Hamilton’s glitz and glamour would leave Clark cold
There is no denying the Mercedes man is rock star F1 needs, writes Tom Cary
Like him or loathe him, Formula One will miss him when he’s gone
Should Lewis Hamilton win the British Grand Prix at Silverstone tomorrow – and he has won the last three – it will be the Mercedes driver’s fifth win at his home grand prix, drawing him level not only with the great Alain Prost but with the one Briton many F1 fans still rank above him in the all-time list, Jim Clark.
I never met Clark, so it is difficult to say for sure, but it would be difficult to conceive of a sportsman less like Hamilton than the introverted, media-shy Scot who became a household name before his untimely death at 32, the same age Hamilton is now, in a Formula Two accident at the Hockenheimring in 1968.
The tattoos, the bling, the celebrity. These would surely have been anathema to Clark, who used to return to his Borders farm when the intensity of the racing season got to him, rather than fly a group of friends by private jet to Mykonos, as Hamilton did this week when he opted to skip the Formula One Live event in central London, orchestrated by F1’s new owners, Liberty Media.
The fuss over Hamilton’s decision to grab a few days in the sun – he was the only one of the 20 F1 drivers who did not show – was as deafening as it was predictable.
Hamilton continues to divide fans, particularly British fans, like almost no other British sportsman or woman. No one doubts the talent behind the wheel but some clearly think him a bit of a twerp, with his bulldogs and his bling.
Others defend him, pointing out the many good deeds he does for charity, the time he gives to fans. One thing we can all agree on, though, is that Formula One will miss him when he is gone. Mercedes boss Toto Wolff calls Hamilton the sport’s one true rock star and he is right. Fernando Alonso, Kimi Raikkonen, Sebastian Vettel. All fine drivers, all fine personalities, give or take a bit of Finnish grunting. But none has transcended the sport in the way that Hamilton has. None produces the same headlines, the same buzz.
There are certain sportsmen and women who are just walking stories.
Hamilton is one of them. Pure box office. The lifestyle and the accoutrements are not to everyone’s tastes, and his choices are often baffling. But – and I have met Hamilton many times – there is no malice there. He is a young, prodigiously talented sportsman who is now throwing off the shackles of his youth and trying to be himself, whether fans like it or not. A lot of people – some 4.57million Twitter followers at the most recent count – would suggest that they do.
Hamilton’s first Silverstone victory came in 2008, a year and a half into his prodigious career, when he produced one of the all-time great drives, lapping all but two cars in treacherous, wet conditions. There are not many drivers with the innate talent, the feel, to do that. Jim Clark was another.
It is difficult to believe that Hamilton is 32 already. Like him or loathe him, Formula One will miss him when he is gone.