Lewis Hamilton

• 1. Introduction

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  Sir Lewis Hamilton was ten years old when he walked up to Ron Dennis, boss of the McLaren Formula One team, at the Autosport Awards. He asked for an autograph, and he came with an announcement. "Hi. I'm Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars." Dennis wrote a reply in the boy's autograph book: "Phone me in nine years, we'll sort something out then."

  The boy did not have to wait that long. Hamilton is now a British racing driver whose seven Formula One World Drivers' Championship titles are a joint record, level with Michael Schumacher. He also holds the records for most wins, pole positions and podium finishes. A list of records, though, says little about how any of it happened.

  This documentary follows several questions. What did a father give up so that a child from Stevenage could race? Why did Hamilton walk away from the team that raised him, and then walk away again from the one that made him dominant? What happened on one last lap in Abu Dhabi, a race that fans and officials still argue over? And what does a champion do with his voice once the engine is switched off?

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• 2. Stevenage to the Grid

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  On the 7th of January 1985, Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton was born in Stevenage, Hertfordshire. His father, Anthony, is of Afro-Grenadian descent. His mother, Carmen Larbalestier, is White British and comes from Birmingham. The couple separated when Lewis was two. He lived with his mother and his older half-sisters, Samantha and Nicola, until he was twelve. He then moved in with his father, his stepmother Linda and his half-brother Nicolas, who is also a professional racing driver.

  A radio-controlled car, bought when Hamilton was five, started everything. The next year he finished second in the national BRCA championship, racing against adults. At his club he was the only black child competing, and he suffered racist abuse there.

  At six, Hamilton received a go-kart for Christmas, with a condition attached. Anthony promised to back his son's racing as long as the boy worked hard at school. To keep that promise, Anthony took redundancy from his job as an IT manager and became a contractor. At times he held up to four jobs at once, including selling double glazing, washing dishes and putting up signs for estate agents. He still made it to his son's races. He later founded his own IT company and stayed on as Hamilton's manager until early 2010.

  School was not always easy. Hamilton attended The John Henry Newman School, a Catholic secondary school in Stevenage. He has said he took up karate at five to defend himself against bullies. Later he was excluded for a period after being wrongly identified as the attacker of a fellow student who ended up in hospital. On the football pitch, he played for the school team alongside Ashley Young, who went on to play for England. An Arsenal fan, Hamilton has said he would have become a footballer or a cricketer if Formula One had not worked out.

  Ladbrokes was already taking bets on him when he was twelve. The bookmaker offered odds of 40/1 that he would win a Formula One race before the age of 23. Another bet, at 150/1, said he would be World Drivers' Champion before he turned 25.

  The phone call Dennis had promised came early. In 1998, after Hamilton won his second Super One series and British championship, Dennis offered him a place on the McLaren-Mercedes Young Driver Programme. The contract included an option on a future Formula One seat. That would make Hamilton the youngest driver to sign a deal that later led to a Formula One drive.

  Karting carried him through the Intercontinental A, Formula A and Formula Super A classes in 1999-2000 and 2001. In 2000 he became European Champion with maximum points. His teammate at TeamMBM.com was Nico Rosberg, a name that would matter again. That same year, the British Racing Drivers' Club made him a "Rising Star" member. In 2001, Michael Schumacher returned to karts for a single event. Hamilton finished the final in seventh, four places behind him, and Schumacher praised the young Briton afterwards.

  Cars came next. Hamilton began with the 2001 British Formula Renault Winter Series, finishing fifth. A full 2002 Formula Renault UK season with Manor Motorsport brought third overall. Asked that year about becoming one of the youngest Formula One drivers, he said his goal was "not to be the youngest in Formula One". He wanted "to be experienced and then show what I can do in Formula One".

  The following year he won the Formula Renault UK title with 10 wins from 15 races, ahead of Alex Lloyd. Then he skipped the last two races to make his British Formula 3 debut at the season finale. A puncture ended his first race. In the second he crashed with teammate Tor Graves and was taken to hospital.

