'Grazie a tutti, Forza Ferrari!': Sir Lewis Hamilton's career in numbers

He's finally done it. After a debut Ferrari season to forget, Hamilton has finally rediscovered his vintage form and scored his first ever win for the Scuderia. He's 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 71.

206 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 (435 and also counting) and Kimi Raikkonen (353 and very much never counting again) have more.

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

Despite years in the wilderness, Hamilton's still number one, ahead of Max Verstappen and old rival Sebastian Vettel. A lot 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 SLH is closing in.

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?

A remarkable stat.

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

Another F1 record that used to belong to Michael Schumacher. Verstappen is currently third on the list, having led 3,873…

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…

He started out with McLaren in 2007 and stayed until the end of 2012, when he switched to Mercedes. 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 made the switch to Ferrari. Cue another season of... being in a non-competitive car.

But now it's 2026, and things are a little different...

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 became the seventh member of the Hamilton teammate club.

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.

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).