Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton 

Born  in  :  Stevenage 

Date of Birth: January 7, 1985

Nationality: British

Racing for:  McLaren Mercedes team

Claim to fame: Youngest ever Formula One World  Champion

 

Formula One World Championship career
2008 team	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
2008 car #	22
2009 team	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes
Races	35
Championships	1 (2008)
Wins	9
Podium finishes	22
Career points	207
Pole positions	13
Fastest laps	3
First race	2007 Australian Grand Prix
First win	2007 Canadian Grand Prix
Last win	2008 Chinese Grand Prix
Last race	2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
2008 position	1st (98 points)

Named after the American sprinter Carl Lewis, he famously approached McLaren team principal, Ron Dennis, at an awards ceremony and told him "I want to race for you one day". He was only 10 Years old when he made that bold remark. Less than three years later, he was signed by McLaren and Mercedes-Benz to their Young Driver Support Programme.

 He won the  British Formula Renault, European Formula Three and GP2 championship and  became a McLaren F1 driver in 2007. Coming from a mixed race background, with a black father and white mother, Hamilton is often labelled "the first black driver in Formula One".

 

In his first season in Formula One, Hamilton set numerous rookie records and finished second in the 2007 Formula One Championship, behind Kimi Räikkönen by just one point. His first world championship was won in 2008 by the same margin of a single point, ahead of Felipe Massa. He has quipped that he wants to stay with the McLaren team for the rest of his F1 career.

Records

Hamilton has matched or set the following records in Formula One:

§    Most consecutive podiums from debut race: 9 – Australian GP 2007 – British GP 2007 (previous record was by Peter Arundell – Monaco GP 1964 – Dutch GP 1964)

§    Most consecutive podiums for a British driver: 9 – Australian GP 2007 – British GP 2007 (tied with Jim Clark – Belgian GP 1963 – South African GP 1963)

§    Youngest driver to lead the World Championship: 22 years, 4 months, 8 days – at the Bahrain GP 2007 (Previous record was 23 years, 7 months, 22 days by Fernando Alonso at the Malaysian GP 2005)

§    Most wins in a debut season: 4, Canadian, USA, Hungarian and Japanese GPs 2007 (equalling Jacques Villeneuve, European, British,Hungarian and Portuguese GPs 1996)

§     Most pole positions in a debut season:  6, Canadian, USA, British, Hungarian, Japanese and Chinese GPs 2007 (Previous record was 3 held jointly by Jacques Villeneuve (1996) and Juan Pablo Montoya (2001))

§    Youngest F1 World Champion (2008 season) 23 years, 8 months, 26 days, previously held by Fernando Alonso with 24 years and 58 days.

Career summary

Season	Series	Team Name	No.	Races	Poles	Wins	Pts	Final Placing
2000	World Formula A Championship	TeamMBM.com (CRG/Parilla)		1		0	n/a	DNF
	European Formula A Championship	TeamMBM.com (CRG/Parilla)		9		5	75	1st
	Formula A World Cup	TeamMBM.com (CRG/Parilla)		1		1	n/a	1st
2001	Formula Super A World Championship	TeamMBM.com (Parolin/Parilla)	15	10	0	0	28	15th
2002	Formula Renault UK	Manor Motorsport	25	13	3	3	274	3rd
2003	Formula Renault UK	Manor Motorsport	3	15	11	10	419	1st
2004	Formula 3 Euroseries	Manor Motorsport	35	20	1	1	69	5th
2005	Formula 3 Euroseries	ASM Formule 3	6	20	11	15	172	1st
2006	GP2 Series	ART Grand Prix	2	21	1	5	114	1st
2007	Formula One	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	2	17	6	4	109	2nd
2008	Formula One	Vodafone McLaren Mercedes	22	18	7	5	98	1st