Lewis Hamilton, the youngest F1 world champion

Lewis Hamilton entered the world of auto racing at the age of 8. He started with karting, where he quickly made a name for himself, winning the national championship at the age of nine.

Behind this talented young driver was already a strong-willed temperament, as he took advantage of his first meeting with Ron Denis, the head of the McLaren team, to tell him that he wanted to become a Formula 1 driver.

At this precise moment, Ron Dennis will closely follow the career of the young English prodigy and three years later Lewis Hamilton landed a contract.

Subsequently, his track record will be enriched by a Formula Renault title in 2003, and two years later he will dominate the F3 Euro Series championship with 15 wins out of 20 races.

From 2006, he moved to GP2 and quickly established himself among more experienced drivers. He won the title in 2006.

It was in 2007 that he joined the McLaren team alongside reigning world champion Fernando Alonso. On this occasion, he also became the first black driver in Formula 1 and was quickly noticed for being the first young driver in F1 history to secure 3 podiums in his first three races. Lewis Hamilton claimed his first victory in Canada and managed to repeat the feat a week later by winning the U.S. Grand Prix.

At the end of September 2007, he was on the verge of becoming the youngest world champion with two Grand Prix left in the season, holding a 12-point lead over his closest competitor. In a drama worthy of the greatest thrillers, Lewis Hamilton lost the benefit of his 12 points during the last two Grand Prix and ceded to Kimi Räikkönen, who took the crown with a one-point lead.

The Briton will have to console himself with a vice world champion title (tied with Alonso) that no one before him had won at such a young age.

This year 2008, Lewis Hamilton will not miss out on the title even though the 2007 scenario almost repeated itself on this same circuit in Brazil.

He started the season by winning the first race and became the leader of the championship. Then, after a few mistakes like those in Monaco or Canada, the young English driver fought throughout the season for the title with the two Ferrari drivers. History will record this year as Lewis Hamilton becoming world champion in dramatic conditions, as he was crowned in the last corner of the Interlagos circuit, the same circuit where the previous year he saw all his hopes slip away.

Only two seasons in F1 and already a breathtaking record, but history will remember Lewis Hamilton as the youngest ever Formula 1 World Champion. He was 23 years, 9 months, and 26 days old in Brazil. He thus takes yet another record from Fernando Alonso, thanks once again to his young age… The Spaniard in 2005 was 24 years, 3 months, and 27 days old at the time.

Another record can be added to this one as he is the rookie driver with the most consecutive podiums, totaling 9 during his first 9 races in 2007. He is also the youngest driver to secure a podium, as well as the youngest to achieve the fastest lap in a race.

An incredibly enriched record for a driver who has only participated in two seasons, and Lewis Hamilton is far from finished, with very likely more records to be written into the history of Formula 1.