N
Nicky Hayden 2006 Champion
Guest
Watch this boy go ....
Hamilton will make his F1 debut in Australia next March
Lewis at last.
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On the face of it, you might be forgiven for thinking that McLaren's decision to promote Lewis Hamilton into an F1 race seat alongside Fernando Alonso for 2007 was a pretty bold gamble.
In the team's 40-year F1 history, they've only so far signed a driver with no previous F1 experience on five occasions. They were Jody Scheckter back in 1972, Bruno Giacomelli in 1977, Alain Prost and Stephen South in 1980 and Michael Andretti in 1993 - and two of those five were pretty damn handy, I think you'll agree, going on to win world championships. A third was just out of his depth thanks to a combination of unfortunate circumstances. I'll leave you to work out which was which...
I don't think we need worry about Lewis's future. Over the past two years, he has dominated both the F3 Euroseries and GP2 championship with a poise and unruffled assurance which marks him out as an obvious an intuitive talent. And, for all McLaren's idiosyncrasies, I reckon he's in absolutely the best available environment to learn the ropes.
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The Woking brigade are a bedrock F1 team, just like Williams, so if Lewis throws it into the wall occasionally - like Nico Rosberg did for Frank in 2006 - they will just shrug it aside as all part of the learning experience. Hell, Jody Scheckter wiped out pretty much half the field on the opening lap of the '73 British GP at Silverstone and it didn't do one iota of damage to his reputation.
Not that I'm suggesting for one moment that I expect Lewis to be flying off the road all the time. Yet, by the same token, I'm not really expecting him to win a grand prix either. Going into your first season of F1 head-to-head against the best active driver of the current generation, on tracks you've never been too and in a car that needs to be significantly better than its immediate predecessor, is going to be a huge challenge for F1's first black competitor. But, on the other hand, if you have the fundamentally ingrained talent, then the rough-and-tumble of a debut grand prix season is just part of the learning process, something to be got through and built on to demonstrate even better form second time around the following year.
McLaren have demonstrated admirable loyalty and consistency towards Hamilton since they first made contact when Lewis was a teenage kart racer. There will inevitably be huge interest in his ethnic background in the same way as there was with global sporting superstars such as Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods, but, for Lewis, the immediate challenge is more clearly and obviously defined. He wants to prove that he can race with the best of them at the sharp end of the F1 field.
Lewis at last.
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</TD></TR><TR><TD height=9></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE>On the face of it, you might be forgiven for thinking that McLaren's decision to promote Lewis Hamilton into an F1 race seat alongside Fernando Alonso for 2007 was a pretty bold gamble.
In the team's 40-year F1 history, they've only so far signed a driver with no previous F1 experience on five occasions. They were Jody Scheckter back in 1972, Bruno Giacomelli in 1977, Alain Prost and Stephen South in 1980 and Michael Andretti in 1993 - and two of those five were pretty damn handy, I think you'll agree, going on to win world championships. A third was just out of his depth thanks to a combination of unfortunate circumstances. I'll leave you to work out which was which...
I don't think we need worry about Lewis's future. Over the past two years, he has dominated both the F3 Euroseries and GP2 championship with a poise and unruffled assurance which marks him out as an obvious an intuitive talent. And, for all McLaren's idiosyncrasies, I reckon he's in absolutely the best available environment to learn the ropes.
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The Woking brigade are a bedrock F1 team, just like Williams, so if Lewis throws it into the wall occasionally - like Nico Rosberg did for Frank in 2006 - they will just shrug it aside as all part of the learning experience. Hell, Jody Scheckter wiped out pretty much half the field on the opening lap of the '73 British GP at Silverstone and it didn't do one iota of damage to his reputation.
Not that I'm suggesting for one moment that I expect Lewis to be flying off the road all the time. Yet, by the same token, I'm not really expecting him to win a grand prix either. Going into your first season of F1 head-to-head against the best active driver of the current generation, on tracks you've never been too and in a car that needs to be significantly better than its immediate predecessor, is going to be a huge challenge for F1's first black competitor. But, on the other hand, if you have the fundamentally ingrained talent, then the rough-and-tumble of a debut grand prix season is just part of the learning process, something to be got through and built on to demonstrate even better form second time around the following year.
McLaren have demonstrated admirable loyalty and consistency towards Hamilton since they first made contact when Lewis was a teenage kart racer. There will inevitably be huge interest in his ethnic background in the same way as there was with global sporting superstars such as Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods, but, for Lewis, the immediate challenge is more clearly and obviously defined. He wants to prove that he can race with the best of them at the sharp end of the F1 field.
uke: 
