Lewis Hamilton's life has changed gear just as fast as the Mercedes he drives on the Formula One racetrack, as this time last year he had only one world championship to his name and now he has three, a career dream come true as he pulls level with his boyhood idol, the late Brazilian great Ayrton Senna.
The first Briton to take back-to-back titles, and only his country's second triple champion after Jackie Stewart in 1973, Hamilton is living life in the fast lane like never before and loving it.
"It's hard to get the balance of life right but I've got a mega balance now," says the 30-year-old. "It's awesome and it couldn't be better. I'm having the most fun outside (Formula One) and the most fun inside."
The United States, where Hamilton spends much of his downtime with friends from the music industry and Hollywood, was a fitting place for the first black world champion to clinch his triple crown.
The multi-racial boy from an underprivileged background is now a man who keeps up with the Kardashians, hangs out with Rihanna and attends fashion shows with other regulars of the celebrity gossip pages.
Happy to flaunt his millions and the trappings of success, he is also reaching out to new audiences.
Only he, when asked how the sport could create more enthusiasm in urban black America, could talk about karting with black kids and describe being overtaken as "like seeing myself come by".
The fierce and sometimes bitter rivalry with German team mate Nico Rosberg, who took last year's title battle right down to the final race, has been replaced by something close to dominance.
Formula One's commercial supremo Bernie Ecclestone, Hamilton's 84-year-old compatriot who has known most of the sport's world champions since the 1950s, could not have asked for more.
"He does a fantastic job, a better job in my opinion outside the car than inside the car," said Ecclestone, who has criticised champions in the past for not selling the sport sufficiently to a wider public. What he does for us, for the sport, is incredible."
Hamilton, by his own admission, sticks out like a sore thumb in Formula One. He may rub shoulders with the rich and powerful, Russian President Vladimir Putin handing him a winner's trophy only two weeks ago, but nothing in his background suggested he was destined for such fame and fortune.
The private jet, the garage full of luxury sportscars, the clunky gold chains and diamond ear studs are the visible rewards.
But Hamilton never forgets that he grew up in social housing, sleeping on his father's sofa on a Stevenage council estate.
With money tight, and his parents divorcing when he was two, father Anthony held down multiple jobs to fuel the passion for karting that his son first discovered on a low-cost family holiday to Spain.
When Hamilton came home from school, he would put on a video of Senna and dream, "I wanted to be like him. I aspired to one day drive the way he drove, and achieve something similar to what he achieved."
"At the time, I felt that if I could get anywhere close to doing anything similar to him I would be super-proud of myself. That is what I set my sights on all those years ago," he recalled last month before equalling Senna's tally of 41 race wins.
The grandson of a Grenadian who emigrated from the West Indies to work on the London underground rail system, Hamilton owes everything to his talent -- even if Mercedes and McLaren spotted it early on and bankrolled his progress.
"Who would ever have thought it of us Hamiltons turning up at the track in the first year in karting, the only black family there?" Hamilton recalled last year when he became the most successful British driver in terms of race wins.
"It was almost like everyone thought 'what are they doing here?' It was so funny. We had the crappiest little box trailer. I feel very proud."
Hamilton could have taken the crown in his sensational 2007 debut season, losing out to Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen by a single point after a stormy year at McLaren, but he did it the next year to become the youngest ever champion at 23.
Five seasons of frustration, albeit with plenty of wins, followed as compatriot Jenson Button triumphed for Brawn and then Sebastian Vettel took four titles in a row for Red Bull.
He was once seen as over-controlled by McLaren group boss Ron Dennis, but Hamilton's move to Mercedes allowed him to become his own man, even if not everyone is a fan of his fashion sense.
"Until this year, I cared what people thought and tried to live to people's own expectations rather than my own," he said in September after sporting a new dyed blond look.
"But I turned 30 over the winter and I have really got to a point in my life where I am comfortable in myself...I am more at ease within my job, within my skin and with how I drive and where I stand."
Lewis Hamilton Facts & Stats
- Born in Stevenage, England on 7 January, 1985
- Hamilton's paternal grandfather emigrated to England from the Caribbean island of Grenada and worked for the London Underground transport system. His full name is Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton. The name Davidson was taken from his grandfather, who drove a school bus in Grenada.
- His parents divorced when he was two. Father Anthony worked for the railways while mother Carmen worked for the local council. He first sat in a go-kart on a family holiday in Ibiza when he was three. He started karting seriously when he was eight years old.
- Hamilton was a winner in every category of karting, taking his first British title by the age of 10, and joined McLaren's young driver programme in 1998. He was European Formula A kart champion in 2000, with current Mercedes team mate Nico Rosberg runner-up.
- The Briton won the 2003 Formula Renault UK title with 10 race wins, the 2005 Formula Three Euro series with 15 wins and the 2006 GP2 championship, following on from Rosberg.
- Hamilton made a sensational F1 debut with McLaren in 2007, aged 22. In his opening race in Australia he finished third, was second in the next four races and then won the sixth and seventh races in Canada and the United States.
- His run of 2007 podiums ended after nine in a row and he ended the season second overall with four wins, one point behind champion Kimi Raikkonen.
- In 2008, Hamilton won the title, aged 23 years and 301 days. At the time he was the youngest ever world champion and he took the title in thrilling style with an overtaking move on the last corner of the last lap of the last race in Brazil.
- In 2009, Hamilton finished fifth overall. He was fourth in 2010, fifth in 2011 and fourth in 2012. He then moved to Mercedes for the 2013 season on a three-year contract.
- Hamilton won 11 races in 2014 to Rosberg's five, becoming the most successful British driver of all time in terms of race wins.
- In 2015, he won the opening race in Australia and has led ever since. Along the way, he passed his boyhood hero Ayrton Senna's career tally of 41 wins and has now equalled the late Brazilian's haul of three titles. He is the first British driver to win back-to-back F1 titles.
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