Lewis Hamilton is clinging to life in Britain, even though growing hordes of adoring fans threaten to force him abroad. Hamilton lifted the lid on life as Britain’s biggest sporting sensation yesterday to reveal a young man who has no desire to join the glamorous Formula One jet set living in a foreign country.

Only a few weeks ago he could walk around unmolested and unrecognised, but now, as the Formula One World Championship leader after seven races, he says that every trip to a restaurant with family and friends is disrupted by fans eager for autographs and a glimpse of the sportsman experts predict will surpass the earning power and popularity of David Beckham.

But the farthest Hamilton wants to move from his home town of Stevenage in Hertfordshire is 30 miles down the A1 to London, desperate to enjoy life as a millionaire sports star but remaining close to his devoted family and friends. “I want to stay here, I really do,” he said last night. “I’ve always wanted to move to London and get my own place there, but it is just getting harder and harder for me to do that. To be forced to move to a country you don’t want to [move to] is not something I want to do. I will stay here for as long as I can.”

But the choice may not be his. As Hamilton’s reputation has grown as the youngster from Stevenage to global super-star, so have the demands on his time and he faces either moving abroad to a life of relative anonymity in a tax haven, such as Monaco or Switzerland, or taking on an army of bodyguards, as the Beckhams do, to escape the paparazzi and legions of fans who refuse to allow him privacy.

Formula One has a reputation for its drivers leaving their home countries. Jenson Button and David Coulthard left Britain for Monaco, while Michael Schumacher, the seven-times world champion, was forced to move to Switzerland to safeguard his family after he became public property in his native Germany, besieged by fans in restaurants and bars and unable to walk down the street without being followed by a posse of photographers.

Hamilton may have no choice but to become Britain’s next sporting celebrity exile.

A graphic illustration of how quickly the 22-year-old’s life has changed will come today in West Sussex. This time last year, Hamilton was a fan, jostling for space to peer over the hay bales at Fernando Alonso as he tore up the famous hill-climb at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. Tomorrow, he will be on that hill and, when he emerges from the cockpit of his McLaren Mercedes Formula One car, he will be the centre of attention.

Hamilton protests that he does not fully understand the effect he has had on British sport – “I only look in the papers to see if I am looking good,” he quipped – but he is too bright not to know what is going on. The questions started in his head almost as soon as he stepped off the plane from Indianapolis on Tuesday morning, fresh from the back-to-back victories in Canada and the United States that catapulted him into a ten-point lead in the Formula One World Championship. Suddenly, he discovered that he could not fill his car with petrol without being surrounded by wellwishers.

Four months and seven races into his Formula One career, he is worried that he may no longer be able to remain in Britain, hounded out by public and media attention, forced to retrench by the taxman. History predicts that Hamilton will soon be an exile, either to protect a salary that experts believe will be as much as £50 million – more than twice the amount that Michael Schumacher earned at his peak – or to find some peace from the publicity maelstrom.

The financial consequences of remaining in Britain would be enormous without employing an army of accountants to push his money into offshore accounts and companies. Hamilton earns “only” about £340,000 in salary at McLaren but is thought to be picking up a £7,000 bonus for every point he scores, which means that he has earned an extra £406,000 for his 58 points this season and is well on the way to the £1 million mark.

Maurice Fitzpatrick, the senior tax manager at Grant Thornton, the accountant, says that he will lose 40 per cent immediately in income tax and national insurance payments as a UK resident, unless he has put measures in place to offset the losses.

If anything will keep Hamilton in Britain, it is his family, a close-knit group. He is caught between the rock of success and the hard place of fame. Tomorrow, he will be the star of the Goodwood show, before driving home with his father, Anthony, to Hertfordshire – but who knows where home will be soon.