  The 2004 Formula 3 Euro Series brought fifth place, a win at the Bahrain F3 Superprix and two starts at the Macau F3 Grand Prix. Williams came close to signing him, but BMW, their engine supplier, refused to fund the deal. At the end of that year, Martin Whitmarsh, who guided the McLaren young driver programme, had what he called a "huge row" with Anthony Hamilton. Anthony wanted his son in GP2 for 2005, while Whitmarsh preferred another year in Formula 3. Whitmarsh tore up the contract. Six weeks later, Hamilton phoned him and signed again. Late in 2004 he had also made his first Formula One test for McLaren at Silverstone.

  In 2005 he moved to ASM and dominated the Euro Series, winning 15 of the 20 rounds and taking 13 pole positions. Autosport placed him 24th in its "Top 50 Drivers of 2005".

  For 2006, Hamilton stepped up to GP2 with ART Grand Prix and won the title at his first attempt, ahead of Nelson Piquet Jr. At the Nürburgring he won comfortably despite a penalty for speeding in the pit lane. At Silverstone he passed two rivals at Becketts, a run of fast corners where overtaking is rare. In Istanbul he spun down to 18th place and still recovered to finish second. The title itself arrived oddly. At Monza, Giorgio Pantano was stripped of fastest lap in the feature race, and that handed Hamilton the last point he needed.

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• 3. McLaren Years

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  Nearly 5,000 miles of testing in the McLaren MP4-21 prepared Hamilton for Formula One. He shared that work with Pedro de la Rosa and Gary Paffett. The seat existed because Juan Pablo Montoya had left for NASCAR and Kimi Räikkönen had gone to Ferrari. McLaren kept the decision quiet for almost two months, reportedly so it would not be buried under news of Schumacher's retirement.

  At the opening race of 2007, Hamilton became the first black driver to compete in Formula One. He finished third on debut and then rewrote the rookie record book. Nine consecutive podiums from his first start set a record. His four wins matched Jacques Villeneuve's debut-season total. By the fourth round he led the championship, the youngest driver ever to do so.

  A series of misfortunes in the second half of the season erased a 12-point lead. They included strategy errors by McLaren and a retirement. He lost the title to Räikkönen by a single point. Afterwards he signed a contract worth 50 million to stay at McLaren until the end of 2012.

  His teammate that year was Fernando Alonso, a two-time reigning champion, and the pairing turned toxic. At Monaco, Hamilton finished second behind Alonso and made comments suggesting he had been forced into a supporting role. The FIA looked into whether McLaren had imposed team orders. It cleared the team, noting that McLaren could pursue its best strategy because of a "substantial advantage over all other cars".

  Hungary was worse. The two drivers had agreed to take turns leading qualifying from race to race, because the fuel regulations gave the leader an edge. Alonso's turn came in Hungary. In the final session, Hamilton went out ahead of him and ignored requests from the team to let him through. Alonso then held Hamilton up in the pits, so Hamilton could not set a final lap before the session ended. Alonso was moved back to sixth on the grid, which lifted Hamilton from second to first, and McLaren lost Constructors' Championship points. Hamilton called the penalty "quite light if anything" and said he regretted only the lost points.

  Reports that Hamilton swore at Dennis over the radio followed. Autosport claimed Dennis threw his headphones onto the pit wall in disgust, a gesture many read as a reaction to Alonso's pole. McLaren later issued a statement on Hamilton's behalf denying any profanity. The two drivers reportedly stopped speaking for a short time. It was also reported that Luca di Montezemolo had targeted Hamilton for a Ferrari seat. In November, Alonso and McLaren ended their contract by mutual consent.

  The numbers show how close they were. Together they won eight of 17 races. Each took four victories and 12 podiums, and Hamilton out-qualified Alonso ten times. They finished on 109 points apiece. Hamilton was ranked second and Alonso third because Hamilton had more second places.

