Lewis Hamilton the youngest ever Formula One World Champion
Lewis Hamilton, the youngest ever Formula One World Champion, currently racing for the McLaren Mercedes team is at a career crossroads this season.
At the start of Sunday’s season-opening Bahrain Grand Prix, it was said Hamilton would race towards a career defining moment, however Fernando Alonso won the season-opening Bahrain F1 and led a Ferrari one-two. Hamilton, the 2008 world champion, completed the podium for McLaren, 23.1 behind Alonso, with Vettel slipping to fourth after starting on pole.
This is a big season for Formula One as a whole, holding out the hope that the thrill of the competition will restore the bad taste of last year’s scandal and controversy.
This is the very season when we find out whether he’s the successor to his hero, Ayrton Senna, or perhaps just a fine driver who flashed briefly before others put him in his place. One of the reasons why the stakes are so high for Hamilton is that his new team-mate is reigning world champion Jenson Button. This is the very season that will define this Formula One World Champion.
McLaren can be blamed for his defeat last year, as the team were caught off guard by Brawn and Red Bull and failed to give him a car to defend the drivers’ title he won the year before.
But this year, McLaren are on the right pace and evidence from pre-season suggests the same.
The rivalry between Hamilton and Button will be the most unforgiving this season. It’s boiled down to the Battle of the Brits, the first time a team has ever possessed the last two world champions in its driver line-up. Button currently holds the third spot in the race for the driver's title, and while the 30-year-old admits he's dreaming of holding on to his World Championship title, he's aware that there is still a long way to go this season. While popular vote is with Hamilton, both men currently claim they’re Britain’s finest. Somehow it’s felt Hamilton has more to lose if Button triumphs.
Hamilton’s been with McLaren since he was a kid. He’s family and Button’s the outsider. The nine years-old from Tewin, Hertfordshire, walked up to Dennis, asked for his autograph and then said: “Hi. I’m Lewis Hamilton. I won the British Championship and one day I want to be racing your cars.” So we’ll find out whether Hamilton really is McLaren’s chosen one or whether any resentment remains within the team about the way Hamilton blamed sporting director Dave Ryan for the lies Hamilton told after last year’s Australian Grand Prix.
Ryan, who has been working with McLaren for 35 years, lost his job as a result of the affair, while Hamilton did not. So he has to prove that he’s a clever politician like Senna and Alain Prost were. He has to prove that he can outwork his team-mate, too, in the way Michael Schumacher always did.
More importantly he has to beat Button on the track. Challenging as it may be because of the new rules banning refueling; more significance will be attributed to how drivers manage tire wear during races, a talent that is strength of the precise Button.
But even in those circumstances, Hamilton’s season is about a lot more than just beating Button on the track.
The sport has never quite recaptured the power of those rivalries but now it feels as if that kind of magic could be back in F1. It’s partly also because Schumacher’s back with the force of Mercedes and his mentor, Ross Brawn.
Also because double world champion Fernando Alonso is in a Ferrari and another rising star, Sebastian Vettel, will be a threat again at Red Bull.
It should be a dream season for F1 fans but in order for it to be a dream season for Hamilton, he has to emerge on top.
He has to prove that he is the next impressive champion, that all the extravagant praise that has been lavished upon him is justified. He has to silence the critics and give the fans much more than being demanded from him.
Beyond any doubt there are only a few great drivers in Formula 1 and every so often they go head-to-head with each other and one way or the other there’s always a king and a pretender to the throne. In this case Schumacher, who has time and again proved to the world that he is statistically the best there has ever been, Hamilton can still be termed as the aspirant.
However, if this youngest ever Formula One World Champion is crowned world champion this season, no one will be able to question his ability again. Hamilton will be king and can rightfully claim the succession.
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