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Lewis Hamilton has reigned over the sport for the bulk of the Turbo-Hybrid era. He was the World Champion in 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020. In all these years, Hamilton could have used the number '1' on his car as it is the right of the reigning F1 world champion. He, however, continued to use the number 44 for all those seasons.
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So why does Lewis Hamilton only use '44' as his racing number?
Lewis Hamilton has explained that he chose the number 44 for his car since it was the number he used to race karts with. Moreover, he numbered his kart 44 since his father's car had the registration number F44.
When Lewis Hamilton was the reigning champion in 2015, he had the opportunity to put #1 on his car. The Mercedes driver, however, chose not to go down that path and instead used #44 for his car.
In an interview with Reuters, Lewis Hamilton was questioned as to why he did not pick the #1 for his car. He said that the #1 has been used by many drivers in the past as well. Before him, Sebastian Vettel was the champion and he had the #1 on his car for four years. Hamilton, however, stuck to his #44, reasoning it as:
“Everyone can use number one when they win the championship but it’s irrelevant for me. Forty four means more to me than number one. It doesn’t mean I’m not number one. The 44 is my family number. It’s the number I had when I first started racing. I won my first (karting) championship with 44. It means something to me. The number one itself, Vettel’s had it, (Michael) Schumacher’s had it, all the champions have had it. None of them had 44. 44 is mine.”
Before the regulation change in 2014 that gave drivers the freedom to pick a customized number, car numbers used to be allocated based on the team's previous year's constructors' championship standings. From the 2014 F1 season onwards, the champion could have #1 on his car, but the other drivers had to race with their standard customized number. This is why Max Verstappen has raced this season with a #1 on his car.
In the 2019 F1 season, Lewis Hamilton revealed that the number meant a lot to the entire family. Speaking to the BBC at the time, he'd said:
“Of course each year I start basically it’s a new fresh start for everyone. I always start with number 44 because that’s the number that I had on my go-kart when I was eight years old. It was my dad’s car registration number, F44, so each year it’s just a new chance to rise to the challenge.”
Lewis Hamilton's impressive achievements in his career have helped him take the #44 and turn it into something iconic. His charity and his extreme racing team have the #44 on it. The #44 has now become a brand and is one of the most iconic numbers in F1 history.
What other iconic racing numbers are there in F1?
The history of racing numbers getting iconic status is not as rich as the rule of using customized racing numbers that was put in place in 2014. Having said that, two numbers stand out more than others in the history of F1.
The Red '5' (Nigel Mansell and Sebastian Vettel)
The number was first made iconic by Nigel Mansell in 1992 when he drove for Williams and dominantly won the title. The heritage was carried forward by Sebastian Vettel in 2015 when he relinquished his title to Lewis Hamilton. The German raced with the 'Red 5' in Ferrari colors until the 2020 F1 season. At Aston Martin, Vettel has continued to use the number '5' but the 'Red' has dropped.
#27 (Gilles Villeneueve, Alain Prost and Nico Hulkenberg)
New-age fans might not know, but Gilles Villeneuve was one of the most tragic stories of F1. In contemporary terms, Villeneuve was similar to Max Verstappen on the F1 grid when the latter made his debut.
The Canadian showed ridiculous speed in Ferraris that were just not capable of matching his talents. By the time they did, Villeneuve lost his life in an accident at Spa. He brought the #27 the kind of notoriety that was not there earlier.
This number was then used by Alain Prost during his stint at Ferrari and then inherited by Nico Hulkenberg in 2014.
