Sports people can be more than the sum of their athletic achievements.Lewis Hamilton stands unquestionably as one of the greatest drivers in the history of Formula One having delivered records and outstanding performances that will be hard to surpass.Yet it is indicative of his character that the seven-time world champion rates them all as sitting only alongside what might ultimately be his most significant and long-lasting legacy.His Mission 44 foundation is making an indelible impact on the makeup of motorsport.“Talent is everywhere, opportunity isn’t and that’s what we’re here to change.

Setting up Mission 44 is one of the things I’m most proud of,” Hamilton says, reflecting on the foundation he created five years ago.“I’ve been working in F1 for 20 years and I know first-hand how important it is to have representation in our sport, and how difficult it is for young people to get an opportunity.”Mission 44 came about because Hamilton was acutely aware of the lack of representation of black people and those from disadvantaged backgrounds in motorsport.In 2021 he established the Hamilton commission to investigate the causes and subsequently created Mission 44 to address them.The foundation supports schoolchildren facing poverty and a lack of role models encouraging a pursuit of science, technology, engineering or maths (Stem) skills and careers in motorsport.

Hamilton put his money where his mouth is by investing £20m in the project and its impact was felt immediately.Focusing on grassroots investment to make education more inclusive and to help young people into Stem careers, it has got 550,000 young people involved across the world and specifically helped 50,000 in the Stem and motorsport areas, with more than £9m awarded in grants.Alongside the numbers are the human stories.In order to directly influence motorsport, in 2022 Mission 44 launched its scholarship programme in partnership with the Royal Academy of Engineering, which would meet the costs of scholars from black or mixed black backgrounds to study for a master’s degree in motorsport engineering.This year it will fund them to the tune of up to £43,000 per person, as well as offering vital mentoring, networking and career support.

It has proved to be life-changing.Of the 13 students who have taken part in the first two years, all completed their master’s and eight now work in F1 or motorsport.Lily Owuye is one of them.The 23-year-old was part of the second cohort of Mission 44 scholarship students and now works as a performance and simulation engineer for Red Bull Advanced Technologies as part of their graduate scheme, the Red Bull engineering academy.Owuye, from Warwick, studied at Imperial College London and having decided she wanted to go into motorsport needed to specialise in automotive engineering at master’s level.

Mission 44 helped make it happen.“I can 100% say it wouldn’t have been possible from a financial perspective if I didn’t have the support of the scholarship,” she says.“Without the financial support, I wouldn’t have been able to study a master’s.It’s as simple as that.”In the same cohort as Owuye was Chris Tagnon, who was backed by Mission 44 to take his master’s at Cambridge.

He then went on almost immediately to take a role as the engineering associate to the managing director of the special projects division of Aston Martin performance technologies, the commercial engineering arm of the Aston Martin F1 team.Tagnon grew up in Paris with his F1 fan father who took him to his first race when he was four in 2007 at Magny-Cours.It was the year Hamilton made his extraordinary debut in the sport.He has been part of Tagnon’s life ever since.Max Verstappen’s future in Formula One will not be swayed by staff departures at Red Bull, according to team principal Laurent Mekies.

Dutchman Verstappen has been a huge critic of F1’s new rules – comparing them to Mario Kart – and hinted at the last round in Japan that he could walk away.There have been some structural changes at Red Bull, with mechanic Ole Schack resigning last month and chief designer Craig Skinner having also left the team.It has also since emerged that the four-time world champion’s long-term race engineer and close ally Gianpiero Lambiase is set to leave Red Bull when his contract expires to join rivals McLaren as chief racing officer in 2028.Mekies, though, stressed it was “absolutely not” the case that the behind-the-scenes moves would likely result in Verstappen – who has a contract with Red Bull until 2028 – deciding to switch teams or even leave the sport.“Obviously, we speak with Max every day.

And Max knows motorsport upside-down.He’s living and breathing this team,” Mekies said.“He knows most of these guys.He understands very well the dynamics that can happen.”Mekies added: “The team has been extremely successful and you can’t promote everyone, and some people make some decisions.

”F1 stakeholders have agreed a number of tweaks to the rulebook – aimed at appeasing Verstappen and others critical of the new rules – to be introduced for this weekend's Miami Grand Prix when the season resumes following cancellation of the races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.Red Bull have struggled to make an impact on the podium so far this season, with Verstappen finishing in eighth place in Suzuka as early championship leader Kimi Antonelli took another victory for Mercedes.PA Media“I often get asked about kind of representation in the sport and: ‘How did you know that you could go into it?’” he says.“It’s never really been a question I’ve asked myself just because Lewis has always been there, my first memories was his rookie season, so my entire life Lewis has been in the sport.“I have been used growing up and going into my career to being the only black person in the room and company and around.

It’s something that you feel slightly less lonely in when you have a role model like Lewis Hamilton, who’s also the only one but that doesn’t necessarily stop him from being the best.”Tagnon, too, is clear about the difference the backing of Mission 44 has made and that it extends way beyond the financial.“It’s been a gamechanger.Frankly, I wouldn’t have gotten this role if it wasn’t for the scheme,” he adds.“The access which it granted, that wouldn’t have been possible without the scholarship and the exposure the scholarship gives is something that’s going to continue to follow me probably for the rest of my career.

”Owuye and Tagnon met Hamilton at the British Grand Prix last year, when he spoke to all the scholars privately, a moment both treasure, but they believe it is his role in creating opportunity for which he deserves most praise,“Lewis’s impact has definitely been major in waking up the industry, building that awareness in the industry that those problems exist,” says Tagnon,“Putting his name, his reputation behind those initiatives has definitely given them a lot of thrust, a lot of impulse to move forward,”Unsurprisingly then, the foundation has not remained static in its ambitions,Owuye notes perhaps the greatest barrier she experienced was her background – state educated and with parents she describes as not having professional jobs and who had not attended university.

“A defining factor or an obstacle in all of the things that led to this point would be socioeconomic background over anything else and being working class,” she says.“Formula One as an industry historically has tended to hire from, and still does, the kind of elite universities and there’s not a great deal of socioeconomic diversity at those universities.So naturally, as a result, you see that under-representation filter into the industry.”While this has changed more in the past decade in terms of gender and racial mix than in the previous 60 years, it has been tortuously slow and there is still an awfully long way to go.As a result this year the motorsport scholarship will be open to 12 students and has been widened to include, alongside those of black or mixed black heritage, women and those from lower-income backgrounds regardless of ethnicity, with applications open until 6 May.

For Hamilton these success stories are only the start.“It’s inspiring to see the impact it’s already having and to watch Lily and Chris begin their journeys in Formula One,” he says.“Their ambition is a powerful reminder of why this work matters.Because the future of our sport depends on who we open the doors to today.”Hamilton returns to the day job with Ferrari this weekend at the Miami Grand Prix as he tries to build on his mighty sporting record but he will also be hosting a trackside experience day and a Q&A with young people from Miami, as part of the Mission 44 programme in the US.

“Lewis himself has always known what it has felt like to be the only one from his background, whether it be like racial or socioeconomic, so I guess he will never lose that drive to want to see the change happening, full stop,” says Owuye.“It just comes from Lewis having the selflessness of not wanting others to have to face the same barriers.”