The new Pied Piper of Formula 1. Review on Lewis Hamilton

The black boy approached Ron Dennis at the age of 11 requesting for a place in Mclaren. The boy bought his first Go Kart at six and started racing go kart at eight. It is not co-incidence that he is named after King Carl Lewis. It is the desire to make it big in a sport which requires unflinching valour and fortitude. It is the dream to succeed and the power to thrust that dream from his father Anthony which has resulted in 9 years of unswerving effort under the Mclaren bandwagon(McLaren and Mercedes-Benz Young Driver Support Programme) that has fetched him the berth in the most coveted hot seat of racing-driving Formula 1 for Mclaren.

The year 2007 started for Formula with lot of hope as the real racing year after a decade of domination by Michael Schumacher. The bet was on two time champion Fernando Alonso on Mclaren and Kimi Raikkonen on the Fast Ferrari. The world expected Hamilton on Mclaren andFelipe Massa on Ferrari to play second fiddle.

As the race season went through the first segment of intense racing, (we have seen all the four winning the race), but only one standing on that podium for the record seventh time in a row as a debutant which has been only a dream for the finest of Racing champions.

Driving Canadian Grand prix with utmost calm and expertise, he won his first Formula 1 race which just followed the Nadal victory at French Open. Hamilton dominated from the first corner of the race that started in lot of chaos as many racers were falling by the way side and Robert Kubica almost lost his life. With the win, he climbed the summit of becoming the youngest racer to lead in Formula 1 history eclipsing the record of Mclaren Founder Bruce Mclaren. He became the first black Driver racing Formula 1 this year at the Australian GP and when he got on to the podium finishing third, he became the first debutant to do so. The next four races, he drove aggressively matching wits with Massa to finish second on all four occasions. What followed on Sunday was an immaculate racing at Indy GP where he warded off repeated threat from Fernando Alonso to win his second GP with just 1.5 secs lead. The nerves will show as the race day gets hotter with the four battling it out for the Championship and for the moment Hamilton leads the pack at 58 with 10 clear points.

He is already touted as the future Formula 1 champion by many including the legendary Niki Lauda and Alain Prost and many are even predicting it to happen in 2007 itself. Some of the accolades that have poured in:-

Bernie Ecclestone, ” he will be the future champion like Micheal Schumacher. McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh, ” Lewis Hamilton could become the greatest driver F1 has ever seen. Jackie Stewart, ” *Within the next three years, Lewis Hamilton will certainly be in contention and could easily win the world championship, It's not inconceivable it could be done this year.he's been able to accomplish more in a shorter time than any driver I've ever seen

Frank Williams, ” *I thought after we got rid of Michael(Schumacher), now we've got a chance again, but then another superhuman turns up. Hamilton entered F1 after winning last year's GP2 title and has been nurtured carefully by McLaren for the past decade.

Ron Dennis "This was a straight out, full on, tremendous achievement and at one of the most difficult circuits in the world and he deserves all the plaudits he will undoubtedly get."

What makes him so special? He has the desire to win all the time and is a very clever aggressive driver with lots of fire and passion. For someone following F1 from Niki Lauda days, I feel he has most similar skills as the legendary Ayrton Senna and add to that remarkable consistency. There have been several occasions when safety car was deployed in Canadian GP and the remarkable aspect of his racing was that he forged out when most rookies are still at the bottom of the pile.

Jacques Villeneuve has gone over board in commenting that Lewis seems to be driving dangerously and compared him with Schumi. When you look back the last seven races, Lewis did not make a single technical blunder causing danger to the other drivers which fellow drivers accept. Former champion that Vills, we all know on his flabbergasted mouth.

The war of words is expected as much as the heat generated by the Cars when winning and loosing is not just part of this sport. Even Alonso made a spin off that the English Team favoured the Brit more. Both should understand that they are driving on a super car Mclaren and have equal chances of winning and their only rival is the faster Ferrari. But it has taken years of forged partnership with Mclaren which makes him their Poster boy and the loved one while Alonso has just begun this year. It will not be worthy when you compare him with the other contenders of Mclaren Pedro de la Rosa and Paffett for F1 this year as it is not hard to differentiate the best from ordinary.

The other singular skill of his racing is his passing maneuvers at acute corners which has earned him great name, but till to be seen in F1 this year being front runner in the pack. What remains to be seen is this ability to shoot out from the bottom of the pack in the starting grid under trying circumstances.(Schumi was adapting dangerous tactics while doing this)

The glorious chapter that he has begun this year is the result of years of effort and ardor to motor sport at early age which includes winning championships like Formula Three Euroseries in 2005 & GP 2 in 2006.GP2 is the stepping stone for F1 and our own Karun chandok finished eighth in Bahrain this year.(Still a long way to go)

Perhaps time will tell whether the Grenadian born will leapfrog all the former great Brit champions like Jackie Stewart, Damon Hill and Nigel Mansell and become a champion in the mould of great Brazilian drivers. We have seen many drivers who have showed promise like Montoya and Kimi but have delivered less with reckless driving.

Till then, let the black magic enthrall us on the Fast & furious Formula 1 circuit.

Thanks for reading.

Formula 1 fans do check this video on youtube for Hamilton snippets https://youtube.com/watch?v=Yq72EroSYPg