Lewis Hamilton’s Career Dominance by the Numbers

The silver Mercedes has become accustomed to the front of the grid in the last decade of Formula One. After leaving competitive auto racing at the end of the 1955 after a brief but successful two-year stint in Grand Prix racing, Mercedes returned to Formula One in 2010 after acquiring Brawn GP following their miracle run with Jenson Button to a World Championship in 2009. But in 2013, they landed what would turn out to be one of the greatest racing drivers in history, Lewis Hamilton.

The move to Mercedes was a huge risk for the young Brit at the time as Mercedes didn’t have a win in Formula One since the 50’s. In his six years of F1 to that point, Hamilton won 21 races, 49 podiums, and the 2008 World Championship. In his first season with Mercedes, he won only one race at the Hungarian Grand Prix, but Hamilton outperformed his former team in McLaren.

Aside from racing, Hamilton has overcome obstacles his career and is the only Black Formula One driver to have won a Grand Prix. He is also an advocate for inclusion and social justice off-track. Starting in 2014, however, Hamilton began a historic run in the w9rld of motorsports. In the past eight seasons (through May 2021), Hamilton won 75 races and six of the past seven World Driver’s Championships.

Hamilton’s numbers are legendary. He sits alone at most all-time in career wins with 97 in total, 36% of the races he has entered in. Hamilton is tied for first in most wins as a rookie, the seventh youngest winner, most career points, most pole positions, most podium finishes, and tied with Michael Shumacher for most championships (seven) in Formula One history. Although, his arguably biggest achievement came in 2021 when Hamilton was knighted in the 2021 New Years’ Honors. At only 36, Hamilton’s career still has many more years to continue to break records and rewrite history, but the racing community ought to recognize the sheer dominance and class that Lewis Hamilton has showed since his move to the silver arrow. Story by Tristan Fluhr.