In honour of Black History Month in the UK, this is Part Two in a three-part series that highlights the life and career so far of F1’s first-ever Black driver, Sir Lewis Hamilton.
In part one of this series, we looked at Sir Lewis Hamilton’s journey into F1. It was a detailed look into his junior career, and how that led up to his signing to drive for McLaren in F1 for the 2007 season. Part two will highlight the highs and the lows, as well as the accolades that Hamilton has claimed so far in his long and highly decorated career.
What records does he hold?
- Drivers’ Championships – 7 (equal with Michael Schumacher)
- Wins – 103
- Pole positions – 104
- Podium finishes – 197
- Career points – 4599.5
- Consecutive seasons with at least one Grand Prix win – 15 (equal with Michael Schumacher)
- Consecutive seasons with at least one pole position – 15
- Wins in first championship season – 4 (equal with Jacques Villeneuve)
- Wins at the same GP – 8 (equal with Michael Schumacher)
- Consecutive wins at the same GP – (equal with Ayrton Senna)
To understand how he got all these numbers to his name, let’s go right back to the start of His F1 career.
The start of something special
Having been signed to McLaren in 2007, Hamilton was set to begin his Formula One journey. By competing in F1 that season, it meant that he had one record already broken.
In 2007, Sir Lewis Hamilton became the first Black driver to compete in Formula One in the sport’s entire history. Before him, African-American William Theodore Ribbs Jr. was the first black to drive an F1 car, when he tested the Bernie Ecclestone-owned Brabham team in 1996.
Prior to the start of the season, it looked like Hamilton had quite the task ahead of him. Chosen to be his teammate was Fernando Alonso who had also just signed for McLaren. Alonso was coming off the back of winning two back-to-back titles with Renault and was hoping to collect a third at McLaren.
Hamilton however hit the ground running from his first-ever F1 race, at turn 1 of Albert Park, on lap 1. The young Brit overtook Alonso, and BMW driver Kubica, at the first corner to take second position. Lewis managed to keep Alonso behind him for most of the race, before losing out at the second round of pit stops, where Alonso jumped him. Hamilton went on to score a podium in his first F1 race ever, after finishing P3, with Alonso finishing P2 behind race winner Kimi Raikkonen.
Lewis Hamilton was the first driver to debut on the podium in the sport’s history.
Streak of podiums
The podium was exactly where Lewis Hamilton stayed for the next four races, finishing P2 each time, before finally claiming his maiden victory at the Canadian GP, the sixth race of the season.
That was the first of four wins for the rookie. By the time the season concluded, Hamilton had accumulated 12 podiums, 6 pole positions, 4 race wins and 2 fastest laps in a 17-race season. All the more, he finished P2 in the Drivers’ Championship, 1 point behind Kimi Raikkonen. Defending Champion Fernando Alonso finished the season level on points with Hamilton but because the rookie had five second-place finishes to Alonso’s four, he was awarded second place in the Championship, with Alonso getting P3.
In fact, Hamilton was mathematically, the favourite to win the title that year going into the final race. It would have been his first F1 title and in his rookie season. Unfortunately for him, a lack of grip at the Chinese Grand Prix led to the driver beaching his car in the gravel trap. A moment that might have singlehandedly lost him the title. That was the second last race of the season though, and for a rookie to be in a title fight all the way to the last race of the season was worth all the applause.
As of 2023, no one in the history of F1 has ever had a rookie season as successful as that of Lewis Hamilton’s.
Second time’s a charm
In just his second season, in 2008, Lewis Hamilton became a Formula One World Champion for the first time ever. At the time, he was F1’s youngest Champion ever.
The 2008 season gave us one of the most dramatic ever season finales in the sport. With a 5-point lead into the final race of the season, all Lewis needed to do was to finish 5th at the Brazilian Grand Prix. Felipe Massa and Lewis Hamilton had been title rivals all season long. For the Brazil GP, Massa had started on pole, with Lewis 5th, but McLaren had faith that they had the pace to finish within the top five.
