Lewis Hamilton: the greatest British sportsman?
Lewis Hamilton didn’t need to win the US Grand Prix, said Oliver Brown in The Daily Telegraph. He knew that he had only to finish eighth to secure the World Championship, with two races to spare. But the 34-year-old still produced “a performance full of the qualities that he has made his signature”: he displayed “a cussedness” worthy of a driver chasing his very first victory. True, he didn’t win – finishing second, just four seconds behind his Mercedes team-mate, Valtteri Bottas – but that hardly mattered. In his 13th season at “the pinnacle of motor racing”, Hamilton has sealed his sixth title. That’s one more than the great Juan Manuel Fangio, and twice as many as Jackie Stewart. The only driver ahead of him – “and perhaps only for another year” – is Michael Schumacher, with seven titles.
Hamilton is unquestionably a worthy champion, said Giles Richards in The Guardian. Despite Ferrari having the superior car this season, he and Mercedes have “made hay”. His dominance has, at times, been astonishing: with a series of “flawless performances”, he took eight wins from the first 12 races. And on those rare occasions when he has suffered setbacks, he has shown impressive resilience, confirming that he operates on “a fearsome mental plane”. At the start of his career, Hamilton quickened the pulse with the occasional “bravura” performance, said Richard Williams in the same paper. Think of his unforgettable win in the rain at Silverstone in 2008. He is now a different kind of driver: one more likely to win through the “canny stalking” that forced
Sebastian Vettel into a mistake at the Canadian Grand Prix in June, or to “make a set of old, hard tyres last until the chequered flag”, as he did in Mexico City last month. He continues to give his full attention to the “science of driving”: his team at Mercedes speak of just how diligently he works with his engineers.
Hamilton’s extracurricular activities often attract hostile attention, said Matthew Syed in The Times. But he doesn’t actually seem to be motivated by fame or glory. Like other serial champions – Roger Federer, Jack Nicklaus – he is driven “to progress, to journey deeper into himself in search of improvements, however small”. After 13 years of “near-uninterrupted brilliance”, it’s time to recognise that Hamilton isn’t merely one of Formula 1’s all-time greats, said Jonathan McEvoy in the Daily Mail. He is surely “the finest British sportsman of his era”.