The ties between McLaren and Lewis Hamilton date back several years. It was in 1998 when he was signed by McLaren and Mercedes-Benz to the Young Driver Support Programme. In the two years before he had already won the McLaren champions of the future series which certainly helped to get their attention.

The young Brit attracted the public attention beyond the British borders for the first time when he won the F3 Euroseries title in 2005 with 15 wins, 10 fastest laps and 13 pole positions. In the same year he also won the F3 Masters at Zandvoort and took victory in the F3 Grand Prix in Monaco.

2006 he moved up the GP2 Series where he took the title and had two double wins at the Nurburgring and at his home race in Silverstone. The next logical move was that to formula one and by no big surprise he was hired by McLaren to be their second race driver in 2007 next to World Champion Fernando Alonso. Hamilton was lightning fast out of the box and became runner-up in his first Formula One world championship season. 2008 was his year: he won six races and clinched his first drivers' title in a thrilling season finale at Sao Paulo becoming the youngest ever Formula One world champion