It rained at the start of the race, but both Massa and Hamilton managed to avoid any chaos, and the rain soon cleared out. In the final 9 laps of the race, everything seemed to change. With light rain falling, tyre changes were imminent. Hamilton was fifth, with Toro Rosso driver Sebastian Vettel hot on his heels.
All Hamilton had to do was hold off the Toro Rosso, but when Robert Kubica in the BMW unlapped the Briton, things went from bad to worse. Hamilton went wide, and naturally, Vettel passed him and went into P5. There were 3 laps left.
Hamilton spent the next two laps trying to catch and pass Vettel to move back into the position he needed for the title to be his. But Vettel was fast and seemed just out of reach for Hamilton. Ahead of Vettel though, Timo Glock was timing slower times than the two behind him.
At that point, Massa had already crossed the line, and as it stood, Felipe Massa was World Champion. But as there were celebrations in the Ferrari garage, the camera switched to show both Vettel and Hamilton pass a slow-moving Timo Glock. The origin of the infamous Martin Brundle line, “Is that Glock?”
That was it. Lewis Hamilton’s name was etched into the Drivers’ Championship trophy.
At level with a hero
Despite getting somewhat near reaches in the following years, Lewis Hamilton got closest to a title again in 2014.
In 2013, he made the shocking move to Mercedes. A move that many thought would be bad for his career. The Mercedes was no title contender in 2013, but with regulation changes coming into play for the 2014 season, Mercedes got it right.
Nico Rosberg was Lewis Hamilton’s teammate at Mercedes from 2013 through to 2016. The childhood friends and karting teammates found themselves in an intense title fight throughout those years. Hamilton came out on top in both 2014 and 2015.
Mercedes won 16 of the 19 races in 2014, 11 of those secured by Hamilton in a season-long duel against Rosberg. Hamilton dominated the 2015 season. He won 10 races that season and had 17 podium finishes – equaling Vettel and Michael Schumcher’s records. Hamilton’s dominance was not short of competition, as the rivalry between him and Rosberg intensified. His teammate was close behind him with 15 podiums and 5 wins in a season where the two were involved in intense wheel-to-wheel battles on more than one occasion.
By the end of that season, Lewis Hamilton was a three-time World Champion, equaling his idol Ayrton Senna’s achievements.
Every rivalry has its tipping point
2016 was a different year altogether. What remained the same was that the Mercedes was still the fastest car, and Rosberg and Hamilton’s rivalry was still filled with heavy tension. Ever since their karting days, Hamilton had always beaten Rosberg head-to-head. That all changed in 2016.
Nico Rosberg’s talent paired with Lewis Hamilton’s poor luck was the perfect recipe for Rosberg to claim as his own the title by the end of the season.
Lewis had a slow start off the line at the season opener in Australia. Meanwhile, Rosberg’s start was better as was his recovery drive from a good Ferrari start. The German won the opening race of the season. In Bahrain, Hamilton was hit at Turn 1 by the Williams of Valtteri Bottas. Rosberg went on to win that race too. The next rounds were no better for Hamilton as power unit issues during qualifying in China and Russia gave Rosberg a way to run to victory. That was four wins in a row for Rosberg.
The Spanish Grand Prix was a momentum shifter. Rosberg had entered an incorrect engine mode later into the first lap of the race. The speed differential coming out of Turn 4 allowed Hamilton to get close to him. The two collided and crashed out of the race.
Following the double DNF from Mercedes, Nico’s form seemed to have faltered, allowing Lewis to pick up a few wins. However, a mistake during qualifying at Baku saw Rosberg take pole, and ultimately the win. Those 15 points Lewis lost would prove to be crucial.
Hamilton’s engine problems that occurred at the start of the season had left him with a small pool of available power units for the rest of the year. This meant that grid penalties were inevitable. The later stages of the season saw him suffer more reliability issues. Despite great drives throughout the entire season, Hamilton lost out on the title by 5 points at the last race of the season to his teammate Nico Rosberg.