  The hostility faded over the years. In 2017 Alonso listed the cars Hamilton had won in, good and bad. He added: "Not all the champions can say that." Alonso later named him among the five greatest drivers of all time. When Alonso left for a two-year break in 2018, Hamilton and Sebastian Vettel flanked him on the cool-down lap. All three then did donuts on the start-finish straight.

  The following season brought a new partner in Heikki Kovalainen and five wins. Ferrari's drivers and BMW's Robert Kubica pressed him through the first half of the season. Then it became a duel with Ferrari's Felipe Massa. On the last lap of the last race, Hamilton passed Timo Glock for fifth place at the final corners. That move made him the youngest World Drivers' Champion up to that time. It left Massa, who had won the race, one point short. Hamilton was also the first British champion since Damon Hill.

  What followed was a harder stretch. Red Bull dominated the next four seasons. Major technical changes left McLaren struggling at first, with Hamilton often qualifying outside the top ten. Upgrades to the MP4-24 changed that. He climbed from eleventh to fifth in the standings with two wins in the final nine rounds.

  Later he fought a four-way title battle with Alonso, Vettel and Mark Webber, alongside reigning champion Jenson Button. Collisions and mechanical failures cost him points, and he finished fourth. One season ended with Button outscoring him for the first time. Setbacks in his private life and repeated run-ins with the stewards contributed to the dip.

  The last season was the most painful. Hamilton took four wins and a season-high seven poles. Yet across ten races he suffered five retirements, three of them while leading. Motorsport.com estimated that bad luck and retirements cost him around 110 points. Having turned down several rounds of renegotiation, he stunned the paddock by announcing a move to Mercedes. He said he was "forever grateful" for McLaren's support, and so ended a 15-year association.

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• 4. Mercedes Dynasty

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  A deal reportedly worth more than 60 million took Hamilton to Mercedes in 2013, to replace the retiring Schumacher. Pundits and the public were surprised. The team had no recent record of success, and some called the move a gamble. It also reunited him with his childhood karting teammate, Nico Rosberg.

  The first season was modest. The Mercedes W04 struggled with its tyres, and Hamilton finished fourth in the standings with five podiums and five poles. Only one pole became a win, in Hungary, where a change in Pirelli's tyre construction helped. He managed just one more podium for the rest of that year.

  New engine rules the next year, requiring turbo-hybrid power units, changed everything. Mercedes won 16 of the 19 races. Hamilton took a career-best 11 victories while fighting Rosberg for the title all year. Mechanical failures and a collision with Rosberg left him trailing by 29 points. Five straight wins followed, and he clinched his second title at the final round in Abu Dhabi. Over team radio he called it "the greatest day of his life".

  He kept his old karting number, 44, and defended the crown. The next year he won 10 races, scored 11 poles in the first 12 races and led the standings throughout. A then-joint-record 17 podiums came with it. He sealed the title with three races to spare. Mercedes then extended his deal by three years, reportedly worth more than 100 million. It let him keep his own image rights, along with his championship-winning cars and trophies.

  The rivalry with Rosberg was the defining feature of those years. Robert Kubica, who raced with both before Formula One, recalled that "they would even have races to eat pizza, always eating two at a time." Their backgrounds could hardly have differed. Rosberg was born in Germany and raised in Monaco, the son of champion Keke Rosberg. Hamilton grew up on a council estate in Stevenage with a father who worked several jobs.

  Their karting boss, Dino Chiesa, said Hamilton was the faster driver while Rosberg was more analytical. Rosberg once told Chiesa, "everything relates to physics and maths". Mark Hughes of Sky Sports wrote that Rosberg took a more scientific approach. Hamilton, he said, usually found a balance he could work with and adapted around it. Will Buxton argued that Hamilton's fuel and tyre use against Rosberg showed he was far from the "unintelligent chancer" many painted him to be.

