DEREK BELL

The Legend

So Lewis Hamilton is a five-time Formula 1 World Champion. In 2018, Stevenage’s favourite son claimed 11 wins in one season. He has now won 73 Grands Prix from 229 starts and bagged over 100 other podium finishes to go with them. Not only that, he has started from pole position 83 times and accrued more points than any other driver in history – a total of 3018.

There is little about his career achievements that doesn’t invite hyperbole. He is a phenomenon, of that there can be no doubt. As a proud Brit, I will generally root for the ‘home team’. But I haven’t always felt inclined to do so where Lewis is concerned.

But that was then. What impressed me more than anything else during the 2018 season was Hamilton’s newfound maturity. I sometimes forget that he has been competing at the very highest level of motorsport since 2007, when he came close to winning the drivers’ title as a rookie.

Ever since he claimed his maiden title a year later, there have been ups and downs, peaks and troughs, and sometimes you couldn’t help but wonder if his head was in the game. He lacked consistency for all his wins, and sometimes he took to social media to air his grievances. The smarter thing to do would have been not to inflame the situation, to act in public as though he were taking everything in his stride, and not show weaknesses that cannier rivals could then exploit.

He is now doing precisely that. Yes, in recent years he has had the finest equipment at his disposal, but there have been few champions in the past who have not had the best kit. And plenty of drivers with the best kit have not become champions.

The point is that he is not only making the most of that advantage but is also excelling out of the car. Lewis Hamilton is a key motivating factor within the Mercedes F1 squad. Finally he has learned how to extract the best out of people, and it shows.

You have to feel for his team-mate Valtteri Bottas, though. I honestly believe he is a superb driver and a thoroughly decent chap, but the Finn has for the most part been beaten hollow these past two years. It’s telling that he has not uttered a word of complaint about his position, even when he has occasionally found himself in contention for honours and has had to yield to team orders. It must be very frustrating – he was in a position to win four times this year – but he just gets on with the job. The man has class.

So, where to from here? Lewis is 33 years old so has many more seasons left in him. Records matter to him, so I expect he will stick around long enough to try and eclipse Michael Schumacher’s seven titles and 91 wins.

I am not convinced that Mercedes’ dominance will continue long enough for him to do so, though. Teams’ time at the top is cyclical, and I expect Red Bull to be a threat for title honours in the near future, with Max Verstappen being an even greater thorn in Lewis’ side. At least he will be once the Dutch wonder-kid stops throwing his car off the track in the heat of battle. Ferrari was a major threat in the first half of 2018, only to fumble the second half. As a fan of the red cars I’d like to see a resurgent Scuderia, and it certainly has the clout to knock Mercedes off its perch. That said, lead driver Sebastian Vettel made a remarkable number of unforced errors during the season. So, who knows?

Fernando Alonso, a driver for whom I have expressed admiration in this column before, is now out of Formula 1. I expect he will savour every minute of his IndyCar and sports car programme in the near future; there is nothing like having competitive equipment at your disposal, even if it isn’t in F1. Ultimately, racing drivers want to win – in anything.

In Alonso’s place at McLaren for 2019 is Lando Norris, the British contender who the UK media is talking up as being the new Lewis. The difference, I’m afraid, is that Hamilton walked straight into a highly competitive McLaren team all those years ago and was instantly a contender. The McLaren team of recent years, by contrast, has been a shadow of its former self.

I rate Norris highly, having watched him adapt to sports cars so ably at Daytona last year, but being a works McLaren man is nowadays like being a factory Trabant driver in the German Touring Car Championship. Only the decline of fellow F1 grandee, Williams, has been more painful to watch. I hope Norris doesn’t get chewed up and spat out like so many promising youngsters in recent years. If he somehow works his way into a competitive seat in the near future, he will be the next British F1 World Champion. He really is that good.

‘A WORKS MCLAREN DRIVER IS NOW LIKE A FACTORY TRABANT DRIVER IN THE GERMAN TOURING CAR CHAMPIONSHIP’