Debate: can Lewis be as good as Michael Schumacher? | Simon Barnes on Hamilton's risk | 2008 race-by-race | Hamilton's win in his own words | Graphic: the most thrilling championship finish ever?

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton wakes up this morning as the youngest world champion in the history of Formula One – and well on the road to becoming a $1 billion sportsman.

His nail-biting fifth place in the Brazilian Grand Prix – allowing him to clinch the title by a single point – will go down as a key moment in the annals of the sport.

For most people it would undoubtedly be the pinnacle of a life’s work. But the man who is named after Carl Lewis, winner of nine Olympic gold medals, is not most people.

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Having conquered Formula One by the tender age of 23, and in only his second season, Hamilton could have more than a decade left at the top of his sport – plenty of time to surpass Michael Schumacher’s record of seven world championships.

That, in turn, means that he is also perhaps the only person who could knock Tiger Woods from the top of the podium as the world’s highest-earning sportsman. The golfer is on course to become the first person to accumulate $1 billion from sport by 2010, according to Forbes magazine, pocketing an estimated $115 million (£71 million) in the year to June.

It will take Hamilton, who is from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, a little longer to approach such figures, but he is already well on his way.

Although his father and manager, Anthony, remains reticent about his son’s earnings, his McLaren contract is worth an estimated £75 million over five years and a sponsorship deal with Reebok will add a further £20 million or so.

As well as helping to make other people rich – a Peterborough punter won £125,000 yesterday, having bet a decade ago that Hamilton, then a successful young go-karter, would win the F1 title before he was 25 – his championship victory will undoubtedly bring further offers of big-money advertising deals.

The problem, if you can call it that, will be choosing which of the offers to accept.

“He’s a marketing man’s dream,” said Dominic Curran, of the sponsorship experts Synergy. “A complete package: charm, charisma, youth and, most importantly, success.”

John Taylor, chairman of the marketing company Sports Impact, said that, like Woods, Hamilton’s ethnic background (his father, whose own parents emigrated to Britain from Grenada in the 1950s, is black and his mother is white) only widens his appeal.

“Lewis appeals to both sexes, just like Beckham. Also he appeals to all races, partly because of his background – like Tiger Woods – and partly because he is articulate and good-looking,” Mr Taylor said.

“Hamilton, like Woods, is box office – he drives attendances and TV ratings, and not just in the UK. He is the only current sportsman whose earnings might come close.”

Such is Hamilton’s commercial potential that as part of the price of keeping him McLaren had to relax a rule that prevented its drivers from having their own personal sponsors outside those, like Abbey and Hugo Boss, that are linked to the racing team.

If he continues his winning streak to 2012, when his McLaren contract will be due for renewal, that pay cheque alone could jump to £30 million a year, and people close to Hamilton are already confident that his career earnings could well top £500 million.

That could surpass the estimated career earnings of Schumacher, who at his peak was a one-man business empire, complete with branded dolls, sunglasses and a vacuum cleaner, and David Beckham, Britain’s highest earning sports star to date, whose lucrative sponsorship deals earned him £20 million a year at the height of his career.

Not all the Hamilton millions will go on high living in his Swiss tax haven, or gifts for his glamorous girlfriend, Nicole Scherzinger, who is a member of the pop group the Pussycat Dolls.

He is in the process of setting up a charitable foundation, the prospective beneficiaries of which remain unknown, although this year he did express an interest in Africa.

Ultimately the future health of any foundation’s bank accounts, like those of Hamilton himself, rely on his continued F1 success – the performances must continue and the car must remain competitive.

“Beckham has always been able to back up Brand Beckham with performances on the pitch,” Mr Curran said. “In the long term, the sky’s the limit if he keeps performing, but at the end of the day it’s still all tied to success on the track.”

For now, that success is plastered across newspapers worldwide and Brand Hamilton is so strong that companies will be desperate to shell out handsomely for his endorsement, credit crunch or not.

“The strongest brands always have people wanting to be associated with them,” Mr Curran said, adding that the first British F1 champion since Damon Hill in 1996 could not have raced to victory at a better moment.

“It’s come at a great time for Britain. It’s the perfect thing to cheer everyone up,” he said.

From remote-controlled cars to the chequered flag

1985 Born on January 7 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire

1988 Anthony, his father, moves permanently from Grenada to Britain

1990 Begins driving remote-controlled cars

1991 First ride on a go-kart while on holiday in Spain

1992 Interviewed on Blue Peter by John Leslie after beating the presenter in a remote-control car race

1993 His father buys him a go-kart for £1,000 and he begins racing, securing a string of victories

1995 Meets Ron Dennis at an awards dinner and tells him he wants to race in F1. “Call me in nine years,” Dennis tells him

1996 Wins McLaren Mercedes Champions of the Future karting series

1998 Joins McLaren’s young driver programme

2000 Wins several karting series, including European Formula A championship

2003 Wins British Formula Renault championship with 10 race victories and 11 pole positions

2005 Wins F3 Euroseries championship with 15 race victories and 13 pole positions

2006 Wins GP2 series, the feeder for F1, in his first season. A passing move around the outside of two drivers in the second race, at Silverstone, is still talked about

2007 Makes F1 debut and becomes the first driver to finish on the podium in his first three races. Wins four races and finishes the championship in second place, a point behind Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari

2008 Wins the British Grand Prix on way to taking F1 world championship by a single point in his second season, after coming fifth in the Brazilian Grand Prix