  The statistics bear out a close fight. Across four seasons, the pair won 54 of 78 races. Hamilton had 32 victories and 55 podiums and out-qualified Rosberg 42 times. Rosberg had 22 victories and 50 podiums and out-qualified Hamilton 36 times. Hamilton took two titles to Rosberg's one, and scored more points in three of the four seasons.

  Rosberg's title came in the fourth year, by five points. Hamilton had started poorly, with weak race starts and mechanical failures, and Mercedes let the pair race freely. That produced collisions at the Spanish and Austrian Grands Prix. Then he won six of seven races in mid-season and took the championship lead for the first time that year. After an engine blowout in Malaysia came a hat-trick of wins, including his 50th victory in the United States and his 100th podium in Japan. He still arrived at the finale 12 points behind.

  In Abu Dhabi, Hamilton defied team orders and slowed Rosberg deliberately at the end, hoping the chasing pack would pass him. It did not work. Rosberg took the title and announced a shock retirement straight afterwards. Hamilton's 10 wins set a record for a driver who did not become champion. He also set the record for most career points.

  Valtteri Bottas became his new teammate, and a different rival emerged. Ferrari's Vettel led the standings through the first half of the next season. After the summer break, Hamilton won five of six races and broke the all-time record for pole positions. He took his fourth title with two races to spare, after 11 poles, nine wins and three grand slams in the season.

  The 2018 battle was billed the "Fight for Five". The lead changed hands several times until the halfway point. Then Vettel made an error while leading and retired, and Hamilton won from 14th on the grid. Vettel's season unravelled with further mistakes, and Hamilton clinched his fifth title. He scored a record 408 points that year. During the season he signed a two-year extension reported to be worth up to 40 million per year. That made him the best-paid driver in the sport's history.

  Hamilton called Vettel his favourite rival. They had clashed at the 2017 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, where Vettel accused him of brake checking and drove into him in retaliation, earning a penalty. Hamilton recalled: "It took a lot out of both of us in that period of time, to remain focused to deliver weekend in, weekend out." He added that the respect between them was huge.

  His sixth title came with two races to spare, and a sixth career grand slam at the Abu Dhabi finale. He ended that year with 11 wins, a record 413 points and a margin of 87 points over Bottas.

  The seventh arrived in a season reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. Over seventeen races he took ten poles and eleven wins, among them his 92nd career victory, which broke the all-time record. He missed one race after testing positive for COVID-19, his first absence since his debut. He won the title in wet conditions with three rounds to spare, finishing 124 points clear of Bottas.

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• 5. Abu Dhabi and Beyond

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  Five consecutive Red Bull victories opened the 2021 season and handed Max Verstappen the lead. New regulations had closed the gap between the teams, and the title became a two-man fight. Verstappen and Hamilton collided in Britain, Italy and Saudi Arabia. They finished first and second at 14 of 22 Grands Prix. Hamilton reached his 100th pole at the Spanish Grand Prix and his 100th win at the Russian one, the first driver to do either.

  A hat-trick of wins in the penultimate rounds, including a recovery drive widely praised as one of his greatest, wiped out a 19-point deficit. They arrived at Abu Dhabi level on points. Hamilton led most of the race. Then a late safety car changed it.

  Race director Michael Masi told the lapped cars between the two leaders to un-lap themselves. That closed the gap. Verstappen, who had pitted for soft tyres, entered the final lap immediately behind Hamilton, who was still on worn hard tyres. Verstappen then passed him and took the championship. Four days later the FIA announced an internal investigation. Masi was removed from his role. The World Motor Sport Council report blamed "human error" for the failure to follow the rules on withdrawing the safety car. It added that the final standings were "valid, final and cannot now be changed".

  BBC Sport's Andrew Benson called the season "one of the most intense, hard-fought battles in sporting history". During that year Hamilton also extended his 40 million per year contract with Mercedes by two more seasons.

