A style icon not just in Formula 1 but across the world of sport and beyond, things haven’t always been so classy for Sir Lewis Hamilton.
On February 20, the seven-time world champion broke the internet, at least in motorsport terms, with an image of epic proportions.
Hamilton signed for Ferrari in February 2024, but had a season for Mercedes to go before uniting the most successful driver and team the sport has ever seen in Italy.
Finally arriving at the test track of the legendary Enzo Ferrari in February 2025, Hamilton, who regularly attends fashion shows in Paris, New York and Milan, oozed class in an oversized pinstripe suit with a double-breasted overcoat from Italian label Ferragamo.
Stood next to one of the most beautiful cars ever made in an F40, it was the image he and any aspiring young F1 fan dreams of their whole lives.
Later, and perhaps even more strikingly, the 40-year-old then appeared in his red race suit for the first time, having spent the previous 18 years of his iconic F1 career in the silver of Mercedes and McLaren.
Ferrari’s content for the next few days was typically Italian, understated and classy, but it still dominated the news cycle and set anticipation for the new season ablaze.
Yet when McLaren once tried to do the same, it all went very wrong.
Hamilton’s career started out with the Woking squad in 2007, and just a year later he won his first of seven titles in one of the sport’s great finales.
The 2024 constructors’ champions are the second-most successful team in F1 history, and although they have New Zealand origins from founder Bruce McLaren, having Hamilton in an England-based team was an opportunity sponsors went slightly overboard with.
The youngster had to do plenty of PR in his early years, and ahead of the Turkish Grand Prix in 2008 it all went a bit Spinal Tap.
Here’s the pitch: Hamilton flies down from the skies to a trojan horse where he breaks up fighting gladiators.
If that doesn’t sound bad enough, the results were even worse.
The 23-year-old came down from the sky on a zip wire, and you could see the look of regret already appearing on his face as he approached the two fighting actors – and again – it somehow got even worse.
Hamilton tried to put his feet down on the stage, but stumbled, flew back like Superman with training wheels on, and then finally managed to steady himself.
Then the acting came in. The gladiators stopped, Hamilton swung his arms apart to separate them, turned, and then slowly drifted back into the sky.
As it turned out, he was supposed to be Greek god Apollo arriving at the Siege of Troy, but as The Times wrote on the day: “He looked less like a majestic Apollo than a cross between Peter Pan and an astronaut.”
It wasn’t just the newspaper reviews that were bad either, even Hamilton himself was left red faced.
“Let’s forget about that,” he said. “I just turned up and got on with what I was told to do.
“But now I’ve seen the footage and it’s one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. It’s best if I stick to driving.”
Stick to driving Hamilton did, and he became so good at it that he almost returned to acting in 2022, but scheduling got in the way of him accepting a part in Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick.
However, if he’s asked to take part in a remake of the 2004 blockbuster Troy, you can probably guess what his answer would be.