Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton MBE (Order of the British Empire) (born 7 January 1985 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire) is a British (United Kingdom) Formula One racing driver from England, currently racing for the McLaren Mercedes (McLaren (racing)) team and is the youngest ever Formula One World Champion (List of Formula One World Drivers Champions). He was named after American sprinter Carl Lewis.

At age ten, Hamilton approached McLaren team principal Ron Dennis at the 1995 Autosport Awards ceremony and told him, "I want to race for you one day." Less than three years later, he was signed by McLaren and Mercedes-Benz to their Young Driver Support Programme. After winning the British Formula Renault (British Formula Renault Championship), Formula Three Euroseries, and GP2 (GP2 Series) championships on his way up the racing career ladder, he became a McLaren F1 driver for 2007, making his Formula One debut 12 years after his initial encounter with Dennis. Coming from a mixed-race (British Mixed-Race) background, with a black father and white mother, Hamilton is often labelled "the first black (Black people) driver in Formula One".

In his first season in Formula One Hamilton set numerous records and finished second in the 2007 Formula One Championship (2007 Formula One season) just one point behind Kimi R�ikk�nen. His first world championship was won the following season (2008 Formula One season), ahead of Felipe Massa by the same margin of a single point. He has stated he wants to stay with the McLaren team for the rest of his F1 career.