7-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton on the life lessons that have influenced and inspired him

Lewis Hamilton is a legend: He breaks records with seeming ease and grace, but also occasionally courts controversy like getting his Mercedes team slapped with a 25,000 euros fine for wearing his nose stud during the Singapore Grand Prix qualifying round several weeks ago.

In Hamilton’s defence, it was something of an administrative error as the British driver had a medical exemption letter regarding the nose stud (and therefore avoided a race penalty). The team, however, was fined, as it had submitted a scrutineering form saying he wasn’t wearing any jewellery.

“I always go against the grain. I don't do what everyone expects me to do,” Hamilton had said days earlier at an exclusive meet and greet hosted by global technology company TeamViewer, which is a partner of the Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team.

“I don't like to conform to how a racing driver is supposed to behave. They say that a race driver has to be in bed at 10pm, a racing driver doesn't have tattoos, a racing driver doesn't have this and that,” said Hamilton, in his characteristic soft-spoken demeanour. The 37-year-old has been blazing a trail and sparking minor revolutions ever since his debut on the F1 grid with McLaren in 2007.

For starters, Hamilton is conspicuously the first and only black driver in the Formula One series to date. And in the year following his debut, he became the youngest Formula One World Champion in history at the age of 23.

In the past decade-and-a-half, Hamilton has parlayed his F1 fame into social activism, and he has become a prominent advocate in the fight against racism while pushing for diversity in motorsport. Last year, for instance, he made headlines around the world for wearing a rainbow helmet at the Grands Prix in