Why He's No. 79

At the age of 23, Lewis Hamilton has become the youngest ever Formula One Champion. Often referred to as the Tiger Woods of racing, there’s no telling how Stevenage-born Lewis Hamilton will impact Formula 1 in the years to come.

Back Stage

Lewis parents divorced when he was just two years old and until the age of ten he lived with his mother. After this he lived with his father and his step-mother. He discovered his taste for racing at the age of six when his father bought him a radio-controlled car and after one year he became vice-champion in the national championship. Soon after this his father bought him as a Christmas present a go-kart and from that moment his father supported his career and many times this was very hard financially.

He had to take three jobs. Lewis attended The John Henry Newman School in Stevenage and there he took karate lessons. At the age of eight he started his karting career at Rye House Kart Circuit and soon after this he won many races and championships. At ten years he met Ron Dennis and told him that is a champion and he want to drive his cars and Ron told him to phone him after nine years. After he progressed from Cadet ranks to Junior Yamaha and Junior Intercontinental A divisions he signed in 1998 with Ron Dennis' McLaren and he entered in McLaren driver development program. He began his car racing career in the 2001 British Formula Renault Winter Series and after some victories there he won the GP2 championship at his first attempt, beating Nelson Piquet, Jr. In 2006 after Montoya went to NASCAR and Kimi Raikkonen to Ferrari Hamilton became the second driver at McLaren after the champion Fernando Alonso. His first season in Formula One was extraordinary with six pole-positions and four wins but he lost the championship in the last round against Kimi Raikkonen. Following the stewards' investigation into the incident at the 2007 Japanese Grand Prix, Alonso insinuated that the verdict had settled the championship in Hamilton's favour, saying: "I’m not thinking of this championship anymore, it’s been decided off the track. The drivers’ briefing has no purpose. You go there to hear what Charlie Whiting and the other officials say. Twenty one drivers have an opinion, Charlie and the officials another, and so it’s like talking to a wall." During the 2007 European Grand Prix at the Nürburgring, Hamilton became the first driver to have his car recovered by a crane and put back on the track during an F1 race, although several drivers have been pushed back onto the circuit by the marshals without mechanical aids when judged to be in a dangerous position, such as Michael Schumacher during the 2003 European Grand Prix.

Forcaste

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton MBE (born in Stevenage; 7 January 1985) is a British Formula One racing driver from England, currently racing for the McLaren Mercedes team and is the youngest ever Formula One World Champion. He was named after the American sprinter Carl Lewis. At the age of ten Lewis approached the McLaren team principal, Ron Dennis, at the 1995 Autosport Awards ceremony and told him "I want to race for you one day." Less than three years later, he was signed by McLaren and Mercedes-Benz to their Young Driver Support Programme. After winning the British Formula Renault, European Formula Three and GP2 championship in 2006, he became a McLaren F1 driver for 2007, making his Formula One debut 12 years after his initial encounter with Dennis. Coming from a mixed-race background, with a black father and white mother, Hamilton is often labelled "the first black driver in Formula One".