Is Lewis set to dominate?

Posted by LS.

Is Lewis set to dominate?
Date: November 14, 2008 12:57AM
Posted by: LS.

Registered: 20 years ago

Lewis Hamilton underlined the prodigious talent that was evident from day one by sealing his place in the record books as Formula 1’s youngest champion in Brazil earlier this month.

Is he now poised to dominate the sport so that he comes to define it, in the manner of a Clark, Senna or Schumacher? Or does he face too much competition from too many plausible rivals for that to be a likely prospect?

We asked you this question in a recent Talkback; now it’s over to itv.com/f1’s expert analyst Mark Hughes…

Is this the dawn of the Lewis Hamilton era? That’s what’s being asked in the wake of him becoming the youngest ever world title winner.

Is he about to dominate the sport for years to come, to make Formula 1 his own in the way Michael Schumacher did previously and Ayrton Senna before that?

It’s easy to see why the question is being asked: his talent is outrageously high, he’s already produced performances that will come to be part of the legendary fabric of the sport – and he has a close, long-term relationship with arguably the best, most powerful team on the grid.

Let’s be clear: it’s more than possible. He’s gifted enough to do it in the right circumstances. But those circumstances are not in his control.

It will depend on where any number of potential challengers to his status find themselves in the future, how competitive the cars into which they get their backsides turn out to be, and how influential they themselves are in shaping their environments.

If there is going to be one dominant figure in the years ahead, Hamilton has got himself into pole position to be that man.

It’s about so much more than just the way a driver presses the pedals and turns the wheel though.

At the most obvious level it’s about how fast his car is – what its aero numbers, brakes, suspension and engine are like.

Beyond that, it’s about how his approach and personality influences those things.

Historically there are rarely more than two teams during a season capable of fielding a potentially title-winning car – and if you’re not in one of them, no matter how great a driver you are, you aren’t going to win a championship.

In a typical season, therefore, there are four seats from which a title challenge could feasibly be launched.

Are there four drivers of the necessary calibre to prevent Hamilton domination should they get themselves in those seats? Yes, probably.

Fernando Alonso and/or Robert Kubica could spoil his party pretty much immediately and are good enough to go bat-to-bat with him, Alonso having already proved as much last year.

In his rookie year Hamilton was quicker than Alonso more times than vice-versa, but the margins were tiny and the question remains which of them was at the bigger disadvantage: Hamilton through being a rookie or Alonso through his relationship with the team and F1’s move to low-grip control tyres?

It’s an unfathomable that even they cannot know. What is clear is that Alonso in a potential title-winning car is a potential world champion, whether Hamilton is there or not.

Kubica’s performances this year in an inferior car and at the end of 2006 suggest he’s of a similar calibre, and certainly both Hamilton and Alonso regard him as a potential champion.

Pre-season Alonso even went so far as to express the view he believed Kubica to be the best of them all; that may have been a bit of typical Fernando mischief to diss Lewis. Maybe not.

They are the obvious two challengers to Hamilton’s future status, but is either of them in the right place?

Could they get to the right place? Recent history suggests they need to get into a Ferrari. It’s unlikely they’ll both do so.

Then again, could BMW or even Renault turn out to be smart places to be?

Beyond Alonso and Kubica, there are other possibilities. Felipe Massa, after all, pushed Hamilton all the way this year; what’s to say he couldn’t go one better in future?

Or that his team-mate Kimi Raikkonen won’t regain his spark as the characteristics of the cars move back towards his driving style?

What does the future hold for Sebastian Vettel? Or Jenson Button? Or Mark Webber?

Maybe those guys have what it takes if given the opportunity, maybe not. But it’s another unfathomable.

Time is against the likes of Raikkonen, Button or Webber being Hamilton’s long-term threats even if they were in title-capable machines; the youngest of them is giving away five years to him.

But not Vettel. It’s very easy to picture a scenario where he ends up in one of the best cars not too far distant from now. Once there, would he be good enough? Quite possibly.

But even once in the fast car, there’s more to it than being a fast driver. He needs to dovetail his natural driving style with the characteristics of the car.

It can just happen this way by chance but it’s such a fast-moving sport it won’t stay that way, and when the requirements move the driver needs to be able to adapt and, critically, he needs to be the sort of personality that the team will not only accommodate but go out of their way to please.

He needs to be smart enough to understand what his needs are, to know his own weaknesses and work on them, to be as savvy and ruthless as necessary and to be able to build good relationships with those who are important to his performance.

Hamilton is in the early stages of working all this out but will have achieved much of it already; certainly he has fully on-side arguably the best F1 team of all. And that is an achievement none of his would-be rivals have yet managed.

He’s doing his bit. The rest is down to the others.

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