Is Lewis Hamilton on track to be our first sporting billionaire?

When Lewis Hamilton collected his MBE from the Queen the other day he also picked up a little incidental intelligence. Her Majesty, it seems, is a fan. She will be among the millions watching TV as he lines up on the grid in Australia this weekend at the start of the new Formula One season and the defence of his championship title.

From Buckingham Palace to the shanty towns of Brazil, the 24-year-old from a council estate in Stevenage has captured hearts. Record TV audiences accompanied his victory last November and the networks expect him to pull in millions more this season. All this has translated into big money. Hamilton is currently thought to be earning around £20 million a year and some have predicted he could become the world's first sportsman billionaire.

Hamilton's critics - and he has a few - believe he could never rival Michael Schumacher, hailed the greatest driver in Formula One after his unrivalled seven championship titles. Yet Hamilton seems to possess a charisma that Schumacher, for all his charm, never quite managed to muster.

Hamilton's boyish good looks, his radiant smile, articulacy and warmth reflect a personality that could transcend even the appeal of the most successful sporting figure. He has apparently effortless glamour, accentuated by his girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger, the pop star and lead singer of the Pussycat Dolls.

The Hamilton package seems to sparkle with stardust and this was what prompted the extravagant claims that his fortune would one day top £1 billion.

Certainly, he has been heading in the right direction. He has a £75 million, five-year contract with McLaren and a string of highly lucrative personal sponsorship deals.

They include being the face of fashion label Hugo Boss, Abbey National bank and watchmaker TAG Heuer. He has also recently signed for Reebok, the sports shoe corporation. Not bad for a young man who once coveted a pair of trainers but couldn't raise the £100 they cost.

Hamilton's earnings are known only to him and his advisers but knowledgeable sources suggest that since his championship victory four months ago he is probably pulling down around £20 million a year. This is close to what Schumacher was earning at his peak but there is an important difference: the German had more than 10 years at the top.

Dominic Curran, a director at Synergy, one of Britain's leading sponsorship agencies, explained why this is crucial: "Lewis is a sponsor's dream. He is the epitome of youth, vibrancy and success. Any brand would want to associate with that because it shifts product. But if we are talking about making really big money, that alone won't do it. Lewis has to win - and win and win."

According to Curran, the sporting stars who have made the biggest fortunes have been consistent winners. David Beckham is rated the highest football earner with estimated wealth of £125 million, though his career is now on the wane.

"Whatever else you say about Beckham," Curran said, "he has delivered over the years and sponsors want that."

Tiger Woods, whose golfing prowess makes him the world's richest sportsman, with a fortune heading towards £500 million, is a perfect example of how winning generates cash. "He is another wonderful personality in a class of his own," Curran said. "But people want to see him win. When he is not playing, golf TV audiences slump 50 per cent."

So can Hamilton repeat his success of last year - and go on repeating it?

It is a question he has probably been asking himself, and never more anxiously than now. The MP4-24 McLaren he was testing in Spain last week has had an unhappy debut.Something about the car's aerodynamics appeared to be wrong.

After Hamilton turned in poor results at the beginning of the week McLaren engineers tried to resolve the problem. The team principal Martin Whitmarsh spoke of a "performance shortfall". Asked if the car was fast enough, he said: "Not at the moment, and certainly not by our team's extremely high standard."

This left Hamilton struggling to reach lap time targets. It cannot have helped his mood when team mate Heikki Kovalainen stepped in and achieved a better time, 1 minute 18.202 seconds against Hamilton's 1:19.121. Neither was as fast as Jenson Button, however, in the rival Brawn GP team. He recorded 1 minute 17.844.

The McLaren car improved as the week progressed but lagging at this stage is the last thing Hamilton wants.

It should not be forgotten, however, that part of Hamilton's personal style is to storm to victory from unpromising beginnings. Indeed, it might be said that is the story of his life.

Formula One, largely the creation of Bernie Ecclestone, is a sport dominated by the very rich. It has always traded on its image as a big money game, played in exotic locations by privileged daredevils who jet in from their chosen tax haven or yacht.

It could hardly have seemed further from the world into which Lewis Carl Hamilton was born. His home as a child was an end-of-terrace house in Peartree Way on the Shephall council estate in Stevenage. His father Anthony was a railway worker. Hamilton Sr was unusual among people in Stevenage at that time in that he is black.

His own father, Davidson, emigrated to Britain from Grenada and worked in west London as a railway guard.

Davidson is back in Grenada now, a spritely man in his seventies who drives children to school in a new Mitsubishi bus, bought for him by his motor racing grandson. On Grenada, they say the speed gene began with Davidson. As a young man he had a mean reputation for tearing around the island on his BSA motorcycle. He also has a reputation for being shrewd and he seems to have passed that quality on to his son Anthony, Lewis's father.

When Lewis was a child, Anthony held down three jobs to try to create the kind of future he wanted for his family. One of his jobs was erecting For Sale signs for a local estate agent, who paid him £15 a time.

Much has been made of Lewis's humble origins, but the reality is that his father's efforts to better himself did pay off. When Lewis was eight, his father bought him a go-kart, complete with racing suit and helmet. It cost £1,000 and, as the boy went on to demonstrate a prodigious driving talent, Anthony - supported by friends who shared his ambitions for Lewis - paid the bills.

Anthony was also building up a career as an IT specialist. In 2001 he had a company employing 20 people and was able to buy a large detached house in Tewin Wood, Hertfordshire, for £630,000. By then, Lewis was apprenticed to McLaren, whose boss, Ron Dennis, had talent-spotted him when he was 13. Dennis nurtured Hamilton every step of the way to the championship, but in the matter of money, it is Anthony Hamilton who calls the shots. Anthony, 48, is his son's business manager and, with a carefully chosen circle of financial advisers, he handles his affairs.

It was Anthony who engineered Hamilton's move to Switzerland two years ago. He knew Lewis liked Geneva, with its superb lakeside setting and relaxed lifestyle, and he found an apartment there. The reason, he readily admitted, was to maximise Lewis's earnings by saving tax. One estimate suggested being domiciled in Switzerland could save Hamilton £10 million a year.

"I always said that if he started to make money he would have to move abroad," Anthony said. "You have to take care of what you have got. It could be a very short career."

This is the fear that must haunt Lewis - and his father - this week as the Australian Grand Prix and the first test of the new world champion nears. Everything has worked brilliantly so far and practically everything Lewis has touched has turned to gold.

From the millions he is making from sponsorship to the £25 Lewis Hamilton Lifestyle T-Shirt sold on the McLaren website he is a money-making machine.

But for how long? If Dominic Curran is right, the coming Formula One season will be vital for Hamilton.

Last season he won, narrowly, on points. Some bookies have made Hamilton favourite to retain the championship, and his growing band of supporters says if anyone can do it, he can.

For a car-mad young man like him there is also an added incentive. Ron Dennis has promised him a McLaren F1 road car, worth £5 million, if he wins three world titles.

The vehicle is a unique testament to the carmaker's art and Hamilton has made no secret of the fact that he yearns to own one. It would, after all, be a perfect repository for his newly acquired £200,000 personal numberplate, LEW 1S.