From boy racer to global icon... this has been a thrill ride
Hamilton has evolved as a driver and a public figure but retains his distinct personality It still does not take much to knock him off kilter – but the team have kept him on track
It is always interesting to witness someone develop from boy to man. I knew Lewis Hamilton when he was just a young driver trying to make his name, and I have seen his personality evolve.
I have watched him go from a squeaky-voiced kid who warned me he would have my race seat one day at Mclaren to a five-time world champion and true great of the modern era.
The 2018 season has brought Lewis’s finest ever performance, without question. It is all about the combination of age and experience.
In his early years in F1, we saw him grow up in the public eye, and he made a few mistakes during that period.
However, within Mercedes he has found a comfort zone of performance and delivery.
It has been an immaculate display throughout the year. There have been a few little hiccups, but largely it has been impossible to fault him.
His minimising of mistakes has been a crucial factor. Equally, Mercedes have been able to finesse their package to suit him. The car and the support network have put him in a happy place.
While it still does not seem to take much for Lewis to be knocked off kilter – he is a sensitive soul – the team have done an impressive job of keeping him in the ideal window.
Lewis understands now that there are certain professional obligations in wearing the team suit. There is no particular formality to it, as his own inner drive and professionalism usually ensure that he takes care of business on the track.
A good example would be F1’s London Live event last year. The team asked if he would come along. He said he would prefer to do whatever he was doing and they said: “OK, we trust you.”
He trusted his own judgment, turned up at Silverstone, and won.
Although he has embraced the American lifestyle, he has not picked up too many Americanisms in his speech.
He is still very much the successful older version of his younger self in terms of his conduct. He just has a much bigger Rolodex now – many more people with whom he can do things and share ideas.
There are no guarantees that he will cement his dominance in the years to come as, with a little more reliability, Ferrari could have made this year’s picture very different.
Just because Lewis has sealed a fifth championship, a sixth is not a stone-cold certainty.
But he has all the tools he could want for 2019 and 2020. Beyond that, with a major regulation change due, there is no telling what the sport will look like.
Having been a contemporary of Michael Schumacher’s, I never expected somebody could equal, let alone eclipse, his 91 wins so soon. It does not diminish Michael’s huge talent, but there was a perfect combination of events for him at that time, a trend of Ferrari reliability in an era when F1 cars were generally far less reliable. As such, what Lewis has achieved in this generation, with 72 wins and counting, stands apart.
There is speculation that Lewis might finish his career with a switch to Ferrari, although I would be amazed if it happened. He has been with Mercedes for almost his entire racing life, and there is a loyalty there. In fact, I would be surprised if he went any longer than the end of 2020. I believe that at the age of 35, he will feel that he has done his time. He will have competed in 260 grands prix by then, and there are signs, through his many commercial activities, that he is already mapping out the next stage of his life.
He wants a self-sustaining business that does not involve him having to chase around the world the whole time. And he will create one because he is a global icon.