In a year of historic milestones and major awards, Lewis Hamilton walked another country with the news that he would receive a knight – one of the highest honors in his homeland, the United Kingdom.
The award, which dates back to the Middle Ages and bears the title ‘Sir’, is awarded to a select few for exceptional performance in any activity, with previous F1 recipients including Sir Jackie Stewart, Sir Stirling Moss, Sir Frank Williams , Sir Patrick Head and Sir Jack Brabham.
The award comes at the end of an exceptional year for Hamilton in which he won a record equal to the seventh world title, while helping Mercedes with a seventh constant crown. The 35-year-old Briton also equaled and surpassed Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 91 wins, reaching the score to 95.
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Away from the track, he set up the Hamilton Commission to Improve Diversity in Motorsport, and was also named Laureus World Sportsman Of The Year, BBC Sports Personality of the Year, GQ’s Game Changer Of The Year and was named in Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People.
Stefano Domenicali, the new CEO of Formula 1, said: ‘Lewis is a real giant of our sport and his influence is great inside and outside a car. What he has achieved is phenomenal with even more. All of us at Formula 1 congratulate him on the well-deserved recognition of his achievements and look forward to seeing more of his brilliance in 2021. ”