Lewis Carl Hamilton (born January 7th 1985 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom) is a British racing driver. After winning several karting championships, Hamilton was signed by McLaren on a development contract at the age of 12. This has given him invaluable support for his racing career. He has also raced in British Formula Renault in his career, and was European kart champion in 2000.

He later won the 2005 Formula Three Euroseries racing for the dominant ASM team, having raced in the category in 2004 for Manor Motorsport using the superior Mercedes-Benz engine. In 2006, he joined ART Grand Prix team in the GP2 Series as a replacement for the previous year's champion Nico Rosberg. His performance in the GP2 Series has been impressive. At the European GP2 event he won both races, becoming only the second driver (after Nico Rosberg) to do so in the series history and won at Monaco from pole. He repeated his double win at Silverstone becoming the first GP2 driver to win both heats at 2 races. On 9 September 2006 he won the GP2 title, beating Nelson Angelo Piquet and outperforming his more experienced team mate Alexandre Prémat.

He has frequently been tipped to be the first driver with Afro-Carribean heritage in Formula 1, possibly as early as 2007 [1]. McLaren boss Ron Dennis, who has a long-term contract with Hamilton, has said that he has turned down possible advertising campaigns focusing on Lewis' ethnicity, though Lewis has filmed for an television advertisement, along with Jamie Green, dressed as other drivers. Hamilton has expressed his desire to race for McLaren in 2007, but it remains to be seen if McLaren will want someone with so little experience to partner 2005 World Champion Fernando Alonso. It is more likely that he will be placed at another team to gain experience before his eventual McLaren debut.