Good but not Great… yet
Jun 21st, 2007 by Haas
If you have been watching the 2007 season of Formula One you might have heard his name being mentioned once or twice… Lewis Hamilton is currently the toast of the town. The Briton’s amazing first few races of his rookie season has clearly been a treat to watch.
There has been little mention about the Rookie in this site for more reasons than one. Firstly the hype was already too much that we felt it was better we did not add fuel to fire. The British media tabloids started most of the hype and feeling vindicated the rest of the F1 world responded.
Following is superb North American campaign, it seems only fair to talk about this lad… Firstly Lewis is probably the find of the season. That itself is saying much as there are as many as 4 drivers in their rookie season and many in the wings to follow suit in the next few years. Lewis’ consistency has definitely marked him out as a winner. His performance in the first four races when Ferrari were clearly stronger and in the next three when McLaren was on top clearly shows what he is made of.
The rookie is clearly good but is he great?
Lot has been written in the press of how he has beaten his two time world champion teammate, how he is the top contender for the World Championship and how he is unbeatable.
Lets push away the hype aside and look at what sets Hamilton in a class of his own…
Hamilton has had the incredible luck of starting his career with a team that is on top of the pecking order currently. McLaren has been due a championship for a while now but the sheer dominance of the machinery is just unbelievable. If it wasn’t for Alonso and Lewis fighting out so close in races we might as well have a procession at the front of the field.
When compared to say Renault who were in top of their game last year, McLaren have clearly got their act together. What would have happened if Lewis had debuted in a car like the Renault… Frankly I dont think he would have done much better than what Heikki is doing right now. No I am not being sour but I dont think even Lewis could have gotten the current Renault on the podium. We cant blame Lewis for choosing a good team to start his career in… but what if the roles were reversed and everybody was talking about Heikki in a Renault in top of its game(memories of 05 and 06).
What about challenges? Lewis has had fairly uneventful racedays so far this season. There has not been much action after the first corner, even the pitstop poker has been a bit subdued so far. I believe his true championship caliber will be tested when he goes head to head with a opponent on better machinery(Remember Imola 05 and 06 Alonso vs Michael)
Lewis has also been very consistent with his qualification. The Briton has always been on the top 4 and anyone who has watched F1 will tell you that is the best place to start to end up on the podium.
Lewis’ greatest aid so far has been that he has not been marred with any bad luck so far, may it be a mistimed safety car or a bad back marker or a misjudged overtaking maneuver… The Rookie will for sure encounter a few of those in his career.
We can argue for hours on what the rookie has not done but the fact remains he has only been around for 7 races. So can we say that he is en route to become a World Champion let alone a great World Champion? Not yet…
Being 10 points clear of the nearest competitor with 7 races down clearly makes him a contender for the world championship, how long that lead will hold and how the European phase of the World Championship will effect it has to be seen. Till then we can sit back and admire one of the best Rookies we have seen in a long time in this sport.
you spoke like true alonso fan there skinny, but fact remains that remains is he is doing great. And please lets not go down road of bad luck and eventful weekends, these definitely are not the measure for how good he or a any driver is. as you said above bad over taking maneuvers is one thing that has not happened, which is why every one is praising him. if there is one thing i haven’t seen much or at all, from him is, over taking any where else apart from a first corner. from what i recall a thing he hasn’t done at all. from what i have seen he sure can defend good but one thing that is to be seen from him, is attacking a car ahead of him and over taking it. remember monaco where he struggled even to get closer to alonso untill the third stint forget about challenging him, many can say what ever they want even if Mclaren would have let them race till the end. i don’t think he would have been able to close in on alonso or challenge for the place.
It’s also worth remembering he has not made his rookie mistake yet. All rookies do it, in fact all drivers do it.
If that mistake is a big one (Kubica sort of level), or even if it is not. What will define his true F1 career and character is how he deals with it, and comes back, or not as the case may be.
He has it coming, you cant hide from it (and no his Monaco practice crash does not count), it’s what he does to get his head back in the game that’s going to count.
Also as soon as he comes out from under the McLaren nambdy pambdy umbrella he currently hides under (everyone else is fine to be interviewed on the grid after all), he may find life a little more difficult.
That said he is a naturally gifted driver, perhaps in the same league as Colin McRae and Michael Andretti in raw inbuilt car control.
How good a real world driver he is will show when he gets a car that does not behave exactly like he likes it (a bit tail happy). Michael Schumacher was brilliant at driving around cars problems (if not as naturally talented), as is Fernando (as the current McLaren is not really designed to be driven in his ‘throw the nose at the apex’ style.)
We will see, the campaign is long and hard, although I would dearly like to see the first Black/none champion Rookie to win the title. But then it would be nice for Fernando to be the first driver in ages to maintain a title after switching teams.
At the end of the day, the British press have taken him as a beacon to champion, as we dont have many superstars anymore.
Yep Britain has hardly much to cheer in the last few years, Button looked good for a while but unfortunately for him that never converted to nice results. Lewis clearly has been the star in the night sky Britons have been looking for a long time for…