Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton was born on 7 January 1985 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England as the son of Carmen Larbalestier and Anthony Hamilton. Lewis is named after the nine-time Olympic champion athletics Carl Lewis.
Hamilton started his racing career at the age of eight at the Rye House Kart Circuit in Hoddesdon, Hertfordshire, England. At the age of ten, he asked Ron Dennis for an autograph. Lewis said that he had won the British karting championship at the Cadets. Dennis gave Lewis his phone number and Lewis was allowed to call him when he was eighteen. Within five years it was Ron Dennis himself who contacted Lewis. He offered him a contract that included him in the McLaren driver development program. One of the options in the contract was a guaranteed Formula 1 seat at the team. Lewis won several titles in his karting career. In 2001, he would make the switch to single-seaters.
Lewis drove his first race at the 2001 British Formula Renault Winter Series Championship. He would eventually finish fifth in the standings. In 2002, in the regular series of this class, he drove a full season for Manor Motorsport. With a third place and three victories, his debut year in motorsport was a success. The following year Lewis won the title in a dominating style. In 2004, as a teammate of Charles Zwolsman, he drove the Formula 3 Euro series. Lewis finished fifth in the final rankings with one victory, while the following year he became a supreme champion and won the Marlboro Masters at Zandvoort. After his dominant season in Formula 3, he switched to the GP2 series where he would win the title for the ART Grand Prix. His race at the Nürburgring was one to take note of. Hamilton won despite a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. Many people wondered if McLaren would actually put the young Brit in its F1 car. Lewis was told more than two months earlier that he would be in the McLaren alongside Fernando Alonso in 2007.
In his first season, he almost won the world title. A blunder in China during the penultimate Grand Prix cost him the title. In the year 2008, that title came. Lewis won the title after he passed Timo Glock at the last corner. From 2009 Lewis had five more difficult years in which he couldn't immediately fight for the title. His move to Mercedes in 2013 proved to be a golden opportunity. Hamilton became world champion four times during the first five seasons of the hybrid era.