Ever since his debut, the life of Lewis Hamilton has been a fairytale. Being the only driver of color on the grid, he broke multiple records in his debut season. And we surely can not forget the whole rags to riches aspect of his life. Keeping all of it into consideration, it is only natural that he has been the talk of the town in F1 for a while now. However, the former boss of F1 Bernie Ecclestone, once thought that was counterproductive. He felt Hamilton was stealing Formula 1’s spotlight.

After the unusual 2021 season finale, the controversy surrounding Hamilton reached an all-time high during the 2022 season. Firstly, it was because of his poor performance, earning him suggestions to retire. The second was his off-track jewelry ban fiasco with the FIA.

The media coverage generated by the ban, and Hamilton’s defiance, made Ecclestone make a bold statement. “Because of the ways Lewis acts, he is a character, whether you like it or not. He is black, which is good and he is different from all the other drivers in many ways, which is also good.” Ecclestone said as per DailyMail.

“We need characters. If he wants something in his nose, that’s fine by me. Whatever he wants. He wears all these bloody clothes. It’s wonderful. He is doing it for him, not for Formula One. The danger is that people speak more about Lewis than Formula One,” he added.

Read More: Lewis Hamilton-Jewelry Ban Row Continues With Latest Threat to Home Race

There is no doubt Hamilton is responsible for generating a lot of news coming out of Formula 1. However, there’s a reason behind that.

Lewis Hamilton is the most marketable athlete in Formula 1

This is just not an assumption, but a factual assessment provided by SportsPro. The website has compiled a list of The Most Marketable Athletes of 2022.

In this list, topped by football star Cristiano Ronaldo, Hamilton comes in third. The Brit has a massive influence on the world of sports in terms of marketability. To put things into perspective, second on the list from F1 is Charles Leclerc at 25th position. Whereas, Max Verstappen, in a funny coincidence, is in the 33rd position. 33 used to be Max’s number before he won the 2021 title.

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Seeing how the current season has treated him, most would’ve counted Hamilton out. But his influence clearly speaks for itself. Hamilton is already capitalizing on the marketability. Now, we need to see how much it grows if Hamilton can get his hands on the eighth championship.