F1 UPDATE TODAY; Lewis Hamilton declined his contract with Ferrari and explaine reason…
Statistically the most successful Formula 1 driver of all-time, it is a benchmark status the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton will be looking to build on to cement his legacy in the series.
The first – and to date only – black driver to compete in F1, Hamilton’s record-breaking success on the track makes him one of the world’s best-known and highest-paid sportsmen.
Equalling Michael Schumacher’s record for F1 world championships upon clinching his seventh title in 2020, Hamilton has nonetheless surpassed the legendary German in several other rankings.
Hamilton holds the record for F1 victories, podiums and pole positions, winning titles in 2007 with McLaren and 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 with Mercedes.
Born in Stevenage, Hamilton – who is of Grenadian descent – started on the path towards racing superstardom rather humbly by specialising in radio-controlled cars, a hobby that saw him finish second in a national championship against adults, and spurred on his progression to karting aged six.
By 1993, Hamilton was regularly winning cadet kart races, leading to him winning the 1995 British Cadet Championship titles. Progressing to Super One class, his continued success led to him being contacted by then McLaren F1 team manager Ron Dennis, whom three years earlier Hamilton had approached at the Autosport Awards to declare he’d one day race for him. It led to Hamilton being signed to the McLaren Young Driver Programme in a deal that held clauses for a future F1 drive with the team – at 13, it made him the youngest driver to hold a de facto F1 deal.
Hamilton went on to make his open-wheel racing debut in 2001 in the Formula Renault Winter Series with Manor Racing, which preceded two full seasons in the main Formula Renault UK Championship, winning the title in 2003.
It earned him a seat in Manor’s Formula 3 Euro Series team for 2004, Hamilton scoring a win at the Norisring en route to fifth overall. A switch to ASM the following season, however, led to Hamilton dominating with 15 victories in 20 races.
Graduating to the GP2 Series for 2006 with ASM’s sister ART Grand Prix team, Hamilton quickly established himself among the title contenders, his five wins prior to the summer break setting him up to clinch the title in his rookie season.
It was the manner of Hamilton’s performances in a handful of races that especially captured attention, including his win at the Nurburgring despite serving a penalty for speeding in the pitlane and his recovery to second place in Istanbul after a spin that dropped him to 18th. He also announced himself to the British public with a dominant double at Silverstone headlined by spectacular overtakes at the high-speed Becketts complex.
His efforts were enough to convince McLaren to make good on its promise and break with tradition by promoting a young rookie into a race seat alongside Fernando Alonso for the 2007 season.
After just missing out on a sensational title win in his first season, Hamilton went on to clinch the 2008 F1 world championship, via a pivotal last corner pass for position in the Brazilian Grand Prix finale, making him the youngest F1 world champion at the time, aged 23 years and 300 days.
A high-profile switch to Mercedes in 2013 put Hamilton in a privileged position from 2014 after the German manufacturer emerged with far and away the quickest and most reliable interpretation of the championship’s radical new V6 turbo hybrid engine era.
Putting him at the wheel of would become F1’s most superior package for much of the next decade, Hamilton clinched six titles in the seven seasons spanning 2014-2020.
Beyond the track, Hamilton has in recent years utilised his platform to advocate for the environment and has been active in campaigns against racism. He has also launched initiatives in an effort to increase diversity in motorsport and broken the mould with his exploits in fashion.
Sir Lewis Hamilton was knighted in the Queen’s 2021 New Year Honours, has won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award on two occasions (2014 and 2020) and held the Laureus Sportsman of the Year accolade in 2020.
2023
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
3rd – 234 points
Lewis Hamilton faced his second winless season in 2023, having failed to make it higher than P2. The British driver claimed his first podium (second place) at the Australian Grand Prix after a dramatic battle with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso.
Hamilton then took P3 at the Canadian Grand Prix after another battle with Alonso, where the Spanish driver came out victorious. Lewis was then back on the podium at the British Grand Prix, where he started at P7.
Hamilton secured six podiums in the 2023 season and was able to salvage a third-place finish in the championship, despite having secured no wins and gaining six fewer points than the previous year (where he finished sixth).
