Sir Lewis Hamilton

  

By Bricean

In this biography you will learn three things about Lewis Hamilton: his childhood, what he does for charity, and his activism. Lewis Hamilton does a lot of things to help people and I think he is really cool. I like Lewis Hamilton because he is a F1 driver and he’s the best driver so far because he has the most F1 wins in the world, and he has a good team. Also, Lewis is the first black person to drive in F1 and he works to break down barriers for other people of color. I hope you learn a lot about Lewis Hamilton. 

Lewis Hamilton got a remote-control car when he was five from his dad. When Lewis was six, he won the adult remote-controlled car national championship. For the next Christmas Lewis got a go-kart. When he got into go-kart racing, he was the only black go-kart racer. He sometimes got bulled because he was black but, Lewis ignored the bulling and let his results speak for him. All of Lewis’s dad’s money went to the go-kart, but it paid off when Lewis won the British kart championship. Three years later Lewis got his spot on the McLaren racing team and he was the youngest driver on the team (Sanchez Vegara 2023). 

 For his debut as a formula one driver Lewis wore a bright yellow helmet to honor his hero, Ayrton Senna. Senna wanted to stand out from the other drivers that were wearing white helmets, and he did that by wearing a yellow helmet (Petrany 2019). Ayrton Senna inspired Lewis to wear more then one helmet and Lewis now wears a lot of helmets that inspire people. For his rookie season Lewis won second in the world drivers’ championship. He raced for McLaren for five years and then he joined the Mercedes-Benz team, the silver arrows. Lewis has then gone on to win seven world titles with Mercedes-Benz including becoming the first black driver to top the formula one rankings. Lewis is the youngest champion ever (Sanchez Vegara 2023). 

 Lewis uses his fame and speaks publicly about environmental concerns, racism, LGBTQ+ rights and he works to break down barriers in motorsports. Lewis switched to a plant-based diet (livekindly.com 2023), and he invested in an electric off road racing series to raise awareness for environmental issues. In Lewis’s household he does not want people to buy plastic and he wants everything to be recyclable. Lewis is making changes and he’s encouraging people around him to do the same thing to save the planet (Katwala 2021). 

Lewis has also set up research to examine the structural reasons for black underrepresentation in motorsports (Heath 2022). Lewis hopes that other black people will someday become engineers, car mechanics, or drivers (Katwala 2021). Sometimes Lewis features the prominent pride flag on the top of his helmet. Lewis has been very vocal about human rights issues (espn.com 2021). F1 has a bigger audience than ever before so Lewis can make a point to more people (Edmondson 2021). 

Winning race after race and title after title, Lewis broke the record for the most formula one triumphs and is considered the best F1 driver in the world. After his seventh world championship, he was knighted, Sir Lewis Hamilton (Sanchez Vegara 2023)! Lewis has a lot of money and a big platform. Lewis is trying to change the world, and his wealth and fame allow him to teach people about stuff that they don’t know. This helps people be more aware and make better choices about the environment and social issues. Lewis is a good person, and we need to help him change the world. 

I hope you learned a lot about Lewis Hamilton! 

References
Edmondson, Lawrence. 2021. ESPN.com. Lewis Hamilton Wears Pride Colors on Helmet.
EurosportsUK.com. 2022. ‘Be more outspoken’-Lewis Hamilton Encourages Drivers to be Activists in Response to Criticism by FIA President.
Heath, Chris. 2022.Vanity fair. Lewis Hamilton: The F1 Superstar, Racism, His Fortune, and The Shocker That Cost Him A Championship.
Katwala, Amit. 2021. Wired.com. Lewis Hamilton opens up about activism and life beyond F1.
Livekindly.com. 2023. Lewis Hamilton says he’ll be carbon neutral by the end of the year.
Petrany, Mate. 2019. The story behind the most iconic helmet in motorsports history.
Sanchez Vegara, Maria Isabel. 2023. Little people, big dreams Lewis Hamilton.