Friday Feature – Spotlight: Lewis Hamilton – Formula One

In this weeks blog post, we will be doing a bit of a throwback since I haven’t written one of these in a while. We will be covering a Spotlight/Friday Feature on Lewis Hamilton – the famous Formula One driver for Mercedes. 

We all know him by Lewis Hamilton in the Formula One world, but since he was knighted in 2021, he was re-named Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton (okay, maybe the Sir part was the only new real edition) point is, he’s a big deal no matter what you know him as. Born on January 7, 1985 in Stevenage, England to parents, Anthony Hamilton and Carmen Larbalestier, Lewis (like many other professional racers) started off developing an interest in cars at a young age. I guess it’s true that many kids know what they want to become from small! 

Early Years

It all started with his father buying him a remote controlled car when he was 5. And literally a year later he was already competing in adult competitions believe it or not! He finished 2nd in the national BRCA championship – not bad for a 6 year old! But unfortunately as we still see today, racism was not something that Hamilton was lucky enough not to experience – just the start of his problems actually. 

Hamilton did have one thing going for him besides the talent of course – he had his father to lean on and as long as he worked hard at school his father promised to support him in his career, even going as far as buying him a go-kart for his present at Christmas when he was 6. To fulfil his promise to his son, Anthony took on several jobs after taking redundancy from his position as an IT manager and became a contractor. He also took on side jobs, sometimes working up to 4 jobs at a time including employment as a double glazing salesman, dishwasher, and putting up signs for real estate agents, all this while still making time to attend his son’s races. He later went on to start up his own IT company and continued to be Hamilton’s manager up until 2010. 

Now it wasn’t easy being a child of divorced parents, let alone it was hard to raise a kid by yourself as a single parent. But when both parents want the best for their kid(s) they will go to the ends of the world for them, just like his father did. And Lewis was lucky, he had his older half-sisters, Samantha and Nicola, and his mother by his side, so he never really felt the impact – being the younger sibling – and ended up living with them until the age of 12. After this, he moved with his father and stepmother, Linda, and half brother Nicholas (who is also a professional racing driver).

Being raised as a Catholic, it only made sense that Hamilton went to a Catholic school – The John Henry Newman School, which was a voluntary aided Catholic school in Stevenage, and this is where the wrong end of the stick in life continued for him. There was a point where he was a victim of mistaken identity in a bullying incident at school (that left the victim in hospital to be treated for his injuries) and had Hamilton excluded from school for a certain point of time. He also took up karate lessons when he was 5 in order to defend himself from bullying, another sad result of him growing up as a mixed kid. 

But on a lighter note, in addition to racing, he was also into sports, playing association football for his school team alongside the now famous Ashley Young. Hamilton was even noted mentioning if he didn’t end up in racing, he would have gone on to play football or cricket on a professional scale, playing for both teams while in school. In February 2001, he began his studies at Cambridge Arts and Sciences (CATS) – a private sixth form college in Cambridge – studying for his GCSE (General Certificate of Secondary Education). 

Junior Racing Career – Karting

As mentioned previously, Hamilton’s racing career did start quite early (at the age of 6) and on top of winning 2nd prize at the BRCA, he also went on to win several national titles and attracted the attention of Ron Dennis (McLaren Formula One team boss), who signed him with the McLaren Young Driver Programme in 1998. Now, this also came with a contract that would secure Hamilton’s future – he just didn’t know it at the time. The contract included an option of a future Formula One seat – making him the youngest driver to secure a contract that later resulted in a Formula One drive.  

Lewis continued to progress in the International A in 1999, Formula A in 2000, and Formula Super A in 2001, and even became European Champion in 2000 with maximum points. Also in 2000, following his karting successes, the British Racing Drivers Club made him a “Rising Star” member. 

In 2001, Michael Schumacher competed against Hamilton along with Vitantonio Liuzzi and Nico Rosberg, in a one-off return to karts. Hamilton ended up in 7th place – 4 places behind Schumacher. Despite not seeing much of one another on the track, Schumacher still praised the young Brit nonetheless.     

Formula One Racing Career

Hamilton’s racing career with Formula One officially began in 2007 (at the age of 22) when he was partnered with two-time (and defending) World Champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren. The team used Mercedes engines and interestingly enough, was owned (40%) by the German manufacturer at the time. 

After securing a podium spot in his first race, it was only uphill for Hamilton from here. He went on to set several records including, the most consecutive podium finishes from debut, the most joint wins in a debut season, and the most points in a debut season. Gaining the championship lead as early as the 4th round of the season, helped make Lewis the youngest Formula One driver to lead the champion standings. It was hard for him not to feel encouraged to stay – despite some tension that arose between him and his racing partner not too long after – so it only made sense that he signed a multi-million pound contract to stay on with the team until 2012. 

2008 went on to be another year that turned out successful for him, but it was the last 4 years that he was with the McLaren racing team that would really shake things up. Changes were made to major technical regulations in 2009, which proved to be difficult for McLaren to cope with. It made it hard for Hamilton to defend his title, often qualifying just outside of the top 10 and struggling to finish on points. 

But it was thanks to the major upgrades McLaren decided to make on its MP4-24 for the German Grand Prix that helped to relieve some tension and worry for the team, advancing Lewis from 11th place to 5th place in the Driver’s Championship standings, securing 2 race wins and 5 podium finishes.

Hamilton was partnered with someone new in 2010 – reigning World Champion Jenson Button. Once again, having to be prepared for the rollercoaster ride he knew was coming, it was easier for him to deal with the disappointing performance and operational efficiency overall. There was a peak of hope at the end of the season when he entered the final round with the chance of winning the title, but that fell through when the title was awarded to Sebastian Vettel. 

2011 would go on to be known as the first season he was out-scored by his own teammate, but it was sort of justified as he was going through some personal problems at the time – clearly getting in the way of his performance. And finally 2012, the last year he drove for McLaren. He finished 4th in the standings and achieved 4 race wins despite all the drama the cars put him through throughout the season. It was to everyone’s surprise just before the end of the season when Lewis announced he would be taking Schumacher’s place (who was retiring) on the Mercedes racing team in the 2013 season.  

Net Worth

Lewis Hamilton has the highest net worth of all current F1 drivers. For 2024, his net worth is estimated at approximately $285 million. This net worth is defined by his Formula One salary, bonuses, endorsements, investments, and Formula One prize money.  

Personal Life

There was lots of speculation surrounding Hamilton’s personal life, but he shut down the rumours in 2022, by admitting that he hadn’t recently been in any long term relationships. He was invested in focusing all of his energy into his career and continues to do so today. He was also quoted saying, ”Not right now, no, I don’t have time for that.” when asked about having kids. He went on to say he enjoyed being an uncle and hasn’t decided on whether he wants kids yet or not. 

Final Thoughts

Being the first black racer in the Formula One racing series proved difficult for Hamilton and he was determined to change that future for other young kids that shared similar characteristics to him. He is a prominent advocate against racism and for increased diversity in motorsport, and was even quoted saying “Kids, people, there are so many jobs in this sport of which anybody, no matter your ethnicity or background, can make it and fit in.” (Archer, Bruce (22 March 2018). “Lewis Hamilton launches racial attack on F1 in social media post before Australian GP”. express.co.uk. The Express.).

He is a well rounded human outside of the motorsport world too and there are so many different initiatives he is a part of. To read more about them, and the differences he is trying to make in this world, please visit Wikipedia’s page covering this linked here.