Hickman's connection to road racing is familial as well as personal: his father Dave was a Manx Grand Prix winner and entered two Isle of Man TTs. Hickman himself began short-circuit racing domestically before turning to the TT in 2014. His preparation for the TT debut was notably methodical — he drove 70 laps of the near-38-mile Mountain Course in a hire car and studied video footage before racing it.
Hickman made his TT debut in 2014 and immediately set a record as the fastest-ever newcomer at the event, averaging 129.104 mph over a lap. He secured his first TT victory in 2018, winning the Superstock race from Michael Dunlop and Dean Harrison after breaking Ian Hutchinson's lap record twice. Later in the same week he won the Senior TT, posting a lap at 135.452 mph — a new absolute record — and winning from Dean Harrison with Conor Cummins third.
In 2019, Hickman took three TT victories. Following the two-year suspension of the event during the COVID-19 pandemic, he returned to win four races in both 2022 and 2023. In 2024 he added one further victory, bringing his total to 14.
His most significant individual achievement at the TT came during the 2023 Superstock race, when he set a new outright lap record of 136.358 mph (219.447 km/h) — the fastest average speed ever recorded over the 37.73-mile Snaefell Mountain Course. This record stands as the benchmark for what is considered the world's most demanding closed-road race circuit. Only two other riders have achieved four or more wins in a single week: Phillip McCallen, Michael Dunlop, and Ian Hutchinson, who remains the single-week record holder with five in 2010.
Hickman won the Macau Grand Prix four times. His first victory came in November 2015 aboard a Briggs Equipment/RAF Reserves BMW S1000RR. He defended the title successfully in 2016, winning by 0.533 seconds from eight-time winner Michael Rutter after fighting through from fourth position. In 2018, he won for a third time, again on his BMW S1000RR prepared by Smiths Racing. His fourth Macau victory followed in 2023 — a comfortable win by 28 seconds over Davey Todd and the first for FHO BMW.
In the 2019 edition, Hickman was leading when the race was red-flagged twice due to accidents. The event was initially declared null and void but was subsequently awarded to Michael Rutter, who had led at the completion of the last fully counted lap, despite Hickman leading the field when both red flags were deployed — a result that remained controversial.
Hickman took his first BSB win at Cadwell Park in 2014 and achieved his best championship position of fourth in 2017. He has raced in BSB with multiple teams, including a long association with Smiths Racing before that team closed at the end of 2020. He subsequently joined FHO Racing, riding a BMW M1000RR alongside initially Xavi Forés and later Josh Brookes.
His first international road race win came at the 2015 Ulster Grand Prix, where he won the feature race ahead of Conor Cummins.
In 2022, Hickman made a World Superbike Championship appearance as a wildcard at Donington Park, and later replaced Michael van der Mark at the factory BMW team for the Autodrom Most round, scoring his first WSBK points with a 14th-place result.
Peter Hickman is regarded as one of the most complete road racers of his generation. His combination of short-circuit consistency in BSB, dominant performances at the Macau Grand Prix, and record-breaking speed at the Isle of Man TT place him in the highest tier of pure road racing talent. The 136.358 mph lap record he set in 2023 is the definitive benchmark of what is possible on the Mountain Course and a measure against which future challengers will be judged.