Lewis Hamilton is a British Formula One driver who has a net worth of $300 million. He began racing in Formula One with McLaren and won his first championship in 2008, becoming the youngest World Champion at that time. In 2013, he moved to Mercedes and won six more championships in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. On February 1, 2024, it was announced that Lewis will be joining Ferrari after the 2024 season ends.
Salary & Contracts
Lewis is one of the highest-paid drivers in Formula One and is also among the highest-paid athletes in the world. He usually makes between $70 million and $90 million each year. A large part of that comes from his Mercedes contract, which pays him $60 million per year.
In July 2023, Lewis signed a two-year contract with Mercedes that guaranteed him $60 million a year for both the 2024 and 2025 seasons. However, he decided to leave Mercedes after just one season and will be racing for Ferrari in 2025 instead. Reports say he might earn as much as $107 million a year with Ferrari.
Between June 2016 and June 2017, Lewis earned about $50 million through sponsorships and race winnings. The next year, he made $51 million, and in the following 12 months, his earnings went up to $55 million.
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Lewis Hamilton (Credits: Getty Images)Early Life
Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton was born on January 7, 1985, in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, England. His mother, Carmen, is white, and his father, Anthony, is black. Hamilton identifies as black. His parents separated when he was two years old, and he lived with his mother and half-sisters until he was 12.
After that, he moved in with his father, stepmother, and half-brother Nicolas. When he was five, Hamilton began practicing karate for self-defense because he was being bullied at school.
At the age of six, his father gave him a remote-controlled car, and the next year, he came in second at the British Radio Car Association championship. That Christmas, he got a go-kart from his dad. Anthony Hamilton promised to support Lewis’s racing goals as long as he kept doing well in school. Lewis went to The John Henry Newman School, a Catholic secondary school in Hertfordshire, where he also played football. In early 2001, he started studying at Cambridge Arts and Sciences.
Career
Lewis Hamilton’s career began with a confident step when he went up to Ron Dennis, who was in charge of McLaren, and said, “I want to race for you one day… I want to race for McLaren one day.” That was a bold thing to say, especially since he was only ten years old at the time.
In 1998, Hamilton joined the McLaren Young Driver program, and by 2007, he officially became a Formula One driver for McLaren. He made history by becoming the first and only black driver in Formula One. In his first season, he finished second behind Kimi Räikkönen. The next year, in 2008, Hamilton won his first Formula One World Championship, securing the title in the last race of the season.
He moved to Mercedes in 2013 and won two championships in a row in 2014 and 2015. He did it again in 2017 and 2018, and once more in 2019. Right now, he has seven World Championships, which ties him with Michael Schumacher for the most titles in Formula One history.
In 2018, Hamilton launched his clothing collection, TOMMYXLEWIS, during New York Fashion Week. He worked with American designer Tommy Hilfiger and models Winnie Harlow and Hailey Baldwin.
Lewis Hamilton (Credits: Getty Images)During his time in racing, Lewis Hamilton has often been at the center of controversy both on and off the track. He gets a lot of attention, and people watch what he says very closely.
While racing in Spain, he was the target of racial abuse from a small group of Spanish fans. This tension was mostly caused by his strong rivalry with Spanish driver Fernando Alonso. Hamilton admits that he is highly competitive, which can sometimes cause tension with other drivers.
A week before the 2018 German Grand Prix, Hamilton signed a two-year contract extension with Mercedes, which was said to be worth nearly $50 million per year.
In June 2020, Hamilton revealed that he would be driving an all-black Mercedes as a way to support Black Lives Matter. He has spoken out about how little diversity there is in Formula One. The car, which he designed himself, was called the Black Arrow. It made its first appearance in Austria during the Fourth of July weekend, when the delayed Formula One season began.
In 2022, major changes were made to technical rules, which led to different car designs. That year turned out to be difficult for Hamilton. He finished on the podium nine times but didn’t win a race or get a pole position for the first time in his Formula One career.
Personal Life
In November 2007, Lewis Hamilton started dating Nicole Scherzinger, the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls. They broke up in early 2010 to focus on their careers, but they were seen together again at the Turkish and Canadian Grands Prix later that same year. Their relationship continued on and off from 2011 until they split for good in February 2015.
After the breakup with Scherzinger, there were rumors that he briefly dated his close friend Rihanna. He was also linked to Rita Ora, Miss Finland Lotta Hinsa, Miss Grenada 2007 Vivian Burkhardt, model Winnie Harlow, Hungarian model Barbara Palvin, and Sofia Richie. He also went on a romantic trip to Dubai with Nicki Minaj.
Lewis Hamilton (Credits: Getty Images)Lewis lives a vegan lifestyle.
Some Members of Parliament have criticized Hamilton for choosing to live outside the U.K. to avoid paying taxes there.
He was named after Olympic sprinting legend Carl Lewis.
Hamilton is a big fan of Arsenal Football Club. He once said that if he hadn’t gone into racing, he might have become a football or cricket player, since he played both sports during high school.
In 2022, Lewis said he was in the process of legally adding his mother’s maiden name, Larbalestier, as one of his middle names.
In June 2022, Hamilton was given the title of honorary citizen of Brazil after politician Andre Figueiredo’s proposal was approved in the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies.
In September 2022, Hamilton started Team X44 to compete in the all-electric SUV off-road racing series called Extreme E. Team X44 finished second in the first-ever Extreme E championship and received the Extreme E Sustainability Award in January 2022. They later won the 2022 Championship, finishing ahead of RXR, who were disqualified from the race.
In 2022, Hamilton became part of the new ownership group of the Denver Broncos.
Lewis Hamilton (Credits: Getty Images)Real Estate
In 2019, Hamilton put his New York penthouse up for sale at a huge price of $57 million. This penthouse is in the Tribeca area, in the same building where celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Jessica Biel, Meg Ryan, Jake Gyllenhaal, and Bella Hadid live. Covering 8,900 square feet, it’s the largest penthouse loft in that building.
He bought the property for $43.9 million in 2017. By December 2021, he sold it for $50 million, but he never actually lived there. This might be because he already owned another penthouse nearby on 70 Vestry Street, which he bought in 2019 for $40.7 million.
Hamilton also owns a beautiful four-story house in Kensington, West London. This home has six bedrooms, was built in 1860, and is worth $25 million.
He has other homes too, including apartments in Nyon, a suburb near Geneva in Switzerland, and in Monaco. He also owns a property in Colorado, where he plans to live after he retires.
Personal Car Collection
Lewis Hamilton’s car collection is said to be worth at least $40 million, based on what he has shown on social media or confirmed as part of his official collection. Just one of his cars, a 1995 McLaren F1, is worth about $20 million. Here are some of the most valuable cars in his collection:
1995 McLaren F1 – $20 million
Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta – $4.1 million
Ferrari LaFerrari – $4 million
Mercedes-AMG One – $2.7 million
McLaren P1 – $1.8 million
1967 Ford Mustang Shelby GT500 – $1.4 million
Mercedes-AMG SLS Black – $270,000
AC 1966 Shelby Cobra 427 – $100,000
The total value for just these eight cars is $34.4 million.
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Lewis Hamilton’s rise from a young kart racer to one of the richest and most successful athletes in the world is truly inspiring. With a net worth of $300 million, he has won seven Formula One World Championships and achieved major success in fashion, activism, and business.
His strong drive to do well, both in racing and outside of it, has earned him a worldwide fan base and many awards. As he keeps pushing forward, Hamilton’s impact as a leading figure in motorsports is likely to last for a long time.