I’m convinced that this is a very extraordinary young man. In fact, he is not just an ordinary and average racing driver, I think he is the consummate entertainer. In his first year of racing this monster machine he lost the world championship by just one point.
At the start of this season he was unstoppable, taking one race after another. At one point we were all wondering whether this was Michael Schumacher over again, and fans began to give one giant yawn. But then, things started to go wrong for Lewis. He started to make mistakes. True, they were mistakes that everybody else make with routine monotony, but still it was Lewis himself who was making them. I thought he was bigger than that, but then I reminded myself that he was only human and as such he was subject to make mistakes.
Felipe Massa took advantage of every error on the part of Lewis to increase his total of points, and to cut the points gap between himself and Lewis. Then Lewis did something that I felt was along the same lines as Mike Tyson doing an ear bite: Lewis cut across a bend to get out in front of Felipe. I saw that as desperation, and the rules committee agreed. He did finish that race in first position but he was made subject to a time penalty and the first position went to Massa. Now, this was serious business, and I, along with everybody else sat upright and started to worry.
If Lewis was to have a real chance to win the championship he would have to pull up his socks and start to work his magic. But, not so fast, Fernando Alonso had something to say about that. He got his winning ways back and finished a couple of races in first position. Perhaps we were seeing in Lewis a young man who had peaked.
We saw something like that in Tiger Woods. That first year that he won the Masters Tournament in America was an amazing thing to watch. He was masterful and hypnotic. I had gone to a golf club on some other business. I walked into the lounge that was as quiet as an empty church, although every table was full. Someone made a telephone call to a golfing buddy who was out on the course, suggesting that he might like to abandon the round and get back to the clubhouse pronto. For a while Tiger continued his dominance, but then he started to lose some games. So it was with Lewis.
The thing that Hamilton, Woods, and President-elect Barack Obama all have in common is that when they come under pressure they maintain their calm. However, as fans of Lewis Hamilton we were biting our nails and sitting forward on our seats. The points spread continued to narrow, but Lewis said that he was comfortable with that. But then, came the moment of truth, the final race of the season in Brasil. He was neither ruled out or in as the eventual winner ahead of the race. He could only pull off a win if he finished no lower than fifth place. But he had to finish, and a fifth place would give him a one-point lead over Massa, who was up in the front pack.
People all over the world watched that race who had never watched a Formula One race before, just as the same thing happened in golf, and in America’s presidential race for president. The tension around the world was so palpable that it could truly have been sliced with a knife. Nowhere was that more so than in the U.K. This was a chance for a British title, and in the history of the race, it was also a chance for the title to be taken home by a young black man for the very first time. To say that a lot was riding on the outcome is a true understatement.
Around and around they went and Lewis was nowhere near to where he needed to be. In the closing rounds of the race he made up ground and with only two more corners to go he was in sixth place. Disappointed fans began to turn their backs on the screens as they could not bear to watch his loss. But suddenly, the most enormous roar went up around the world that surely could have been heard in outer space. On the second to last corner Lewis found his opening and went for it in flawless style and crossed the bar in fifth place, one point ahead of Massa to win with a total of accumulated points for the season of 98, compared with 97 for Massa.
Britain shook with the excitement of the win, and even Her Majesty watched as he brought home the title. This was drama at its finest. It was the best of all that had gone before, so much so that few of us can remember who actually finished first on that day.
Lewis Hamilton is a very nice guy. He honours his family, his country, and his team. He is handsome and well spoken and the right sort of role model for a lot of young people who are otherwise following paths to hell. They can see that should they wish to turn their lives around they too can make something substantial of themselves. If only they would believe that, “Yes, we can!”
Lewis Hamilton, Driver, World Champion Formula One and great humanitarian. But how great is he really? Stay tuned for the 2009 Formula One racing season. We’ll see!
Copyright © 2008 Eugene Carmichael