  George Russell replaced the departing Bottas in 2022. For the first time in his Formula One career, Hamilton went a season without a win or a pole. New technical regulations left the radically different Mercedes W13 suffering from porpoising. Hamilton called it "undrivable" and sustained a back injury. Mid-season upgrades brought podiums, and he set records for most consecutive seasons with a podium and with at least one lap led. He finished sixth, 35 points behind Russell in fourth. It was the first time since 2016 that a teammate had beaten him in the standings.

  Red Bull dominated again the next season. Hamilton went winless once more but finished third. He took a record ninth pole at one circuit, his first since 2021, surpassing Senna and Schumacher for most poles at a single Grand Prix. He then signed a two-year extension worth over 100 million.

  Before the next season began, he triggered an exit clause that would let him leave a year early. He had been associated with the German marque since the age of 13. He called the decision one of the hardest he had made, saying he needed a new challenge and a different working environment. The W15 did not suit his driving style, and qualifying was inconsistent.

  Mid-season, Mercedes recovered. Hamilton ended a 31-month winless drought and set a record for most wins at the same Grand Prix. He also became the first driver to win beyond his 300th start. He reached his 200th podium in Hungary and won again later. Admitting he was "looking forward to the end of the season", he finished a career-low seventh, 22 points behind Russell. His partnership with Mercedes was the most successful between driver and constructor in the sport's history by several measures.

  Ferrari announced a multi-year agreement with Hamilton, reportedly worth 41 million per year, to replace Carlos Sainz Jr. alongside Charles Leclerc. Hamilton called it a "childhood dream". Observers ranked it with his move from McLaren to Mercedes among the most unexpected transfers the sport had seen. It was also the first time he drove for a team without a Mercedes engine.

  His debut Ferrari season was, in his word, "painful". He won a maiden sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix, then was disqualified from the main race for a technical infringement. In the final three races he went out in the first qualifying session each time, a first in his career. The car felt "alien" after so many years at Mercedes, and he was less confident in it than Leclerc was. He finished sixth, 86 points behind his teammate, in the first season of his career without a podium.

  Away from the track, he has met repeatedly with team principal Frédéric Vasseur, car development chief Loïc Serra, chairman John Elkann and CEO Benedetto Vigna. He has handed them detailed documents setting out suggestions for improvement, ahead of the next change in regulations.

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• 6. Craft in the Cockpit

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  Mark Hughes, writing for the official Formula One website, described Hamilton as "super-hard on the brakes". He added that Hamilton matches brake pressure to the loss of downforce, leaving "no wasted grip but no locked wheels either". Paddy Lowe, once McLaren's engineering director, said Hamilton is comfortable with levels of rear instability most drivers would find intolerable. Hamilton adapts quickly to changing set-ups and track conditions. He has typically used less fuel than his teammates, thanks to his ability to carry momentum through corners.

  Pedro de la Rosa, a McLaren test driver who worked with both Hamilton and Alonso, rated the pair the best he had seen first hand. He pointed to how much speed they can carry into a corner and still exit well. That held even when their rear tyres had lost grip late in a stint.

  Consistency is another hallmark. From 2017 to 2018 Hamilton finished 33 consecutive races in the points, a run ended only by mechanical trouble. Ross Brawn wrote that over 2018 Hamilton "hardly put a foot wrong". Martin Brundle, commentating for Sky Sports, said Hamilton "just doesn't fade, mentally or physically".

  Rain brings out the best in him. At the 2008 British Grand Prix he beat Nick Heidfeld by more than a minute, the biggest winning margin since the 1995 Australian Grand Prix. From the 2014 Japanese Grand Prix until the 2019 German Grand Prix, he stayed unbeaten in wet races. Verstappen finally ended that streak of almost five years.

  The 2020 Turkish Grand Prix may be his best. Mercedes struggled with tyre temperatures on a freshly resurfaced track, and he qualified sixth. In mixed conditions he gambled on a one-stop strategy while rivals pitted twice, took the lead and won by more than 30 seconds. His teammate Bottas spun four times and finished a lap down in 14th. Joe Saward called it "one of his greatest performances", and Hamilton named it his "stand-out" drive of the season.

