Lewis Hamilton and his sole remaining rival, Felipe Massa, will be fighting a mental battle as much as a sporting one Sunday when they race to settle the outcome of this year’s Formula One drivers’ world championship.
Briton Hamilton (23) has a seven-point advantage as he steers his McLaren Mercedes into the 18th and final round of the series — the Brazilian Grand Prix, on rival Massa’s home soil and in his native city.
Hamilton has the advantage of experience as well as points — he has been here before, but last year, as a rookie, he messed it up and threw his title chance away.
This time, he will handle it differently. And he will cope with the pressures, he said.
Massa (27), of Ferrari, may lack that edge of title showdown experience, but in Ferrari he has a team that has enjoyed a winning habit over the last decade and which won both world titles last year.
But Ferrari have been inconsistent and vulnerable this season and may suffer from engine failure, or pit-lane bungling, as they have before this year.
Massa, however, said he is not worried by any reservations about his team’s reliability under pressure — and feels none himself — because they are racing to win with nothing to lose.
Hamilton, for the second year running, is the man with the championship to win or toss aside.
If he succeeds, he will become the youngest world champion in F1 history and the first driver of Afro-Caribbean descent to lift the title. He will also be Britain’s ninth champion and first since Damon Hill in 1996.
If he fails, Massa will become the first Brazilian champion since the late Ayrton Senna in 1991. It is a rich irony that Senna was Hamilton’s childhood hero and inspiration.
Last year, Finn Kimi Raikkonen of Ferrari won the race and lifted the title after a late-season surge saw him upset all the odds when it looked as if Hamilton, or his then-teammate Spaniard Fernando Alonso, was set for glory.
”I remember going into that final race last year and I was really on the back foot,” said Hamilton, who has only to finish in the top five to be crowned champion this time.
”I felt a lot of weight on my shoulders. I felt the whole of my country and it felt like the whole world! I made some mistakes and we dropped back and that was it. But this time I am much better prepared because I have experienced it before.”
For Massa, it is a much more straightforward position: he must win and hope Hamilton has a troubled race and fails to finish in the top five.
”I have a tougher job than Lewis in terms of the points, but my own objective is much more straightforward,” he said. ”All I am thinking about is winning. After that, it is out of my hands. We just have to wait and see.”
Racing on home soil to win the race could be a source of inspiration or pressure for the Brazilian.
”I have zero pressure because I have nothing to lose,” said Massa.
”I have a harder job ahead of me than Lewis in terms of points but my game plan for the end of the week is more simple than his — I must win.”
Both men will need to be aware of the efforts of their respective teammates as McLaren’s Finn, Heikki Kovalainen, seeks his second career victory in a bid to wreck Massa’s hopes and Ferrari’s Raikkonen does his best to support his partner’s title dream.
In the constructors’ championship, Ferrari lead McLaren by 11 points — a situation that adds further drama to the equation.
Behind them, there is sure to be a threat to their front running duel from two-time champion Alonso, who has won two of the last three races for Renault and Poland’s Robert Kubica, of BMW Sauber, who wants to seal third place in the drivers’ championship ahead of Raikkonen.
The 4,31km Interlagos circuit, set in a sprawling suburb of ”favelas” in the densely-populated city of São Paulo, is certain to attract a huge crowd for the race on Sunday.
The passionate Brazilian fans will generate great noise and atmosphere, as always, but they — like the teams and drivers involved — will need to wait and see who holds their nerve the best in what is sure to be a dramatic and decisive showdown. — Sapa-AFP