Lewis Hamilton, fresh Ferrari driver, celebrates his 40th birthday with the dream of breaking several important records.
Today is the day of Lewis Hamilton. The British Ferrari driver turns 40, and the Scuderia from Maranello, to honor him on this special day, released a short video on its official channels featuring a cake with the simplest of messages: “Happy Birthday Lewis.” Hamilton’s first birthday in “red” couldn’t go unnoticed.
The seven-time world champion, who has officially joined the “over 40” club, can still break several records. The first of these concerns the world championship title: Lewis could become the fourth driver to win a world title after turning forty. The only ones to achieve this have been Juan Manuel Fangio (who won all five of his world championships after the age of 40), Giuseppe Farina (who became world champion at 43 in 1950), and Jack Brabham (who won the championship at 40 in 1966).
It has been almost sixty years since a driver of that age won a world championship. Time passes for champions too, and for Lewis Hamilton, in his own way, this is true. In 2024, he may have lost a bit on the single-lap pace but, in the race, he remains a lion and a dominant strategist, as confirmed by his victories at Silverstone and Spa in the previous season.
Other records are waiting for the Brit, like the one for F1 victories after the age of 40. Here again, the group is quite exclusive, with only nine drivers achieving this feat: Luigi Fagioli, Farina, Fangio, Brabham, Piero Taruffi, Sam Hanks, Nigel Mansell, Maurice Trintignant, and Graham Hill. In the last 50 years, only Mansell has managed this, winning in Adelaide in 1994.
The same applies to pole positions, with only five drivers capable of securing one after the age of 40: Fangio, Farina, Brabham, Mansell, and Andretti. The number of drivers who have reached the podium after 40 is more substantial (27 in total), with Fernando Alonso recently ranking as the most recent driver in this special list, thanks to his third-place finish at the 2023 São Paulo Grand Prix.