Lewis Hamilton has been thrown into the deep end of F1's piranha pool, as Ron Dennis once called it, for the 2007 season with the rookie driver partnering double world champion Fernando Alonso at McLaren.

The first black driver in the sport's history, Hamilton will be under immense pressure and will have his reputed ice-cool temperament tested to the limit.

Hamilton began his motorsport career in 1995 when he was crowned the Super One British Champion as well as the STP Champion. It was the start of his dominance in all the series he would enter.

The following year, still in the Cadet Class, he won the Sky TV Kart Masters as well as the Five Nations while he also began his association with McLaren, winning the McLaren Mercedes Champions of the Future series.

In 1997, in Junior Yamaha, he again was crowned the Super One British Champion as well as winning the McLaren Mercedes Champions of the Future series for the second successive season. A fourth in the Italian Open Championship the next season resulted in Lewis being signed by McLaren and Mercedes-Benz to Young Driver Support Programme.

The Brit then spent a year in Intercontinental A before moving to Formula A where he was crowned the European Champion. After that is was off to the British Formula Renault, where he won the title in 2003 and then on to the F3 Euroseries, winning the Championship in 2005.

Lewis's latest Championship success came in 2006, when he won the GP2 series with ART Grand Prix.

The Brit's achievements earned him a test driver role with the McLaren F1 team and after impressing team boss Ron Dennis, Lewis has now landed the coveted role of team-mate to Fernando Alonso in the 2007 F1 season.