Hamilton is worthy of recognition
LEWIS HAMILTON has always found BBC Sports Personality of the Year a thorny subject. Should he go? What if he puts his foot in his mouth? What if, worst of all, the vote tells him he is not as loved as he would like to be?
He will feel these pangs acutely today because by any measurement he deserves to lift the prize for a second time. A quick recap on what he has achieved this year tells us this: 11 wins from the 16 grands prix in which he has competed, despite incurring penalties in two other races he would have won, and suffering or carrying Covid in a further couple of rounds, one of which he triumphed in regardless.
The margins and manner of many of his victories were more startling than even his dominant Mercedes invited, the best being his drive in Turkey that put him level with Michael Schumacher on seven world championship titles, having already surged ahead of the German’s old record of 91 wins.
This all makes Hamilton one of the most high-achieving sportsmen in history. Aged 35, his reactions remain undimmed and augment his preternatural clarity of thought and vision at the wheel of a 210mph racing car.
And to think he broke the mould of the possible, emerging as a mixed race boy from a council flat to bestride a largely white enclave.
Yet despite his success across 14 seasons, Hamilton is something of an enigma to the public.
When I think back to the young, homespun Lewis emerging on the world scene as a dazzling GP2 champion back in 2007, I remember him being more open and relaxed. Now £250million richer, he lives in a gilded cage, mixing with mortals no more than is strictly necessary.
This strange way of life is indicative of his place among sporting royalty, alongside such as Roger Federer and Cristiano Ronaldo, but is the cossetted routine really all that much fun?
We have seen Hamilton (below) develop a strong social conscience in recent years, championing veganism and green issues. Critics naturally wonder how easily these well-intentioned causes sit with his day job of racing gas-guzzling cars on five continents.
That kind of contradiction is typical Lewis: instinctively kind if sometimes a little naive.
This year has seen him wade much further into politics than ever before, as an advocate of the Black Lives Matter movement. Before the season, he put on a mask and marched through London and has since led his fellow drivers in ‘taking a knee’ before each race in a call for greater equality and diversity.
He has spoken out about the fate of a
Bahraini man facing execution over the death of a policeman in protests six years ago. ‘I won’t let this go unnoticed,’ he said. Well, he was perfectly positioned to make the argument while staying in one of the royal family’s palaces as he recovered from Covid.
At the start of the season he accused other drivers of being complicit in racism unless they spoke out as strongly against it as he did. The denunciation went down like a dose of bronchitis. He also called Bernie Ecclestone ‘ignorant and uneducated’ for controversial comments the former F1 boss made about racism. Whether his politics are your cup of tea or not, there is no denying that we are talking about the most successful practitioner in British sport today. He has won fairly and has shown what is possible if you work hard. Those are reasons enough why he, a self-made man, deserves the acclaim on SPOTY tonight.