  Ayrton Senna shaped his approach. Hamilton recalled that he watched Senna as a boy and thought, "this is how I want to drive when I get the opportunity". In 2010 he drove Senna's title-winning McLaren MP4/4 for a tribute by the BBC show Top Gear. In that programme he named Senna the greatest driver ever, alongside fellow racers. He has repeatedly brought special helmets to the Brazilian Grand Prix in Senna's honour.

  His temper once drew criticism. In GP2 at Imola he was disqualified for overtaking the safety car. Four years later he did the same thing in Formula One at the European Grand Prix in Valencia. After joining Mercedes he was credited with greater maturity while keeping his aggression. The official Formula One website now calls him "invariably a fierce but fair fighter".

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• 7. Reputation and Image

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  David Coulthard called Hamilton "the Ayrton Senna of his era" after his second and third Mercedes titles. Paddy Lowe went further about the rookie year, saying Hamilton "turned out to be the best rookie there has ever been". As the records fell, the argument shifted from best of his generation to best of all time. Alonso, Sainz, Massa, Gerhard Berger and Ross Brawn all backed his place among the greats. After the sixth title, Johnny Herbert called him the greatest driver ever. After the seventh, John Watson said Hamilton "is, by a million miles, the greatest driver of his generation".

  Admiration came with a puzzle. Hamilton has been a divisive figure among the general public, and some journalists argue his exploits are underappreciated. Autocar's Jim Holden suggested racial bias played a part. Hamilton's earrings, braids and designer clothes, he said, may have alienated the sport's traditional older white male fans. Others blamed the predictability of the turbo-hybrid era. They compared his run to Schumacher in the early 2000s. They also named tennis players Steffi Graf and Martina Navratilova, who were better appreciated late in their careers.

  His lean years at McLaren are also cited as proof of skill. He won at least one race in fifteen consecutive seasons, often in cars that were not the quickest. Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali called him "a true giant of our sport" after the knighthood.

  Away from the circuit, Hamilton lives a jet-set life that has drawn scrutiny. In 2018 he won the Italian Grand Prix and flew to Shanghai and New York to launch a clothing line with Tommy Hilfiger. He then flew straight back and won in Singapore. Toto Wolff has backed these pursuits, explaining that freedom helps Hamilton perform at his best. Bernie Ecclestone often praised how readily Hamilton engages with fans. Hamilton is also the founder of Almave, a premium non-alcoholic agave spirit brand.

  His helmet has been a billboard for his shifting story. In karting it was mostly yellow with blue, green and red ribbons. In 2014 he switched to white with three red ribbons, and in 2016 he added three stars for his titles. In 2017 he chose a design from fan submissions. For season finales in 2017-2018 and 2019 he wore gold helmets with four, five and six stars. In 2020 he switched to matte black with purple details and later added a Black Lives Matter emblem. Two years later he moved to fluorescent yellow.

  One-off designs carried messages. After Niki Lauda died before the 2019 Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton wore a helmet in Lauda's red-and-white colours. Lauda had played a pivotal role in his move to Mercedes. In 2021 he used rainbow helmets at the Qatar, Saudi Arabian and Abu Dhabi Grands Prix in support of LGBTQ rights in the Middle East. In Japan he wore designs by artists Takashi Murakami in 2022 and Hajime Sorayama in 2023. When he signed for Ferrari, he went back to a yellow base with red accents, with the Ferrari emblem replacing the Mercedes logo.

  Money has brought trouble too. In 2008 a Christian Aid report singled out Hamilton's tax arrangements, and members of parliament criticised him. After the Paradise Papers leak in November 2017, it was reported that he had avoided 3.3 million pounds of VAT on a private jet. The jet was worth 16.5 million. BBC Panorama said the leasing deal looked "artificial". He sold the jet in September 2019. HMRC data from the same year placed him among the top 5,000 UK taxpayers. In 2014 he told The Sunday Times that he races in 19 countries, pays tax in several, and that "I am contributing to the country".

