that Hamilton would leave the Mercedes team at the end of the season and drive for Ferrari from 2025.
The Briton, who had presented himself as an exceptional talent right from the start since his Formula 1 debut in 2007, was at the top of the Formula 1 statistics in almost all criteria: seven world championship titles, 103 race wins, 198 podium finishes and 103 pole positions speak for themselves.