7…and counting?
Nico Rosberg retired from F1 after winning the title in 2016, leaving Mercedes to search for a driver to fill the seat alongside Lewis. Valtteri Bottas joined Mercedes in 2017, before later leaving for Alfa Romeo in 2022.
The relationship between Bottas and Hamilton was much more harmonious than the previous Mercedes duo. Bottas was also unable to match Lewis’ pace on multiple occasions. However, his qualifying pace was often electrifying and bettered that of Lewis.
2017 and 2018 gave us a title fight between Hamilton and Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
The start of the 2017 season was tight between the title contenders. The Ferrari did appear to be more consistent in terms of race trim. Sebastian Vettel led the championship for the first 12 rounds, however, Ferrari’s challenge was minimised towards the end of the season. In Singapore, a collision with Max Verstappen took out both Ferraris. As for Malaysia, a reliability issue cost Vettel his qualifying. Japan was where Ferrari was supposed to pick up the pieces, but a faulty spark plug led to Vettel’s retirement. All this cost them vital points in both Championships. Lewis Hamilton took the title at the Mexican Grand Prix with 2 races still to go.
Hamilton vs Ferrari
In 2018, Lewis Hamilton drove an almost faultless season. Sebastian Vettel remained a part of the title fight all season long, but poor strategies and driver errors would ultimately win Lewis the title with 2 races to go.
That was Lewis Hamilton’s fifth title.
Hamilton had a somewhat easier run to the title in 2019. Ferrari were tough competition in terms of engine power and qualifying pace. In fact, they were the quickest on the straights that season. Mercedes had the upper hand in the corners, and in strategies. Ferrari’s issue was that their season was full of team and driver mistakes, ultimately handing Lewis and Mercedes both titles.
In 2020, Mercedes delivered the perfect aerodynamic package to defend both their titles. The W11 was a sight to behold. The Ferraris were not as close as they had been in the previous years. This was because they were outstripped in aerodynamics and engine power after the FIA investigated them on a technical directive related to fuel flow.
With a package that was fit for the champion, Lewis drove like so all season long.
As if it was written in the stars, fourteen years after that infamous race in Istanbul that defined his young career, Hamilton earned his seventh title in Istanbul. The young Black boy from Stevenage had equalled Michael Schumacher’s record for most F1 Drivers’ Championships.
The storm before the calm?
After a riveting season-long fight with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen in 2021, Lewis Hamilton was on his way to a record-breaking eighth title in F1. In the season finale, Hamilton had driven the perfect race and had only seven laps left to the chequered flag. Unfortunately, Nicholas Latifi’s crash triggered a safety car to come out, and ultimately a controversial end to the season. Verstappen crossed the line first, named World Champion for the first time in his career. The FIA later confirmed that the decisions made by the race director during the final few laps were human error.
Following the pain of those final few laps, Hamilton went on a social media break, and the media went into a frenzy on whether the driver would retire from the sport. Hamilton however returned to compete for the 2022 season and has recently signed a new contract with Mercedes.
More difficulties
2022 brought a new set of regulations. Once again, it was all about who got it right from the get-go. This time around, it was Red Bull, not Mercedes. Mercedes took the risk of having no sidepods on their W13 – a car that was far off the pace of its predecessors.
Lewis had his first winless F1 season in 2022 but was on the podium for 9 races out of 22. He had spent most of his season helping his team conduct experiments in order to fine-tune the car, ultimately sacrificing his results.
Coming into 2023, it didn’t get any easier for the 7-time champion. Mercedes stayed through to its zero-pod concept. But finally, they followed the rest of the grid and brought side-pods to their car from Monaco onwards. Despite a couple of upgrades throughout the season, Mercedes have neither made significant gains nor losses in terms of pace. Hamilton gave the team pole position in Hungary, a message that he is still very much the driver that McLaren signed all those years ago.
Lewis is currently on the charge for P2 in the standings. In the battle with him is Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
