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

At the age of ten Hamilton approached the 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, Formula Three Euroseries and GP2 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 background, with a black father and white mother, Hamilton is often labelled "the first black driver in Formula One".

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