Hamilton's 400th F1 start: a career of triumphs and heartbreak

At Interlagos this weekend, Lewis Hamilton is set to make his 400th Grand Prix start. He will be the first driver to reach that mark without a spell away from Formula 1; Fernando Alonso has made 444 starts, but spent a period outside the series.

Hamilton debuted with McLaren in 2007. Across 20 seasons he has taken 106 wins, 209 podiums and 105 pole positions; seven seasons ended with him as world champion. Interlagos is woven into that record: late rain set up a decisive tyre call and a last-corner pass on the final lap of the 2008 season finale, settling the title in Hamilton's favour.

His most celebrated victories demanded different kinds of control. At Silverstone in 2008, he won in treacherous wet conditions and lapped most of the field. In 2020, he took his seventh world title at low-grip Istanbul Park by nursing one set of intermediate tyres over the newly resurfaced circuit, matching Michael Schumacher's record. Commentators do not rate every win alike: some see certain lights-to-flag victories during Mercedes' hybrid-era dominance as less revealing of Hamilton's racecraft because of the car's advantage. They also hold up his 2018 German Grand Prix recovery in mixed conditions and his 2014 Bahrain battle with Nico Rosberg, despite Rosberg's clear tyre-strategy advantage, as underrated drives.

Hamilton's 2021 São Paulo win came after a weekend of recovery. He was disqualified from Friday qualifying after his Mercedes failed a DRS aperture check, sending him to the back for the sprint. He climbed from 20th to fifth, then started the Grand Prix 10th after a separate five-place penalty for a fresh engine. On Sunday he won after a tense wheel-to-wheel contest with Max Verstappen.

Other setbacks came through both team decisions and reliability. In China in 2007, a title that looked within reach slipped away after McLaren kept Hamilton on worn intermediates too long as the track dried; he then drove into gravel at pit entry. In 2016, an engine failure while he was leading the Malaysian Grand Prix handed a decisive championship swing to teammate Nico Rosberg.

Abu Dhabi in 2021 brought a harsher turn. Hamilton finished second to Verstappen after race director Michael Masi allowed only the five lapped cars between the title rivals to unlap before bringing in the safety car for a one-lap shootout. The FIA inquiry found human error in the handling of lapped traffic, while also finding that Masi had acted in good faith despite pressure from competing teams. The decision cost Hamilton what would have been a record eighth world title. Masi was removed before the following season; the aftermath also included a ban on direct team-principal radio communication with race control, an off-site virtual race-control centre and revised rules requiring all cars to be allowed past the safety car.

Hamilton's 400th start will come at a circuit that already holds two very different chapters of his career: the last-corner move that settled his 2008 title and the 2021 charge from 10th to victory.