Lewis Hamilton rolls back the years in 2014 when he races with the No 44 on his Mercedes, the number he used as a child in karts. Forty four
Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton, MBE (born 7 January 1985) is a British Formula One racing driver from England, currently racing for the Mercedes AMG team. He is the 2008 Formula One World Champion. Hamilton was born in Stevenage, December 1995, at the age of ten, he approached McLaren team principal Ron Dennis at the Autosport Awards ceremony and told him, "I want to race for you one day ... I want to race for McLaren." Less than three years later McLaren and Mercedes-Benz signed him to their Young Driver Support Programme. After winning the British Formula Renault, Formula Three Euroseries, and GP2 championships on his way up the racing career ladder, he drove for McLaren in 2007, making his Formula One debut 12 years after his initial encounter with Dennis. Hamilton's contract for the McLaren driver development program made him the youngest ever driver to secure a contract which later resulted in a Formula One drive. Coming from a mixed background, with a black father and white mother,Hamilton is often labelled "the first black driver in Formula One", although Willy T. Ribbs tested a Formula One car in 1986. He is also the first driver of black African heritage to win a major race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in any discipline. In his first season in Formula One, Hamilton set numerous records, while finishing second in the 2007 Formula One Championship, just one point behind Kimi Räikkönen. He won the World Championship the following is the only driver on the current grid to have won at least one race in each season he has competed in to date, with McLaren from 2007 until 2012, and with Mercedes since 2013 Lewis Hamilton will roll back the years in 2014 when he races with the No 44 on his Mercedes, the number he used as a child in karts Under new regulations this season, Formula 1 drivers have been asked to pick a permanent racing number between 2 and 99 for the remainder of their career – with No 1 reserved for the reigning champion
Size: 5900px × 3973px
Location: Goodwood, West Sussex, UK
Photo credit: © Avpics / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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