Lewis Hamilton Stats Pictures And Wallpaper

Lewis Hamilton, MBE, was born on 7th January 1985 and is a British Formula One racing driver from England. Born Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton, in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, he is the 2008 Formula One World Champion and currently racing for the Mercedes AMG team.

In December 1995, at aged ten, Lewis approached McLaren team principal Ron Dennis at the Autosport Awards ceremony and told him, “I want to race for you one day. I want to race for McLaren.” It was less than three years later that McLaren and Mercedes-Benz signed Lewis Hamilton to their Young Driver Support Programme. After winning the British Formula Renault, Formula Three Euroseries, and GP2 championships on his way up the racing career ladder, he finally drove for McLaren in 2007. It was 12 years after his initial encounter with Dennis that he made his Formula One debut. Lewis Hamilton’s contract for the McLaren Young Driver development program made him the youngest driver ever to be offered a contract which later resulted in a Formula One drive.

Although he comes from a mixed background, with a white mother and a black father, Lewis Hamilton is often labelled “the first black driver in Formula One”. He is also the first driver of black heritage to win a major race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in any discipline.

It should be noted that in 1986, Willy T. Ribbs became the first black person to drive a Formula One car, when he tested for the Brabham team, owned by Bernie Ecclestone, at the Autódromo do Estoril, Portugal. Ultimately, Ribbs failed to get the drive for that upcoming season. Lewis Hamilton became the first and only black driver to compete in a F1 championship.

Lewis Hamilton’s amazing debut season brought him instant fame far beyond the motor racing world. He finished on the podium in his first race and continued the habit for the next nine races, with wins at Montreal and Indianapolis. That shot him into the lead in the World Championship by 12 points before Alonso mounted a fightback. In that first season as a Formula One driver, Hamilton set numerous records, while finishing second in the 2007 Formula One Championship, just a single point behind Kimi Räikkönen.

During practice for the 2008 season there was controversy following an incident where several Spanish fans shouted racial abuse at Hamilton during the practice session. As a direct response to this incident the sports governing body, the FIA, launched a campaign against racism.

Hamilton was less composed in his second season than he had been in his first, with serious errors spoiling his races at Bahrain, Canada, France and Japan. Controversy blighted his title campaign, and he picked up five separate penalties during his Championship campaign. Lewis Hamilton became only the second F1 driver ever to be stripped of a win post-race because of a driving infraction.

However, after similar problems at Fuji he bounced back and dominated the Chinese Grand Prix, setting himself up nicely for a chance at the title in the final race. In an effort to avoid the mistakes of 2007 he drove an ultra-conservative race at Interlagos, which ironically almost cost him the title once again, before that now famous last-lap switch secured the Drivers championship by a single point. The youngest winner ever. Since that time Lewis Hamilton has struggled to find consistency although gaining podium places. He just hasn’t secured enough points to be in contention at the end of the campaigns. In September 2012, Hamilton ended season-long speculation about his future by announcing that he would be moving to Mercedes for 2013. The Mercedes deal will see him driving with the team until the end of 2015 at least.