A legend is built on doing things people remember vividly
LEWIS Hamilton, who says he has “nothing to lose” in today’s Brazilian Grand Prix, as he attempts to stop Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg clinching the title, is an endlessly fascinating character.
In a sport often dominated by corporate messages and halfanswers, Hamilton is a journalist’s dream: outspoken, emotional, complicated out of the car, while breathtakingly brilliant in it.
All those with a touch of genius have their flaws — in this sport you only need to look at some of the things Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher did on track — and Hamilton is no different.
His are primarily down to the heart-on-your-sleeve side of his personality, which even after 10 years in Formula One and three titles under his belt can inhibit him from performing at his best every weekend.
If he did, even with numerous car issues, Rosberg wouldn’t have had a chance this year. The last two races in the US and Mexico have demonstrated that emphatically.
But he is not a straightforward person. That is why he probably never will be able to perform at his peak every single weekend. It is reflected in what he can be like to deal with in the paddock too.
A typical Hamilton press briefing goes like this. There is a polite, “excuse me man”, as he walks past the assembled reporters to the front of the room.
Then, most of the time he answers your questions fully, engagingly, and honestly. And once the session is over, he walks out, head down, barely saying a word.
Sometimes when I have interviewed him, he comes in smiling, before saying, with a certain relish: “Ah — time for the dragons.”
Hamilton gives you frank answers like no other driver.
Then, at other times, he arrives uninterested, without much to say. His bone-crushingly hard handshake sets to the tone on those occasions.
This is the paradox of Hamilton: he is both polite and courteous, but in other ways distant and stand-offish.
Those who have known him since he was a teenager, former drivers like David Coulthard and Martin Brundle, tell a similar story.
Sometimes when they see him in TOUCH OF GENIUS: Mercedes Formula 1 driver Lewis Hamilton must be celebrated, not condemned — he is a true champion the paddock, they share a warm conversation.
Other times he blanks them as if they have never met.
People who work with Hamilton like him, finding it a rewarding if at times eventful experience. Those who had to deal with his more erratic phase at McLaren in 2011, still look warmly at him. There is a soft spot which no number of illadvised outbursts can eliminate.
“Lewis fundamentally has a good heart,” as one puts it. “He’s a good kid.” I share their view. Maliciousness is not prominent in Hamilton’s character.
Look at some of the things Senna and Schumacher did — deliberately crashing into rivals, parking the car in qualifying to scupper a fellow competitor — and compare it with Hamilton. He is a fair racer and to this day, he has not deliberately, with clear-minded intent, rammed someone off the road.
Contrast that to Rosberg who has twice been penalised this year for driving into an opponent, and by consensus intentionally went off in Monaco qualifying two years ago to stop Hamilton setting a time.
That the 31-year-old Brit is a generally decent person can be hard to see when watching from afar.
Endearing himself to the public is not one of his strong points.
But in person, he gives a far better impression than on TV (the contrast with Jenson Button, who can turn on the charm at will, both on and off camera, is marked).
Less so as time has gone on, but in certain circumstances Hamilton is not always a magnanimous loser — although that should be an antidote to the notion that he no longer cares about racing.
Hamilton’s celebrity lifestyle can appear vulgar.
Those shots posing on the wing of his red private jet are — I suspect — meant by him as an expression of pride that he has made from a council house in Stevenage to become Britain’s richest sportsman.
But the imprint it often leaves on his critics is one of bragging. Coupled with his status as a Monaco tax exile, it does not do him many favours (that said; if we are to criticise Hamilton on the fact he lives in Monaco then we must hold others to that too).
But should we really be judging sportspeople — or anyone for that matter — purely on what clothes they wear and what music they listen to? Even if it is at odds with the tastes of many, this writer included, his fashion sense and passion for hip-hop do not do anyone any harm.
You might not especially like Hamilton, but you have to admire his talent and his tenacity as a sportsman. I happen to do both.
I find it far less courteous to continually dodge questions, replying with banalities — as Rosberg has done for most of the year — than to occasionally post a few Snapchat pictures on your phone during a press conference.
In Japan, he let himself down, walking out, but this is part of the emotional side of his character. He has been on best behaviour since.
The greatest shame for me is that he rarely sees the need to speak to journalists or pundits once the recorders or cameras are off. When he does, he is very good conversation. I suppose he simply thinks he has a job to do, not being a great fan of the paddock in general.
Spending your entire life in the public eye, with people continually singing your praises, has a distorting effect on a person. You lose reference points, or checks and balances on what you can do.
It leaves you mistrustful of people — particularly the media in Hamilton’s case — because whatever you do you will be criticised for. But one thing Hamilton cannot be criticised for over the past three years is his driving. Starts this year have been a glaring weak spot, yet there is no sign that his speed or brilliance racing wheel-to-wheel has diminished at all.
Put simply, he does things you cannot believe.
There are few other drivers who can claim to do that.
A legend is built not solely on the number of titles you win, but on doing things people remember vividly. Hamilton ticks both boxes.
If he continues at this rate, then he will undoubtedly go down as one of the top five drivers of all time, or even better.
There is a good argument that he is the best British sportsperson competing today.
More importantly, he is as compelling and interesting as anyone out there. And for that alone — among many other things — we will miss him when he is gone. —©