Did Lewis Hamilton Drive For McLaren?

• Yes, Lewis Hamilton drove for McLaren from 2007 to 2012, winning 21 Grands Prix and his first World Championship in 2008.
• His rookie season produced a record that still stands, nine consecutive podium finishes from his F1 debut, and he lost that year’s title to Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen by a single point.
• Hamilton left for Mercedes in 2013, went on to equal Michael Schumacher’s seven world titles, and is now racing for Ferrari, where he took his first win for the team at the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix.

How Lewis Hamilton’s McLaren Career Began

Lewis Hamilton drove for McLaren for six seasons, from his F1 debut in 2007 to his emotional departure at the end of 2012. It’s the partnership that turned a karting prodigy from Stevenage into a world champion, and it started years before he ever sat in one of the team’s cars, when a ten-year-old Hamilton introduced himself to McLaren boss Ron Dennis at a karting awards ceremony.

Did Lewis Hamilton Drive For McLaren in F1?

Yes. Hamilton had already caught Ron Dennis’s attention years earlier and joined McLaren’s young driver programme at 13, before making his Formula 1 debut with the team in 2007 alongside two-time champion Fernando Alonso. He was 22 years old at the time and stayed with McLaren through to the end of the 2012 season, when he moved to Mercedes.

That first contact with Dennis is one of the better-documented stories in modern F1. Hamilton was ten, wearing a borrowed suit, and had just won the British Karting Championship when his father pointed out Dennis across the room and told him he was the boss of McLaren. Hamilton walked over and introduced himself directly: “Hi, I’m Lewis Hamilton, and I’ve just won the British Karting Championship, and one day I want to be Formula 1 World Champion in your car.” Dennis told him to call back in nine years. Looking back on it, Hamilton has admitted, “I don’t know what possessed me to say those things, where I had the confidence at the time to be able to say those things.” That first meeting set up almost everything that followed.

Hamilton’s Rookie Season And First World Championship

Hamilton’s 2007 debut is still one of the great rookie seasons in F1 history. He finished on the podium in each of his first nine Grands Prix, a record for a debutant that still stands today, and led the championship for much of the year before Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen took the title at the final race in Brazil. Hamilton and Alonso finished level on points, 109 each, with Hamilton classified second on a tiebreaker, one point behind Räikkönen.

He went one better in 2008. Driving as McLaren’s clear number one after Alonso’s departure, Hamilton won five races and arrived at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix needing fifth place to take the title from Ferrari’s Felipe Massa. Massa crossed the line thinking he’d won the championship, only for Hamilton to snatch the fifth place he needed from Timo Glock on the final corner of the final lap, in the rain. At 23, Hamilton became the sport’s youngest World Champion at the time, a record Sebastian Vettel broke two years later.

How Many Races Did Hamilton Win For McLaren?

Across his six seasons, Hamilton won 21 Grands Prix for McLaren, a tally that puts him among the most successful drivers in the team’s history. His teammates through that stretch were Alonso in 2007, Heikki Kovalainen across 2008 and 2009, and Jenson Button from 2010 to 2012.

His final win for the team came at the inaugural United States Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas in 2012. His final race did not. Two weeks later, at the Brazilian Grand Prix, Hamilton took pole, led the race and was setting the fastest lap when Nico Hülkenberg collided with him with 17 laps still to run, ending his McLaren career on the spot rather than with a win. Before the race, he’d told McLaren’s then head of communications, Matt Bishop, “It’s been great. These years have been great. Please let your guys know that.” Bishop found him afterwards, still in his overalls, and told him, “Thank you. Just thank you. Thank you for everything, Lewis.”

Why Did Hamilton Leave McLaren, And Where Does He Race Now?

Hamilton left McLaren for Mercedes in 2013, replacing the retiring Michael Schumacher in a move that was widely questioned at the time, since Mercedes was not yet a front-running team. It became the most successful partnership in F1 history. Hamilton won six more championships with Mercedes between 2014 and 2020, matching Schumacher’s record of seven world titles.

That chapter closed too. Hamilton signed for Ferrari ahead of the 2025 season, and after more than a year without a Grand Prix win, took his first victory for the team at the 2026 Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix. “I think it’s just the beginning,” Hamilton said afterwards. “Nothing is impossible, so just one step at a time.”

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Lewis Hamilton FAQs

Sources

• Lewis Hamilton: From Blue Peter to Silver Arrows – BBC Sport
• Most consecutive podium finishes from a Formula One debut – Guinness World Records
• Brazilian GP 2012 revisited: Was this Formula 1’s most dramatic race? – Sky Sports
• Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari driver not ruling out 2026 F1 title win – Sky Sports
• Lewis Hamilton – McLaren official team site

Article reviewed and updated by Jack Renn, August 2026.

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