Formula One living legend Lewis Hamilton

BREAKING THE FORMULA: Lewis Hamilton is the future of racing

World Champion Formula One driver Lewis Hamilton is well-known for setting records. He's the youngest champion, the most winning champion. But the first record Hamilton broke was being the first black Formula One driver. And now he's one of the sport's most celebrated drivers ever, and a global figurehead for Mercedes. "I've never known an outfit where everybody is so committed to winning and fighting to be at the front," Hamilton says of Mercedes. "Particularly in a sport that doesn't take any prisoners."

Indeed, the team's motto is "we exist to win," something Hamilton has turned into his own living example. Famously, at the age of 10, Hamilton approached Ron Dennis, the team principal for Vodafone McLaren, and told him "I want to race for you one day. I want to race for McLaren." A couple of years later he joined the Mercedes-Benz Young Driver Support Programme, making him the youngest driver ever to secure a contract that led to a Formula One drive.

Hailing from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, in England, the Brit has since then called the cockpit the place where he feels most comfortable, even when moving at upwards of 200 miles per hour. "That, for me, is when life is at its purest," he says. "Your focus is so intense that you're almost anticipating what will happen ahead of you because it's all happening so quickly. In a way, time actually slows down for you, because you're in control. Sometimes it's actually hard to remember what happened because you were lost in that moment of pure focus."