All you need to know about Lewis Hamilton: dating, diet, bullying and contract

• F1

The British driver of Mercedes Lewis Hamilton was born in Stevenage, County Hertfordshire to Anthony Hamilton and Carmen Larbalestier. His maternal family is originally from England, while his paternal family comes from Central America, more precisely from the State of Grenada, in the Caribbean Sea, from which his grandfather arrived in the United Kingdom in 1954.

Following the separation of the parents in 1987 , Lewis lived with his mother and stepsisters Nicola and Samantha until the age of twelve, when he decided to move in with his father, stepmother Linda and stepbrother Nicolas.

During the school period, since the age of six, he was bullied: he was constantly the victim of racist insults and beatings, as he belongs to a minority. For this reason he considers this phase the most traumatic and the most difficult of his life.

He discovered his passion for engines in 1991, after receiving an electric model car as a gift from his father. Realizing Lewis' keen talent for racing, Anthony went into debt to get him into a kart, acting as his son's manager until 2010.

He is an Arsenal fan. He was engaged to the lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls, Nicole Scherzinger, from November 2007 to February 2015. To date, rumors from Spain and the UK said Hamilton is dating Colombian pop star Shakira.

Since 2017 he has been adopting a vegan diet and, again since that year, he has been involved in initiatives aimed at protecting the environment and animals. In 2022 he received the honorary citizenship of Brazil. In November 2007, he participated as a guest on an episode of Top Gear recording an astonishing time of 1:44:7 (wet) and 1:42:9 dry on the circuit of the program.

In the film Cars 2 he voiced a McLaren MP4-12C playing himself. He also returned to this role in Cars 3. He also made a cameo via motion capture in the video game Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. In July 2020 he revealed, with a post on Instagram, that he was the rapper XNDA, known for collaborating on the song Pipe by Christina Aguilera, contained in the album Liberation.

In 2023 he is at the centre of scene for the new contract he should sign with Mercedes, with the two sides still distant. He has declared himself a Catholic, in an interview on GQ in April 2017 Lewis Hamilton said: "I am a Catholic, I am a man of faith and I pray several times a day: when I wake up, when I go to bed and before every meal.

I have a close relationship with God, I thank him, I ask for help for friends in need. And I ask for support for myself when the stress becomes too much."