2022
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
6th – 240 points
While the fallout from the controversial conclusion to the 2021 F1 title battle led Hamilton to question his future in the series, he regrouped and turned his focus towards F1’s radical new technical blueprint for 2022.
However, having been the clear benchmark for performance since the introduction of the V6 turbo hybrid era in 2014, Mercedes uncharacteristically lost its way with the W13, with even Hamilton unable to haul the porpoising package into Red Bull and Ferrari’s fight for superiority up ahead.
Despite lucking out at Red Bull’s expense to score a podium in the opening round, Hamilton endured an unhappy start to the 2022 F1 season, largely fading into a distant ‘best of the rest’ battle well behind Mercedes’ two primary rivals.
Upgrades helped Hamilton drag the W13 to a streak of five podiums midway through the year – including a third place on home soil at Silverstone and a pair of second place results in France and Hungary – while a trio of second place results towards the end of the year lifted spirits too.
Taking until the penultimate round in Brazil for Hamilton to demonstrate pace capable of a race win, his efforts were nonetheless overshadowed by new team-mate George Russell, who was the one to secure Mercedes’ single victory of 2022 at Interlagos.
Placed sixth in the final standings, it left Hamilton both trailing his team-mate in fourth and without a win for the first time in his F1 career.
2021
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
2nd – 387.5 points
Hamilton’s 2021 F1 season began with a clear target to move clear of fellow seven-time F1 world champion Michael Schumacher by claiming a record eighth title in 2021.
Given the dominance with which he strolled to the 2020 F1 title, Hamilton was confident the FIA technical freeze over the winter would enable Mercedes to maintain its clear advantage over the opposition.
He started the year well with three wins from the opening four races, while he also shrugged off a first lap fracas involving Max Verstappen – the first of many in 2021 – and an off-track moment to fight back to second at Imola.
However, after his momentum was checked by a five-race winless streak – his longest since 2013 – Hamilton also found himself coming up against an increasingly stiff challenge from an in-form Max Verstappen, which marked the beginnings of an increasingly intense rivalry between the pair.
Indeed, though the Briton turned the tide with a popular win at the British Grand Prix for a record eighth success at Silverstone, it came in controversial circumstances after Hamilton and Verstappen tangled on the opening lap, leaving the Red Bull buried in the barriers.
They collided again at the Italian Grand Prix, this time putting both cars out of the race – as well as Verstappen’s Red Bull perched on top of Hamilton’s Mercedes – but a timely fifth win of the year in Russia allowed the latter to nudge back ahead overall by round 15 of 22.
With momentum continuing to swing between the duo during the lattermost rounds, Verstappen reclaimed the lead once more with wins in Turkey, the USA and Mexico, before Hamilton fought back with his own trio of victories in Brazil, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The latter victory came via a bad-tempered race in which Verstappen was penalised for clashing with Hamilton, leading to a collision but no retirement.
It did, however, create an extraordinary final round showdown in Abu Dhabi with Hamilton and Verstappen tied at the top of the standings.
Verstappen qualified on pole but Hamilton’s better getaway earned him an early lead, even his move to cut a chicane in defence of Verstappen’s overtaking attempt proved controversial. From here though, Hamilton had the measure of Verstappen on pure pace alone, steadily eking out his advantage coming into the closing stages as a record eighth F1 title seemingly neared.
However, with just a handful of laps to go, the race was turned on its head when the safety car emerged to allow debris from a crash to be cleared. However, while most of the field dived for the pitlane for new tyres, crucially Hamilton had just passed the pit entry when the call was made.
It meant that while Hamilton led on the road, rivals – including Verstappen – were stacked up behind him on fresher rubber. As the final lap loomed, controversy ensued when FIA F1 race director Michael Masi allowed only a handful of cars – those between Hamilton and Verstappen – to unlap themselves, putting the Red Bull onto the rear of the Mercedes coming into the last lap.
Setting up a grandstand single lap dash to the flag, Hamilton was no match for the significantly faster Red Bull on his wing, Verstappen going on to pass for the lead – and the title – at Turn 5 and complete the victory moments later.
