Even Lewis Hamilton’s bitterest critics could not deny his unique importance within Formula 1.
Heading into his 19th season with seven world championships and 105 grands prix victories to his name, Hamilton is indisputably F1’s most successful driver. The impact of that incredible achievement is increased exponentially by the fact he is (still) the only black driver in a predominantly white sport. This combination has made him an inspirational figure to millions.
The significance of Hamilton’s race is the focus of “Sir Lewis”, a new biography by Michael E Sawyer, associate professor of African-American Literature and Culture at the University of Pittsburgh. His expertise in race and philosophy promise to offer insight into an important aspect of Hamilton’s popularity which is often mentioned but rarely gets serious study.
The author describes “Sir Lewis” as both a biography of the driver and an attempt to “examine and critique every institution Hamilton is involved with from a perception of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexuality and class.” These are not typical themes for a motorsport book, but have obvious relevance here.
For whatever reason, publisher Pan Macmillan hasn’t made the book’s focus a feature of its packaging, which would lead anyone to expect this is a conventional biography. It seems the author had other plans at one stage – his university’s website refers to an apparent alternative working title: “Maybe it’s because I’m Black”. Anyone who picks this up expecting the generic Hamilton biography it appears to be will be surprised to find its subject isn’t even mentioned in some of its opening pages.
Does it succeed? A biography of Hamilton which takes the story Formula 1 fans already know well and places it within the context of culture, politics and history could be a powerful way of communicating what a rare and special figure he has become. But the two ideas are inelegantly combined in “Sir Lewis”.
Within its 250 pages, there were occasional pockets where Sawyer’s points come across clearly. He offers some thought-provoking observations on how racial attitudes towards shape the views some have of Hamilton and how they explain – or try to ‘explain away’ – his success. Instructive comparisons are drawn with the handful of others whose experiences are anything like Hamilton’s – Tiger Woods being an obvious example. But these points are too often buried under paragraphs of regurgitated articles, tenuous associations with other figures and passages of little to no obvious relevance to the subject.
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The book doesn’t contain any original interviews, which given its focus is not necessarily a drawback, but too little discernment has been shown when selecting sources. Quality publications appear alongside tenth-rate content scrapers and even deleted social media posts under potentially fake names. Throughout the text, Sawyer leans heavily on mostly recent articles, giving an impression the was hastily put together – a view reinforced by the fact several of the URLs cited reveal his search terms.
Hamilton’s first season occupies a disproportionately large chunk of the book – one-quarter of its 24 chapters – and these sections draw largely from his autobiography (written 18 years ago) and press conferences, reproduced in indigestible verbatim chunks. The characterisation of other figures is simplistic, hero-or-villain stuff, with Max Verstappen and Fernando Alonso falling into the latter camp.
It appears the book’s editor has a blind spot for F1 team names: ‘McLaren’, ‘Benetton’ and ‘Toro Rosso’ are all misspelled. ‘Williams’ is spelled correctly, but is incorrectly identified as the team Alonso won his world championships with.
The book works best when its two main themes converge in the events of 2020. This was a particularly significant season as it provided the moment Hamilton won his record-equalling seventh world championship and became much more outspoken in promoting anti-racism and diversity.
Hamilton recently insisted he won’t be deflected from advocating diversity and equality by the election of a US president who is committed to turning back the clock on decades of progress. Books which explain why that matters are necessary, but it is also necessary for them to get their point across clearly, and “Sir Lewis” too often falls short by that measure.
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“Sir Lewis: The Definitive Biography”
Author: Michael E Sawyer
Publisher: Pan Macmillan
Published: 2025
Pages: 248
Price: £20
ISBN: 9781035071647