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Make Grand Prix a fairer test of skill and nerve
Like most Brits I was proud and delighted to see Lewis Hamilton win the Formula One Grand Prix championship for this season at the Interlogos track at Sao Paulo in Brazil but am I the only one who thinks that words like ‘hero’ and ‘sporting legend’ are a little over the top?
He is clearly a very talented young driver of a high-powered McLaren/Mercedes motor car but to my mind ‘heroes’ are soldiers forced to go to Afghanistan or Iraq, whilst ‘sporting legends’ are those, like Mohammed Ali, Phil Taylor or Jack Nicklaus, whose greatness has been demonstrated over a long time where they have remained on top and transcended their sport.
I would argue in my local when the subject comes up that Tiger Woods and Roger Federer are either close to, or in that category already. These guys have had to use their carefully honed talents and might benefit from top equipment but not like in motor racing, where it is fair to say, I think, that on most occasions it is who has the fastest car that achieves the real success. Can we imagine anyone other than a McLaren/Mercedes, Ferrari or Renault actually winning the championship?
Lewis must be a real talent since team boss Ron Dennis took him as the first ‘rookie’ to join them but how lucky was he that Timo Glock had trouble with his tyres on those last few bends? Had Glock decided to step aside or was he really in bother? Others have given way in the past to team mates so why not in this case, although he was from another team?
Just a few hundred metres before that it looked as if young Mr Hamilton had blown his chance again, as he did last season when he went into the final race ahead on points but was unable to cope with the pressure.
Is he better than Felipe Masse, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen or the even younger Sebastian Vettel? I don’t know how we can say because the cars are so different and there are so many other imponderables like tyres, fuel, pit stops, ‘straight line’ speeds and cornering ability.
To my way of thinking, before we compare Lewis to Graham Hill, Jackie Stewart, Damon Hill, and especially Michael Schumacher and the rest in terms of ‘greatness’ we have to see if he is better than those two already mentioned, plus a few others who are rapidly climbing the slippery pole that is formula one.
Now I know that people will say to me that I am being churlish but I really feel he has done well in a cracking team set-up which gives him a huge advantage over the likes of David Coulthard and Jensen Button.
And I have the answer to seeing who is the world champion driver, rather than the best constructed car.
Put all the drivers in identical cars, starting with a little Ford Fiesta, moving on to a Vauxhall Vectra and progressively through to a really souped-up sports car – and then we will see who really comes out on top. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Lewis Hamilton but until we try that sort of formula then I can’t help but feel that he has done really well but still has a way to go before he is considered ‘great’
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