Leaving Hamilton distraught at what he considered to be an unfair result, despite his and Mercedes’ protestations over the FIA’s handling of the late restart, Verstappen’s title triumph stood.
2020
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
1st – 347 points
With six titles now to his name, Hamilton’s sights were set firmly on equalling Michael Schumacher’s record seven F1 World Championship titles in 2020.
Indeed, despite the season being heavily delayed and shortened as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of Schumacher’s records were within Hamilton’s range that year.
Shrugging off a penalty that left him fourth in the Austrian opener, Hamilton quickly took control of the title race with five wins from the next six races to move clear in the overall standings.
He maintained his tempo to the end of the season with six more victories coming his way, most significantly in Portugal when he completed the 92nd win of his F1 career, officially surpassing Schumacher’s long-serving record of 91 wins.
The achievement came just a round after he’d officially sealed his seventh F1 World Championship title in Turkey, in turn becoming the F1’s most successful driver statistically.
2019
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
1st – 413 points
Hamilton’s dominance showed no signs of abating in 2019 as he romped to his sixth F1 world championship title by a comfortable margin over Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
Dismissing the challenge from his rivals with a streak of eight wins in 12 grands prix, though Hamilton faced more competition during the second half of the year, he’d hammer home the advantage with three more victories to bring his season tally to 11 wins.
2018
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
1st – 408 points
In a 2018 F1 world championship campaign dubbed the ‘Fight for Five’ between Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel at the start of the season, it appeared Ferrari – which faded after a strong start to the season in 2017 – might this time go the distance.
The Italian team subsequently drew first blood when Vettel opened the season with two wins, before Hamilton fought back with back-to-back successes of his own in Azerbaijan and Spain.
The momentum continued to shift between the pair until the midway point in the season, with Vettel’s fourth win of the year at round 10 of 21 in Hamilton’s backyard at Silverstone putting him eight points clear at the head of the standings.
However, when Hamilton responded by winning on Vettel’s home soil in Germany next time out, it would tip the balance back in his favour to assume a championship lead he’d cling onto thereafter to the end of the year.
Stretching clear with six wins from the next seven races, what was shaping up to be a thrilling face-off between two F1 legends quickly settled into another dominant rout by the Mercedes driver.
Ending the season with 11 wins in total, Hamilton lifted his fifth F1 world championship title, well clear of Vettel in the end.
2017
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
1st – 363 points
Having been denied the chance to reclaim his F1 crown from Nico Rosberg after the German’s shock decision to retire just days after clinching the 2016 F1 title, Hamilton began the 2017 season as the clear favourite to succeed him.
Rosberg’s absence opened the door for his countryman Sebastian Vettel to assume the mantle as Hamilton’s closest rival, the four-time champion putting up a convincing fight early on with results that negated the Mercedes driver’s low-key start to the year.
But wins for Hamilton in China, Spain and Canada steadied the ship and prevented the in-form Vettel from pulling out a sizeable margin coming into the summer, before another success at Silverstone set the stage for a fierce fight to ensue after the summer break.
When racing resumed, however, Hamilton immediately pulled the pin, reeling off five wins from the next six races to dismantle Vettel’s title hopes and put him on course to wrap up his fourth world championship in Mexico.
2016
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
2nd – 380 points
Mercedes reached the height of its dominance during the 2016 F1 world championship, winning all but two of the season’s 21 races.
It also marked a new peak in Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s increasingly fraught rivalry as team-mates, the pair fighting tooth and nail within slender margins that barely separated the rivals throughout the year.
Having had the measure of his team-mate in 2014 and 2015, Hamilton found himself playing catch up to Rosberg from the off with his three podiums trumped by the German’s four straight victories from the opener.
However, just as Hamilton plotted his response upon F1’s return to Europe, his rivalry with Rosberg took a bitter turn when they collided on the run to Turn 4 during the Spanish Grand Prix. Triggered by both drivers aggressively attacking and defending one another in dispute of the lead, the collision put both out of the race and in hot water with Mercedes management.
Thereafter Hamilton stepped up his pace with six wins over the next seven races allowing him to reel in and leapfrog Rosberg at the head of the standings coming into the summer break.
