Once the youngest-ever Formula 1 champion, thanks to his 2008 title success, Lewis Hamilton has been breaking records ever since his thunderclap arrival in 2007.

He’s easily the most exciting talent to hit the sport since Ayrton Senna, and his car is invariably dancing on the edge of adhesion as he makes seemingly impossible moves stick. Of course, the impossible proves occasionally to be just that, and Hamilton’s confident self-belief has occasionally landed him in trouble, and cost him points (and friends). 

In a non-performing McLaren in 2009, he initially looked lost, but the racer in him kept pushing until he made it work. In 2010, he raised his game against newly arrived reigning champion Jenson Button, and seemed to grow more comfortable with his own latent talent. But it’s the fact that Lewis knows he’s still not the perfect package that really sticks in the mind. That he still has things to learn, and room to improve is potentially the scariest thing of all for his on-track rivals.