Hamilton, Mercedes and motorcycle veteran Valentino Rossi are nominated for the Laureus Award. Past winners include Sebastian Vettel in 2014 & Michael Schumacher in 2002.

Kimi Raikkonen may well too see an award, albeit not for a sporting reason. Ferrari and Kimi are in the “Moment of the Year” category when they invited into the garage the little French lad Jack Thomas, although it could be argued that Liberty Media may have had an influence on that situation. Laureus clearly oblivious to the obvious ‘Moment of the Year’ for many F1 fans in Baku 2017.

At the end of February, the Laureus Awards, known as ‘Oscars of the sports world’, will be presented in Monaco. Hamilton will be competing against some heavy hitters of the sporting world in the World Sportsman of the Year category – Sir Mo Farah (athletics), Cristiano Ronaldo (football), Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal (tennis) and Chris Froome (cycling). Federer is hotly tipped to come out on top, adding to his 4 previous awards in this category. It’ll be interesting if Hamilton progresses further than last years BBC Sports Personality of the Year award where he only mustered a paltry 11% of the vote.

Lewis has seen some success at the Laureus previously however. He won the Breakthrough award in 2008 after his remarkable debut at McLaren where he nearly clinched the driver championship in his first season.

Mercedes could win as team of the year – the team from Brackley have taken the manufacturers championship for the fourth time in a row. After Renault 2006 and BrawnGP 2010, Mercedes would be the third racing team to receive this award. Competing against Mercedes are Real Madrid, the French Davis Cup team, the America’s Cup sailing team of New Zealand, the basketball team Golden State Warriors and the American football team the New England Patriots.

Valentino Rossi is also nominated in the category “Comeback of the Year”. The Italian rider had broken his legs due to an accident at the end of August 2017, but struggled back to the track remarkably quickly to continue his campaign in the Moto GP.

Past Motorsports Laureus Award Winners
2017: Nico Rosberg (Breakthrough)
2016: Niki Lauda (Lifetime Achievement)
2015: Daniel Ricciardo (Breakthrough)
2014: Sebastian Vettel (World Sportsman)
2014: Marc Márquez (Breakthrough)
2011: Valentino Rossi (Comeback)
2010: BrawnGP (Team)
2010: Jenson Button (Breakthrough)
2008: Lewis Hamilton (Breakthrough)
2006: Renault (Team)
2005: Alex Zanardi (Comeback)
2004: Michael Schumacher (World Sportsman)
2002: Juan Pablo Montoya (Newcomer)