When action resumed, however, Rosberg reasserted his advantage with wins in Belgium, Italy and Singapore, the latter success putting him back ahead of Hamilton in the standings.
With six rounds remaining, a pivotal Malaysian Grand Prix went a long way to defining the title race after Hamilton retired with a rare engine failure while leading. While Rosberg himself endured a difficult afternoon after a spin on the opening lap, his fight back to third gave Hamilton an uphill task to reel him in.
And so it proved, Hamilton doing his utmost with four straight wins to the end of the year but being repelled by his team-mate’s quartet of second place finishes just behind.
Rosberg thus held his nerve to clinch the title in the Abu Dhabi finale, five points clear of Hamilton.
2015
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
1st – 381 points
While Mercedes was unable to exercise the same vast margins it had enjoyed over the opposition in 2014, the German marque remained the class of the field in 2015.
As such, despite the occasional challenge from Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari, once more the title battle whittled down to a direct head-to-head between Hamilton and Rosberg. Three wins from the opening four rounds put the British driver in charge early on, Hamilton establishing a championship lead he didn’t relinquish at any stage in the season.
Indeed, though Rosberg kept him honest during the first half of the season, Hamilton eventually stretched clear of his team-mate to wrap up his third career F1 world championship title with three rounds to spare in the United States.
2014
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
1st – 384 points
While some had questioned the wisdom of Hamilton’s decision to join Mercedes when his deal was announced in 2012, by the summer of 2013 his motivations became much clearer amid speculation the German marque had been piling resources into preparations for F1’s incoming V6 turbo hybrid engine era.
Indeed, by not being a factor in the 2013 F1 title fight – unlike Renault-powered Red Bull and Ferrari – it afforded Mercedes the chance to devote more time to perfect the complicated new power units. Much to its rivals’ dismay, Mercedes quickly proved it was time very well spent when Hamilton and Nico Rosberg emerged with a huge advantage over the opposition coming into the 2014 F1 season.
Technical niggles aside, such was Mercedes’ superiority – both in terms of the engine and the W05 chassis – the season quickly descended into a head-to-head between Hamilton and Rosberg for the title.
Hamilton set the standard early on with four wins from the opening five races and while Rosberg clawed back ground with a run of race-winning form during the middle portion of the year, the British driver stamped his mark again with a streak of five wins coming into the final events.
With multiple races ending with a Mercedes 1-2, Rosberg kept the title battle alive to the final round but an 11th victory in the Abu Dhabi season finale was enough for Hamilton to clinch his second F1 world championship title, six years on from his first in 2008.
2013
Mercedes AMG Petronas F1
4th – 189 points
Having caught the F1 paddock unawares by announcing a shock move to Mercedes for the 2013 F1 world championship season, Hamilton replaced the retiring Michael Schumacher and paired up with Nico Rosberg.
While Mercedes’ solid – if not spectacular – upper mid-field piece since returning to F1 as a full works entry in 2010 had many expecting Hamilton to struggle relative to the McLaren team he’d just left, instead the opposite rang true.
Indeed, as McLaren endured a torrid season, Hamilton was on the podium on his second appearance at Sepang before going on to collect a string of top-five finishes that had him in the running for the runners-up spot behind runaway leader Sebastian Vettel.
With the German’s dominance making wins hard to come by for his rivals, Hamilton nonetheless stepped forward with a surprise victory from pole position at the Hungarian Grand Prix.
Together with four podiums, Hamilton ended the season fourth overall.
2012
Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes
4th – 190 points
Hamilton’s form rebounded in 2012 for what would become his final season with McLaren, his four victories bettered only by title winner Sebastian Vettel.
A solid start to the year yielded podiums in the opening three races before Hamilton broke through with his first victory in Canada, in turn becoming the seventh different race winner from seven grands prix.
He was a winner again at the Hungaroring and Monza, but a flurry of DNFs – six in total – ultimately snuffed out Hamilton’s hopes of mounting a title challenge against Vettel.
Despite this, Hamilton rounded out his year with a fourth win of the season on F1’s first visit to Circuit of the Americas in Austin, helping him to fourth in the overall standings.
