This time last year Lewis Hamilton was on the brink of history. He was within one race of becoming the only driver to win the Formula One world championship in his first year. His instant success in a sport that usually rewards experience was a sensation.
And here we are again. For the second year running, Hamilton’s title hopes have come down to the final grand prix of the season; he leads his closest challenger, Felipe Massa, by seven points going into the Brazilian GP on Sunday. Last year his talent was trumped by his inexperience, and rash mistakes in the last two races cost him the crown. What everyone wants to know is: Will things be different this year?
The indications are that they will. Hamilton has built on his great expectations. His driving has continued to leave commentators breathless and his rivals in the dust. And, still only 23, he has shown a precocious maturity in dealing with his superstar status.
It has been easy to forget that this is only his second year of Formula One. His victories at Monaco and Silverstone, both in wet conditions, were superlative pieces of driving. Just as impressive was the composure he showed in dominating last week’s Chinese GP from first qualifying to chequered flag.
”I’m no longer surprised by the things he does,” says Maurice Hamilton, the Observer‘s motor-racing correspondent. ”He has a confidence, a self-belief and an incredible will to win that we have rarely seen.”
He has also shown strength of character in his ability to bounce back from mistakes, such as the humiliating error in Canada when he lost concentration in the pit lane and shunted Kimi Raikkonen, who was stopped at a red light. It was an accident more worthy of a supermarket car park than an F1 track and, for the first time in his career, Hamilton came in for genuine criticism. But after a brief spat, he made up with the press and returned triumphant at the British GP.
Jackie Stewart, three-time world champion, says Hamilton is ”as good outside the cockpit as in it, which is very important. He has turned out to be a very charismatic young man.”
This is at odds with the pitlane reports of an arrogant young man who has alienated his competitors with his aggressive driving and cocky pronouncements. And yet those who know him describe him as modest and eager-to-please, making special effort with the fans many fellow drivers are happy to ignore.
That he stays so grounded is probably down to his close family support. Uniquely in Formula One, his dad, Anthony, continues to be his manager: by this point a professional has normally taken over.
Lewis clearly gets comfort from having Anthony around, although should he not clinch the title in Brazil, people may start to wonder if Lewis now needs a mentor with more experience — an ex-driver, perhaps.
What makes him so special? As Stewart points out, he is photogenic and his colour has done for F1 what Tiger Woods’s did for golf. Plus he has had the ”amazing privilege to start his career with one of the two best teams in F1 — and few young drivers do”. But he also points to his innate talent.
”The bottom line,” says Maurice Hamilton, ”is that he is very, very good. It has nothing to do with the fact he is in a good car: look what he did to McLaren teammate Fernando Alonso last year. I have seen the arrival of [Michael] Schumacher, [Alain] Prost and [Ayrton] Senna, and this is right up there with them. He will be among the greats.”
McLaren to wing it in Brazil
Meanwhile, Lewis Hamilton is being told by McLaren to take things easy in Sunday’s Brazilian Grand Prix, where he knows he needs to finish only in the top five to clinch the world championship. The British team this week made it clear that they are leaving nothing to chance to ensure that he has absolutely the best equipment at his disposal to help him see off Massa, the only man who can deny him.
Far from sitting back and being happy with the specification of their MP4-23 vehicle used by Hamilton to dominate the Chinese Grand Prix at Shanghai, the McLaren technical department has been working on a new rear wing and a raft of other aerodynamic tweaks for Sunday’s gruelling event at the circuit in the suburbs of São Paulo. McLaren sources confirm that recent intensive aerodynamic development programmes have left the team feeling sufficiently confident about a number of key changes to the car’s aerodynamic package for them to be introduced for the final race of the year.
Although the most conspicuously visible difference will centre around the rear wing, it is believed there will also be at least six other areas on the car where the team have targeted a step forward in pace.
McLaren F1’s chief executive, Martin Whitmarsh, said the team has been working hard on the elements that have now been given the green light for use in the race. ”We have put the effort into primarily an aerodynamic package to enhance the efficiency of the car,” he said.
McLaren have made it clear since Shanghai that, despite the title situation, they are continuing their preparations for Brazil as intensively as they can. The team principal, Ron Dennis, told autosport.com: ”It’s clearly not done, but most likely it’s only unreliability that’s going to cause us a problem. So we’re going to be cautious about tyres, rain and all sorts of things. All the work we normally do will be done and we will arrive … ready to go and we’ll adapt to whatever gets thrown at us.” —