Decad’s heroes
Winning races is one thing, but the battle for pole is the purest examination of a driver’s raw ability – and it’s a test that newly crowned Champ Lewis passes with ease
In the aftermath of Lewis Hamilton’s exceptional year in winning his fourth World Championship, what I’ve found even more exceptional is his breaking the all-time pole position record. By definition, pole is for the fastest man in that car, on that track, on that day when qualifying took place, and must surely be the most satisfying way for a driver to exercise his prerogative over the rest of the grid.
As we all know, luck often plays a big role in the results of any race. Engines that don’t seize when oil pressure falls, tyres that don’t come off rims when punctured, or spins and offs that don’t include collision with hard objects. Any number of mishaps and catastrophes can befall a driver seeking to be first past the chequered flag. But driving for pole is something else: a precise, measured, controlled achievement. It rose to prominence after WW2 when the World Championship came into being. Grid positions tended to be chosen by lot in pre-war races, but as starting at the front became more of a necessity then so did pole position. The more so as the number of Grands Prix in a season increased to make up the Championship calendar.
I once watched a snooker player manage to pot a red when snookered, by concentrating on cueing the ball off three cushions. Today, every corner and turn on a run for pole must require similar dedication to the precision of getting the car in exactly the right place, accompanied by the perfect application of brake and throttle at exactly the right bake-off time for the tyres.
Only seven drivers have achieved the accolade of being the pole position record holder, although Juan Manuel Fangio had the distinction of breaking it twice. Giuseppe Farina obtained the first pole in the first race for the new FIA Championship at Silverstone in 1950, in an Alfa Romeo Tipo 158. This was broken by Fangio in the same year, also in a 158, because he had three poles from the six F1 races that year to Farina’s two. But Alberto Ascari, driving for Ferrari from 1951-’53, clocked up 14 on his way to becoming Champion in both ’52 and ’53.
Fangio then returned to the competition with 15 poles and left the total at 29 when he retired from Formula One after winning his fifth World Championship in 1957. That total took some beating, and it wasn’t bettered until Jim Clark reached 30 in 1967. By his untimely demise in 1968, he had set a target of 33, all achieved in Lotus cars. This new best remained unchallenged until the arrival of Ayrton Senna. His methodical, scientific approach to his racing clocked up poles in quantities never seen before (13 in 1988 and ’89 alone), for him to take the record in ’89 and eventually leave it at 65 on that very sad day at Imola in May 1994.
Michael Schumacher took up the cudgels in 1994, but it wasn’t until 2006 that he set a new record, taking it to 68 upon his first retirement after winning his seventh Championship that same year. Then there was his amazing last-ditch effort in Monaco when he remarkably grabbed pole but a penalty denied him the spot.
And so to the driver who prompted this story, Britain’s own Lewis Hamilton. He’s taken the whole ethos and moved it up several notches. His control and ‘at oneness’ with his mount, and sensitivity to the state of his tyres especially, enable him to dig deep and find what he needs to get the job done. When other drivers in your era are in awe at what you do, then you’ve joined the slim ranks of the immortal. Lewis is certainly serving out his destiny and, with a little more of the humility that he’s already shown, will become a magnificent ambassador for his sport.