Overview

Born on January 7^th 1985, Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton is widely regarded as one of Formula 1's most natural talents. His racing career from step one has been covered in great detail and he is one of the sport's richest drivers thanks to his success.

Lewis began karting in 1993, aged eight years old. He showed promise from the offset, winning the Cadet class championships. Aged ten, Hamilton met Ron Dennis at the Autosport Awards ceremony where he told the McLaren boss that he wanted to drive his F1 cars one day. Just three years later Lewis got the call from McLaren and was signed up on McLaren's driver development programme.

While working with McLaren, Hamilton continued his karting during his teenage years, picking up the odd championship win and numerous wins along the way. In 2001 though he made the leap to single seater cars, racing in the British Formula Renault Winter Series in which he finished 5^th. After this performance he was promoted to Formula Renault in 2002, racing for Manor Motorsport. In his first year with the team he came 3^rd, taking three wins and three poles. The next year he stormed to victory, taking the championship by more than 50 points. In 2004, he was promoted to the Formula 3 Euro Series where he finished 5^th, taking just one win out of the twenty races. In 2005, and with a different team, Hamilton dominated the F3 series, taking fifteen wins from twenty races along with two further podiums. His place in GP2 was sealed.

Hamilton raced for ART Grand Prix in 2006 and after a shaky first four races, Lewis came into his own, taking five wins from the next seven wins, including one at Monaco and both the sprint and feature races at his home race of Silverstone. The rest of the season was very solid, mainly consisting of second and third place finishes, but Lewis had sealed the championship at the first time of asking. He now couldn't return to the series and Formula 1 was beckoning.

In 2007, Hamilton debuted in Formula 1 for McLaren, partnering Fernando Alonso which would eventually turn into a very frosty relationship, resulting in the Spaniard leaving the team to return to Renault. Lewis' year was very successful and although he lost out on the championship title by just one point to Kimi Raikkonen, he ended the season with four wins and a whopping twelve podiums from seventeen races. He still holds the record for the most number of wins, poles and points in a debut season. Strangely, 2007 is Hamilton's most successful year in the sport with more wins and podiums than in any other, although the McLaren MP4-22 was very competitive.

In 2008, the battle for the title was predominantly between Hamilton and Felipe Massa with the Briton ending the year just one point from his rival. This time though, Lewis took the title after a nail-biting season finale at the Brazilian Grand Prix where Lewis took 5^th place at the last corner and confirming his title win. Felipe Massa took an emotional home Grand Prix win but it wasn't enough to seal the big trophy.

A year later McLaren mis-interpreted the major rule changes with the aerodynamics and brought an uncompetitive car. Disqualification at the first race of the season was handed to Lewis after he lied to the stewards on an overtaking situation under the safety car. The year got progressively worse for Hamilton with four straight races yielding no points. Hungary was the turning point however with a win from fourth on the grid. The rest of the season was mixed with four podiums, a 12^th place finish and two retirements. He ended the season with 49 points, giving him 5^th in the championship.

In 2010, Jenson Button joined McLaren after dominating most of 2009 with Brawn GP. Button proved to be a fierce opponent at times, giving Hamilton tougher competition compared to his previous teammate, Heikki Kovalainen. Three wins and a good handful of podiums secured 4^th in the championship, behind the unstoppable Sebastian Vettel, Fernando Alonso and Mark Webber. Lewis had beaten his teammate by a fair margin but his performance was overshadowed by the dominance of Red Bull.

2011 was Hamilton's second most successful season with points finishes in every race bar three. Despite this consistent effort, he was regularly outpaced by the improved Jenson Button and only occasionally in the mix with Vettel, Alonso and Webber. Just one pole position was won due to Red Bull's immense stronghold. A raft of private problems blighted Lewis' performance with splits with both his father and girlfriend, leading to the appointment of XIX Management who were criticised for their poor supervision of Lewis. 2011 was also the first year that Hamilton finished behind his teammate in the championship, something which was unusual for the Brit.

In 2012, Hamilton's main focus will be starting the season on a high, while increasing the pressure on the now very confident and more experienced Jenson Button. His future at McLaren and in Formula 1 as a whole has been questioned and commented upon but his decision at the end of this season will be purely based on his driving performance and McLaren's ability to provide a solid car that can challenge Red Bull's predicted supremacy.