Lewis Hamilton’s F1 career in numbers

Count ‘em. Hamilton is the only driver to have hit triple figures for wins, with Michael Schumacher next on the list with 91 and Max Verstappen in third on 61.

199 podiums is another record. Hamilton the wonderkid famously opened with nine of them in a row in his very first season with McLaren in 2007.

… and counting. Only Fernando Alonso (392 and also counting) and Kimi Raikkonen (353 and very much never counting again) have more.

This figure used to be a lot higher, before Mercedes forgot how to build fast F1 cars. He’s still fifth on the all-time list as things stand, behind Verstappen, Jim Clark, Alberto Ascari and Juan Manuel Fangio, who won 47.06 per cent of all the grands prix he ever entered. Yikes.

Exactly 1,651.5 points more than Sebastian Vettel in second place. Most of the top 10 is made up of current drivers, as you get more points for finishing fifth these days than you used to in years gone by.

61 of which he’s converted into victory. Decent hit-rate, that.

Schumi still leads the way on 77, but LH is closing in. And he’s got more incentive than Schumacher did now that there’s a bonus point for the fastest lap, too.

Remember that string of retirements that Hamilton had in 2012, ruining any shot he had at the world title? Mechanical DNFs that - rumour has it - convinced him to jump ship to Mercedes for the following year. Didn’t work out too badly, did it?

This is quite remarkable. Deduct the retirements and Hamilton has crossed the finish line outside the points… 12 times. He’s in his 18th season of F1.

This doesn’t include laps in practice, or qualifying, or testing… he’s driven a long way, basically.

Another F1 record that used to belong to Michael Schumacher. Verstappen is currently fourth on the list, having led 3,301… another couple of years of Red Bull dominance and we could well have a new leader.

Hamilton prevailed in 2008 with McLaren (“Is that Glock?!" If you know, you know), and then in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020 with Mercedes. In 2007, 2016 and 2021 (the greatest title fight ever?), he missed out by just one, five and eight points respectively. He’s a 10-time champ in another dimension…

Soon to become three. He started out with McLaren in 2007 and stayed until the end of 2012, when he switched to the Mercedes team that he’s been with ever since. Almost a decade of success came to an abrupt halt when F1 changed its aero rules in 2022, and after two seasons of being in a non-competitive car, LH decided it was time to drop an absolute bombshell and make the switch to Ferrari for 2025.

We thought it was more than that: Fernando Alonso (2007), Heikki Kovalainen (2008-2009), Jenson Button (2010-2012), Nico Rosberg (2013-2016), Valtteri Bottas (2017-2021), and George Russell (2022-2024). In 2025, Charles Leclerc will become the seventh member of the Hamilton teammate club… unless he drops a bombshell of his own and wriggles out of his contract.

44 was Hamilton’s karting number, and when F1 decided to let drivers choose their own numbers (rather than assign them automatically), Lewis picked 44 again for old times’ sake.

Due to turn 40 in January 2025, Hamilton is getting on a bit in modern F1 terms. On the current grid, only Alonso will be getting his state pension sooner. But in historic terms Hamilton is still a spring chicken/vegan substitute compared to the oldest winner (Luis Fagioli, 53 years 22 days), oldest polesitter (Giuseppe Farina, 47 years 79 days) and oldest world champion (Fangio, 46 years 41 days).