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Lewis Hamilton
More than seventy years of Formula One, and he is still the only Black driver the sport has had.
The rise
Born in Stevenage on 7 January 1985 to a father of Grenadian descent who worked several jobs at once to pay for karting, Hamilton was taken into McLaren's young driver programme at thirteen. He reached Formula One with McLaren in 2007, lost the title by a point, and won it the next year at twenty-three.
What they did
He took the title in 2008 with McLaren and six more with Mercedes, the last in 2020, and holds the records for Grand Prix wins and poles. The Hamilton Commission he created in 2020 reported in 2021 on Black under-representation in British motorsport, and out of it came Mission 44, his foundation, funded with £20 million of his own. He joined Ferrari in 2025 and won for it in 2026.
The full picture
He has lived outside Britain for tax since 2007, and the Paradise Papers showed in 2017 that a £3.3 million VAT refund on a £16.5 million jet ran through Isle of Man and offshore companies; his advisers, he said, had assured him it was legal. He said little about race before 2020, and races in Saudi Arabia in a Pride helmet.
Why it matters
He is still the only Black driver Formula One has had, and rather than leave that as a fact about himself he paid for the research into why, then built an institution out of the answer.
“Not a sign from anybody in my industry, which of course is a white dominated sport. I'm one of the only people of colour there, yet I stand alone.”