Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (born 7 January, 1985 in Stevenage, England) is a British Formula One Driver who has driven for McLaren since 2007. He won the 2008 Formula One World Championship. He is often labelled as the first 'black' Formula One racing driver.

Pre-Formula 1

RC and Karting

Hamilton's first got involved in motorsport when his father Anthony bought him a RC car in 1991. Soon after he came runner-up in a national RC racing championship. In 1993, Hamilton took up Karting at the Rye House Kart Circuit in Hertfordshire. Two years later and he'd won the British Karting Championship (cadet class) and STP Karting Championship. He met McLaren team boss Ron Dennis in 1995 and asked for an autograph. He then told Dennis "Hi. I’m Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars." Dennis responded in Hamilton's autograph book, writing "Phone me in nine years, we’ll sort something out then."

The 1996 season saw more success winning the Champions of the Future series, Sky TV KartMasters Championship and Five Nations Championship. 1997 saw Lewis win the Champions of the Future series again along with the Super One series and again won the British Championship.

1998 saw Hamilton signed to the McLaren Driver Development Support programme. He was 13 at the time, making him the youngest driver to be contracted to an F1 team.

His Karting success continued winning the Trophy de Pomposa and Italian “Industrials” Championship in 1999, the Formula A European Champion, World Cup Championship and Elf Masters in 2000.

Formula Renault

Hamilton was given the opportunity to drive a Formula Renault car in 2001, but it didn't go to plan. Manor Motorsport boss John Booth said "McLaren asked us to give Lewis a test in our Formula Renault and tell them what we thought. We took him to a general test day at Mallory Park. He'd never driven a car before, not even a road car - and he crashed our Renault after three laps! But the boys put it back together again, and he went back out and went very quickly. It hadn’t fazed him in the slightest."

He took part in the Formula Renault Winter Series, finishing fifth. In 2002 he took part in Formula Renault UK finishing third overall with three wins to his name. The following season he dominated the championship winning 10 races out of 15.

Formula Three

He made an appearance in the British Formula Three Championship in the final round but crashed in the first race and collided with his team mate in the second. Nevertheless he took part in the 2004 Formula Three Euro series for Manor winning one race at the Norising in Germany. He finished fourth overall just behind Nico Rosberg but ahead of Robert Kubica. He got his first taste of Formula 1, being rewarded with a test of a McLaren F1 car.

He switched to Formula 3 for the 2005 series and went on to dominate the series along with his team mate Adrian Sutil. Hamilton won 15 of the 20 races that season and finished 78 points ahead of Sutil.

GP2

He moved onto the Formula 1 feeder series GP2 in 2006, driving for ASM's sister team ART Grand Prix who had just helped Nico Rosberg earn a place driving for Williams. His main competition came from Nelson Piquet, Jr. Lewis won five rounds, including both at his home circuit, Silverstone, both at the Nürburgring and the sole race in Monte Carlo. He finished eight points ahead of Piquet failing to pick up points in just four of the 21 rounds.

Formula One

2007-Present: McLaren

Records

Currently holds

Most consecutive podiums from debut race: 9 (2007 Australian Grand Prix to 2007 British Grand Prix)
Most consecutive podiums for a British driver: 9 (2007 Australian Grand Prix to 2007 British Grand Prix, tied with Jim Clark)
Youngest driver to lead the World Championship: 7008705153600000000♠22 years, 126 days (after 2007 Spanish Grand Prix)
Most wins in a debut season: 4 (Canada, United States, Hungary, Japan, tied with Jacques Villeneuve)
Most pole positions in a debut season: 6 (Canada, United States, Great Britain, Hungary, Japan, China)

Previously held

Youngest F1 World Champion: 7008751744800000000♠23 years, 300 days at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix. (Record held for 7007641520000000000♠2 years, 12 days until broken by Sebastian Vettel at the 2010 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, when he won at age 7008737402400000000♠23 years, 134 days)

Personal life

Lewis was born to father Anthony and mother Carmen. Lewis's parents split was he was two and he lived with his mother and his two half-sisters Nicola and Samantha. At age 12 he began to live with his father and stepmother Linda along with his half-brother Nicholas who has cerebral palsy. Many of his family members, especially father Anthony, attend grand prix to support Lewis.

After his successful rookie season, Lewis announced that he would be moving to Switzerland to escape the growing media circus surrounding him. However, he later admitted on the TV show Parkinson that the lighter tax rules also played a part in his decision.

A lot is often made of Lewis' ethnicity. His father is black while his mother is white meaning he comes from a mixed-race background. He is often labelled "the first black driver in Formula One". He is currently dating Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls.

Formula One Statistical Overview

F1 Career Record

Year	Team	Pts	WDC Pos.	Report
2007	McLaren-Mercedes	109	2nd	Report
2008	McLaren-Mercedes	98	1st	Report
2009	McLaren-Mercedes	49	5th	Report
2010	McLaren-Mercedes	240	4th	Report
2011	McLaren-Mercedes	227	5th	Report
2012	McLaren-Mercedes	117*	4th*	Report

* Season in progress, as of the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix

Statistics

Correct as of the 2012 Hungarian Grand Prix

Entries	101
Starts	101
Pole positions	22
Front Row Starts	43
Victories	19
Podia	47
Fastest laps	11
Points	840
Laps raced	5693
kms raced	28382.959
Races led	43
Laps led	1162
kms lead	5640.504
Doubles	10
Hat-tricks	2

Wins