MEXICO CITY -- Lewis Hamilton has played down the notion of receiving a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II after clinching his fifth world championship.
Hamilton matched Juan Manuel Fangio's tally of five titles at the Mexican Grand Prix, meaning he needs two more to equal Michael Schumacher's all-time record of seven. The Englishman is already comfortably the most successful driver from Great Britain and it is not uncommon for British sportsmen and women to be knighted and adorned with the title Sir or Dame before retirement. Multiple grand slam-winning tennis star Andy Murray was given the title Sir at the end of 2016.
Hamilton has already received an Order of the British Empire, when he was named an Officer of the British Empire (OBE) after winning his first championship in 2008. He has since revealed that the Queen corrected him on his table etiquette at the luncheon which accompanied the ceremony.
Although he is proud to have continued adding to Britain's tally of world championships, Hamilton insists he is not expecting another visit to Buckingham Palace in the near future.
"Honestly that is really not something that is on my mind, and not something I'm even contemplating," Hamilton said. "I've been very fortunately and very grateful to have met the Queen on a couple of occasions, which I'm just grateful for.
"I'm very proud, I don't know if you notice that sometimes, when I'm on the podium I look back and see the Union Jack and I'm very proud to raise that flag, and which I'll continue to do so. And hopefully try to make more and more Brits proud.
"And yeah, at the moment, a German has the most titles but I think I'm quite grateful and quite proud of the ones that we have as Brits. Going to continue to try to raise the game."
Despite ten of Formula One's 33 world champions coming from Great Britain, only Sir Jackie Stewart has received a knighthood. Before Hamilton, Stewart was Britain's most successful champion with three titles in total.
The only other British driver from the world championship era to have been knighted, despite famously never winning that title, was Sir Stirling Moss.