Hamilton’s on a roll as rivals struggle
The Lewis Hamilton Show rolls into Singapore this weekend for the 13th round of the 2015 Formula One championship he is sure to win.
Okay, the math begs to differ. Or at least, it mildly objects. With seven Grands Prix remaining, there is still a chance of a surprise outcome before the season wraps in mid-November.
Then again, there is also a chance you will win the lottery this weekend.
You know what I mean. Hamilton has been near-perfect in 2015 and it’s hard to imagine him slipping now. If anything, he will get stronger still, if recent history is anything to go by.
Remember? It was around this time last year the Mercedes ace took command of the title fight with teammate Nico Rosberg, and he has pretty much never looked back since.
In the first dozen races of 2014, Hamilton won five times and Rosberg four. The other three wins went to Daniel Ricciardo of Red Bull, starting with his unlikely triumph in Montreal. So a tight race.
But it was almost all Hamilton in the second half of the campaign, with six wins in seven races, Rosberg managing to steal only one, in Brazil, as his teammate powered to his second F1 drivers’ title.
The 2015 season has been a different story. Hamilton has dominated from the get-go, winning seven of 12 races and amassing 11 pole positions and an equal number of podiums.
Rosberg, meanwhile, has failed to step up, winning three times in a car that is capable of much more. The other two victories went to Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, adding a splash of red to break up the monotony of Mercedes grey.
And so here we are at a juncture that proved pivotal a year ago. Hamilton is coming off a win on hallowed Ferrari soil in Italy, just like last year. And again he’s looking to follow up with a victory Sunday at the Marina Bay Circuit, home of the dazzling Singapore Grand Prix.
Anything can happen during F1’s now-iconic night race — the tight, twisty track is notoriously punishing on both car and driver — but if Hamilton continues on his tear, well, it’s lights out for real.
Mercedes was preparing by making sure its cars are bulletproof, after Rosberg suffered a rare engine failure during the Monza race two weekends ago, marking the first retirement for the team in 18 outings.
“Both drivers produced very strong performances but, unfortunately, only one got the result he deserved,” Mercedes Motorsport boss Toto Wolff summed up.
“When you are in a position like we currently enjoy, expectations are extremely high, and none more so than among our own people.”
Rosberg, who now finds himself 53 points behind Hamilton in the drivers’ standings — the equivalent of more than two race wins — said he’s not giving up the chase.
“I approach the final seven races with the attitude that there’s nothing to lose,” Rosberg said in a preview of the Singapore GP. “It’s maximum attack.” Well, too little, too late. Rosberg’s drop in form over the last year is difficult to explain. Maybe he’s slipping. Or maybe Hamilton, now in his third year at Mercedes, is getting stronger as he becomes more comfortable within the team.
I’ll throw it out there: Rosberg became a father last month when his wife, Vivian, gave birth to their first child, a daughter they’ve named Alaia. I wonder: Does that kind of life-affirming experience cause you to lift off the pedal a bit?
For the record, Michael Schumacher was the last family man to win the drivers’ title, securing his record seventh crown in 2004 with Ferrari. Since then, Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Jenson Button, Sebastian Vettel and, of course, Hamilton have won championships.
Hamilton, for one, continues to revel in his carefree lifestyle, as he revealed in his latest column for the BBC.
“I am in a very experimental period of my life. I like taking risks, I like trying new things,” he wrote after turning up in Monza with blond hair, something he said he’d done on a whim in Los Angeles, where he attended the MTV Video Awards, before going on to New York, where he made tabloid news with Rihanna.
“I certainly lead a different life from many people,” he went on. “Always, though, I am trying to balance to the best of my abilities my training, health, and mental and physical condition.”
He added: “I turned 30 over the winter and I have really got to a point in my life where I am comfortable in myself and I would never make any decision if I felt it was detrimental to my performance in the car, which is the No. 1 priority.”
Not that he has to explain himself. He can just let his driving do the talking.