It brought his time at McLaren to a conclusion, ending a relationship he’d held with the British team for 14 years, with Hamilton making a surprise switch to Mercedes for the 2013 F1 season.
2011
Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes
5th – 227 points
With Vettel’s first title win signalling the start of a dominant era for Red Bull, Hamilton and McLaren were largely reduced to a ‘best of the rest’ battle in 2011.
While a positive start to the season yielded a win in China which hosted the third round, it was just one of three podiums Hamilton achieved in a mixed opening half to the season.
It went on to set the trend for the rest of the year, with Hamilton’s two further wins at the Nurburgring and in Abu Dhabi proving he remained difficult to beat on his day, but just one further trip to the podium in Korea consigned him to fifth overall.
With Button claiming the runners-up spot, it was the first time Hamilton had been out-ranked by a team-mate since entering F1.
2010
Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes
4th – 240 points
With his strong end to the 2009 season giving him renewed optimism of a title challenge in the vastly improved McLaren-Mercedes MP4-25, Hamilton enjoyed a return to form in 2010.
Despite his car at times lacking the all-round performance of McLaren’s Red Bull and Ferrari rivals, Hamilton’s greater consistency during the first-half of the season – plus victories in Turkey and Canada – saw him lead the standings coming into the summer break.
However, after his third win of the year in the Belgian Grand Prix was negated by costly DNFs either side of the Spa race in Hungary and Italy, Hamilton’s title challenge quickly unravelled.
Recovering ground late on with his eighth podium of the year in Korea, it meant Hamilton arrived at the Abu Dhabi finale as one of four drivers – together with Mark Webber, Fernando Alonso and Sebastian Vettel – to have a shot at winning the 2010 F1 title, but his chances were very slim.
Despite a run to second place around the Yas Marina Circuit, Hamilton remained fourth in the final standings, 16 points shy of new champion Vettel.
2009
Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes
5th – 49 points
While new champion Hamilton came into the 2009 F1 season with his sights set firmly on defending his title, his fortunes were ultimately dictated by McLaren’s initial struggle to get on top of F1’s all-new technical regulation framework.
After getting his campaign off to a humble start in Australia when he was disqualified from third position as punishment for ‘misleading’ stewards over an incident during a safety car period, Hamilton settled into his season with a trio of solid points’ finishes in the next three rounds.
However, with McLaren drifting in the rapidly evolving development race, Hamilton’s results duly suffered with a run of five consecutive non-scores mid-season all-but-ending hopes of retaining his title.
Nonetheless, Hamilton dug deep to get back on track with victory at the Hungarian Grand Prix, spurring him on to a stronger end to the season.
Adding a second win of the year in Singapore, Hamilton recovered to end the season fifth overall in the standings.
2008
Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes
1st – 98 points
After the heartbreak of his title near-miss in 2007, Hamilton began the 2008 F1 season as a clear favourite to make amends, not least after Alonso – unwilling to share team lead status – agreed to an early exit from McLaren.
He got his campaign off to a perfect start with victory in the Australian Grand Prix, but just one further win – a first triumph on the streets of Monaco – from the opening eight rounds left him on the back foot and 10 points adrift of leader Felipe Massa.
Back-to-back wins at Silverstone and Hockenheim reasserted him at the head of the standings, Hamilton holding firm in the closing stages of the season despite a modest run of results that yielded just three podiums from the following six rounds.
Going on to put the memories of his pivotal mistake during the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix firmly behind him by winning the 2008 event convincingly, Hamilton once again arrived for the Brazilian finale with the upper hand, seven points clear of Massa.
Needing a fifth-place finish to assure himself of the crown, Hamilton was once again made to work hard for it, his cause complicated further by changeable weather conditions that made tyre strategy a lottery and a dominant Massa – roared on by the partisan crowd – in control out front.
With Hamilton running a perilous fourth late on amid a heated battle with Sebastian Vettel, the arrival of rain prompted McLaren to pit him for intermediate tyres with just five laps to go, having presumed rivals would follow suit in the worsening conditions.
