Who is Lewis Hamilton?

Lewis Hamilton

All those who follow Formula One probably know that Lewis Hamilton is the British driver and certainly Britain’s most successful Formula One driver of all time with three Championships titles. Hamilton is regarded by both fellow and former drivers as one of the greatest Formula One drivers in the history of the sport. Furthermore, Hamilton is also popular outside of the tracks because of his private life, primarily relationship with Nicole Scherzinger, the lead singer of the famous American girl band Pussycat Dolls.

With his 53 Grand Prix victories, Hamilton´s result is the second highest of all-time. At the 2016 Brazilian Grand Prix, he surpassed legendary Alain Prost with his total number of 51. Therefore, Hamilton is currently behind Michael Schumacher who has 91 Grand Prix victories. Furthermore, Lewis Hamilton also holds the record for most wins during the season without winning the World Championship. In 2016 season Hamilton won 10 times, but despite that finished the season as a runner-up to teammate and greatest rival Nico Rosberg. With 2,247 and 53 wins Lewis Hamilton has more race victories than any other British driver in the history of Formula One which is fascinating concerning that the United Kingdom offered some great drivers in the past such as Jason Button, David Coulthard, James Hunt, Nigel Mansell and many others.

Lewis, full name Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton was born on January 7, 1985, is currently Mercedes driver who showed his interest in cars and speed since an early age. He began as a karting driver when he was just 8. There was one unusual and funny situation from 1995 when he was only 10. At the Autosport Awards ceremony Hamilton saw McLaren F1 team boss Ron Dennis and approached for an autograph. He told him his name and that he won the British Championship. He also said that one day he wants to be racing F1 cars. Only three years later McLaren and Mercedes-Benz signed Hamilton to their Young Driver Support Programme, which was a dream come true for young Lewis.

His Formula One debut came in 2007 for McLaren and this year was extremely successful for any beginner. Hamilton won four races and secured six poles finishing second in the 2007 Formula One Championship, just one point behind Kimi Räikkönen, which was an excellent start and also a demonstration that the world just met one amazing driver. This means that he made the podium in his first nine races that way outperforming champion team mate Fernando Alonso.

As it was previously mentioned, Lewis Hamilton has been World Champion three times. The first time he received the title in 2008 at the age of 23 and became the youngest ever World Champion. The world was amazed at the driver who became the youngest driver to win the Championship before Sebastian Vettel broke the record two years later.

Lewis Hamilton

In 2013 Hamilton signed for Mercedes and the next year he won the Championship again when the world saw him enjoy Mercedes F1 W05 Hybrid's dominance. The title of champion was only decided in the final race between Hamilton and his team-mate Rosberg. In 2014 he was also named BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

The intense rivalry between the two continued, however, Hamilton was more successful then Rosberg once again in 2015. Hamilton won 10 times, and that way became the 10th driver who has a triple World Champion title and also the first Briton to claim back-to-back titles.

For all those who are interested in how much does Lewis Hamilton earn it is necessary to say that in May 2016, Lewis Hamilton renewed his deal with Mercedes-Benz. The two parties signed a new three-year deal worth around £192million. Before this agreement, Lewis Hamilton had the wage of £25m a year.

It is important to say that Lewis Hamilton has many sponsors and partners and in 2014, he was named as the most marketable sportsman in the world. Currently, his personal sponsorship deals include brands such as Bombardier, L'Oreal, Monster Energy and watchmaker IWC. All these deals combined bring him an estimated £6m a year.

With all these facts in mind, it is not surprising that Lewis Hamilton’s net worth is estimated to £106m. For that reason, he made the Times´ Rich List for the first time in 2016.

According to the sources, Hamilton knows how to spend that money as well. Apartment in Monaco and a private jet, as well as £24m, spent in a hotel development in Grenada, where his father was born. Nevertheless, this investment has been the subject of a long court battle between his investment company and the Grenada Government, who consequently withdrew the sale of the land. After all, Hamilton came out of the process as a winner when the courts in 2015 ruled in his favor.