US tennis sensation Serena Williams opens up on Lewis Hamilton friendship

Lewis Hamilton

US tennis sensation Serena Williams opens up on Lewis Hamilton friendship

Lewis Hamilton and Serena Williams are close friends

Originally written by Sam Cook. This version is a translation.

Saturday 9 May 2026 23:00

Former US tennis sensation Serena Williams has opened up on her friendship with seven-time F1 world champion Lewis Hamilton.

Williams is the third-most successful tennis player of all-time, having racked up an astonishing 23 Grand Slam titles across her career.

Meanwhile, Hamilton is the most successful driver in F1 history with his joint-record amount world championships, and record tallies of race wins, podiums and pole positions.

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Williams retired in 2022, and sits third on the all-time list of Grand Slam champions, behind only Novak Djokovic and Margaret Court.

She spent a whopping 319 weeks of her career as the world number one, and finished five separate years as the year-end number one.

"I had fun hanging out with the Ferrari drivers," Williams told her followers after being at the Miami Grand Prix. "I remember wanting to meet Lewis Hamilton because he was this amazing Black driver winning in England at the same time that Venus Williams or I were winning at Wimbledon. I felt like we had to meet.

"We did, and from then on, whenever we both won (which was a lot), we celebrated together. Over a decade later, we’re still very close. That’s my bro."

Hamilton's legacy transcends sport

Hamilton is the joint record holder for the number of drivers' championship titles in F1 with seven - tied with Michael Schumacher.

But he leads Schumacher in the all-time lists of race victories, pole positions and podiums, and will go down as the most successful racer in history no matter how his Ferrari career pans out from here.

Hamilton's legacy, however, stretches beyond sport, with the seven-time champion also involved in several charitable ventures.

In 2021, Hamilton created Mission 44, an organisation which focuses on helping underrepresented young people in the UK to thrive in education and go on to careers within STEM.

He has been vocal about wanting to improve diversity within F1 teams, and his work with Mission 44 also led to him meeting with Prime Minister Keir Starmer last year, speaking with the Labour politician about how education can be improved to help children to thrive.

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Miami Grand Prix