When Lewis Hamilton walked into Maranello in January 2025, the photographs were of a man who looked as if he had been handed the keys to something he had wanted since childhood. Twenty months later the photographs are of a driver telling reporters that Ferrari has left it “far too late” to back him for a title. Both are true, and the space between them is the story of one of the strangest chapters in a career that has already rewritten most of the sport’s record books.

The records

Hamilton was born in Stevenage on 7 January 1985, learned to race in karts bought with his father’s overtime, and was signed to McLaren’s young driver programme at 13 after famously telling Ron Dennis he wanted to drive for him one day. He won the 2008 championship in his second season, by a single point, at the last corner of the last lap in Brazil. Then he did something nobody expected. He left the team that raised him for Mercedes in 2013, before Mercedes was any good, and the hybrid era turned that gamble into six more championships between 2014 and 2020.

Seven titles ties Michael Schumacher. The win tally, which passed 100 in 2021, stands alone. So does the pole position record. Beyond the statistics he changed what a Formula 1 driver is allowed to be: outspoken on race and the environment, visible in fashion and music, the only Black driver the sport has ever had and the most successful driver it has ever had, in the same person.

Why Ferrari

The move to Ferrari was announced in February 2024 and made sense on every level except the practical one. Ferrari is the team every driver secretly wants to have driven for. Hamilton was 40. Mercedes’ post-2021 cars had not given him a realistic shot at an eighth title, and Ferrari’s had come closer. He said the decision was about a final challenge. Ferrari said it was about winning, and for 2025 the pairing with Charles Leclerc looked, on paper, like the strongest in the sport.

2026: quick enough, and not backed

The 2026 regulations handed Mercedes the best power unit and left Ferrari, in its own words this month, “missing pure power”. Hamilton has driven well in spite of it. He is third in the championship on 191 points after 13 rounds, ahead of Leclerc on 155, and he was Ferrari’s lead car for most of the summer. The trouble is structural rather than personal. Ferrari never chose between its drivers, and by September Hamilton was saying openly that it was too late to structure the season around him.

Monza made the argument unavoidable. The two Ferraris touched at the first corner of their home race, Leclerc later crashed heavily, and Hamilton’s verdict afterwards was that “there are no rules” governing how the drivers race each other. Leclerc blamed the media for the narrative. Fred Vasseur promised a review. Our analysis of Ferrari’s Monza mess set out why the problem sits above both drivers.

The eighth title

Hamilton is 41 and has said nothing about stopping. An eighth championship would break the tie with Schumacher and would almost certainly have to come under the 2027 regulations, which reset the engine order that has decided 2026. Whether Ferrari can build that engine, and whether it can finally decide which of its drivers it is building the team around, are the two questions that will define the rest of his career. He has answered every other one.

Fact file

  • Born: 7 January 1985, Stevenage, England
  • F1 debut: 2007 Australian Grand Prix, McLaren
  • World championships: 7 (2008, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
  • Teams: McLaren (2007 to 2012), Mercedes (2013 to 2024), Ferrari (2025 onwards)
  • 2026 number: 44
  • 2026 standings after round 13: 3rd, 191 points

Frequently asked questions

How many championships has Hamilton won?

Seven, one with McLaren in 2008 and six with Mercedes, tying Michael Schumacher’s record.

When did he join Ferrari?

For 2025, after 12 seasons at Mercedes.

How old is he?

41 during the 2026 season.

Where is he in the 2026 championship?

Third after 13 rounds on 191 points.