Most did with the exception of Toyota’s Timo Glock, who remained out on slick tyres to move ahead of Hamilton in fourth. When Vettel passed the Briton for fifth in the closing stages, it appeared the title was about to slip through Hamilton’s grasp in agonising circumstances once again.
Up the road, Massa took victory, triggering celebrations in the Ferrari garage and in the grandstands believing he was the new F1 world champion.
However, in a remarkable late twist, Glock’s gamble hit the skids as the rain became heavier at the back-end of the circuit. Forcing him to slow to a crawl, Hamilton swiftly caught the ailing Toyota coming towards the final corner, diving straight through when the German slid wide to reclaim the crucial fifth place he needed to take the flag as world champion.
The success in only his second season of F1 made him the first British driver to win the F1 world championship since Damon Hill in 1996 and become the youngest title-winner on record, aged 23 years and 300 days.
2007
Vodafone McLaren-Mercedes
2nd – 109 points
After months of speculation over whether McLaren would break with tradition by promoting Hamilton directly into a race seat for the 2007 F1 season, it eventually confirmed him alongside Fernando Alonso to complete an intriguing line-up comprising the double world champion and a precocious rookie.
With Alonso adopting assumed #1 driver status within the team, he quickly made his mark with two wins in the early stages of the season.
However, of the two, it was Hamilton that proved the more consistent early on in the year, consolidating his run to the podium on his maiden outing in Australia – the first driver to do so on their debut since Jacques Villeneuve in 1996 – with four further trips to the rostrum.
Leaving him tied with Alonso at the head of the standings coming into the sixth round of the season in Canada, Hamilton struck gold in style by claiming pole position for the first time before converting it into his maiden F1 win on race day.
Following it up with a second pole-to-flag victory just a week later at Indianapolis, Hamilton moved clear at the head of the standings, a position he’d maintain in the lead up to the summer break with three more podiums, including his third victory of the season in Hungary.
While Hamilton’s sensational performances were universally hailed by rivals, media and fans alike, his emergence as a genuine title contender in his rookie season nonetheless created friction behind the scenes in McLaren, with Alonso bemoaning the challenge to his #1 driver status and turning his ire towards the team for failing to respect it.
With the mood in the team quickly souring, tensions boiled over during qualifying for the Hungarian Grand Prix when Alonso made his feelings clear by deliberately holding station in the McLaren pitbox following a tyre change, thus preventing Hamilton – waiting for new rubber behind him – from getting back out and round to attempt another lap.
Creating a storm in the media and riling McLaren boss Ron Dennis, Alonso’s tactics drew clear the battlelines between the team-mates once racing resumed after the summer break.
Beginning the final six races with a seven-point advantage over his counterpart, Alonso clawed back ground with a win in Italy, before a DNF for the Spaniard and a win for Hamilton in Japan tipped the balance back in the British driver’s favour.
It also meant Hamilton – with a 12-point margin over Alonso – arrived for the penultimate round in China with a shot at sealing the title early. Running second ahead of Alonso at the midway stage, the result would have been good enough to take the crown in Shanghai, only for Hamilton’s hopes to be dashed in bizarre circumstances when he misjudged the 90-degree left-hand turn at the pitlane entry and understeered wide into a small but deep gravel trap he couldn’t extricate the McLaren from.
Forcing him to abandon the car, it sent the title battle down to the wire at Interlagos for the Brazilian Grand Prix with Hamilton still ahead but by only four points from Alonso, with the in-form Kimi Raikkonen nudging himself into contention too, seven points off the lead in third.
With his Chinese faux pas ramping up the tension coming into the three-way showdown, Hamilton stepped up to the occasion by qualifying ahead of his rivals on the front row. However, it took only a few laps for his title dreams to come to an abrupt end when he lost positions with a lock-up on the opening lap, before electrical gremlins brought him to a halt soon after.
Despite getting going again, Hamilton could only recover to seventh at the flag, allowing race winner Raikkonen to sensationally leapfrog both the Briton and Alonso and snatch the title from McLaren’s grasp.
It left Hamilton in a galling runners-up spot, just a single point shy of the Finn.