  In December 2018, at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Awards, Hamilton spoke about his family. They wanted, he said, "to get out of the slums". He corrected himself at once, but the leader of Stevenage Borough Council called the remark "disappointing". Hamilton posted an apology on Instagram, saying he chose "the wrong words". The town mayor accepted it as gracious.

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• 8. Voice Beyond Racing

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  Spanish supporters at the 2007 Chinese Grand Prix subjected Hamilton to racist abuse. In 2008, at pre-season testing at the Circuit de Catalunya, spectators wore black face paint and wigs and heckled him. The FIA warned Spanish authorities and launched a "Race Against Racism" campaign. Shortly before the Brazilian Grand Prix that year, a website named for "burst Hamilton's tyre" let visitors scatter nails and porcupines on a virtual track. Some of its comments contained racial insults.

  After a controversial British Grand Prix win in 2021, he faced a new wave of online abuse. Mercedes, Formula One and the FIA issued a joint statement condemning it. Critics have also pointed to the press. A Guardian journalist, Joseph Harker, said in 2014 that British papers treated him differently from other British drivers. In 2019 Rio Ferdinand said scrutiny of Hamilton had "racist undertones". Toto Wolff said Hamilton had been "scarred for life" by abuse in his childhood.

  At the start of his career, Hamilton said he tried to ignore being the first black driver. He later said he had come to "appreciate the implications", and he changed his approach to push for equality in the sport. In 2011 he was summoned to the stewards in five of the first six rounds. He joked: "maybe it's because I'm black, that's what Ali G says." In 2018 he said "nothing's changed" for diversity in the 11 years since his debut.

  Throughout 2020 he took a knee before every Grand Prix in support of Black Lives Matter. After the murder of George Floyd, he criticised those in Formula One who stayed silent. On Instagram he wrote: "Just know I know who you are and I see you." Ross Brawn replied that Formula One "supports Hamilton totally". At the Tuscan Grand Prix he wore a T-shirt demanding the arrest of the police who killed Breonna Taylor. The FIA then barred unofficial clothing on podiums and in interviews. Hamilton said he did not "regret a single moment of it".

  In June 2020 he created The Hamilton Commission with the Royal Academy of Engineering. Its task was to bring more black people into STEM subjects and motorsport. The next May he became the first winner of the Laureus Athlete Advocate of the Year Award. In July 2021 he founded Mission 44, a charity for young people from under-represented backgrounds, and pledged 20 million to it. It works with Ignite, a joint foundation between Hamilton and Mercedes that funds education and opportunity in motorsport.

  He has taken on human rights as well. In December 2020, an 11-year-old boy wrote to him asking him to save his father. The father faced the death penalty in Bahrain after an alleged forced confession. Hamilton said he "won't let it go unnoticed" and spoke with human rights groups, legal experts and Bahraini officials. He also criticised Hungary's anti-LGBT law before the 2021 Hungarian Grand Prix and called conditions for LGBT people in Saudi Arabia "terrifying".

  His environmental and animal causes include urging China to reclassify dogs as pets rather than livestock. He has backed charities against wildlife smuggling and called for protection of the Amazon rainforest. In January 2020 he donated 500,000 to Australian bushfire relief and set a goal of becoming carbon neutral by year's end. His office and household were told to use recyclable items.

  His work with UNICEF began in 2012 with a trip to the Philippines, where he made a short film about Manila's street children. Shown on ITV1 during Soccer Aid, it helped raise over 4.9 million pounds. Two years later he filmed in Haiti about child malnutrition, and that film raised over 6 million pounds.

  Hamilton was named one of Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2020 and knighted in the 2021 New Year Honours for services to motorsport. In 2021 the Powerlist named him the most influential Black Briton. He has said he has no plans to retire until he sees Formula One return to a race track in Africa.

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