Will Lewis Hamilton end up as one of Formula One's greatest drivers?

Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton. 29 years of age, a British Go kart, 2001 British Formula Renault, 2005 Formula 3 Euroseries, 2006 GP2 and a 2008 Formula 1 World Champion. He’s perceived differently by people around the globe. To many, he is this celebrated sports person who has over a million twitter followers and believe that he lives this grandiose lifestyle with rapper friends, big-fast Jets, sports cars and even bigger pool houses.

To some (whose information about the sport is restricted to browsing RSS feeds rather than following the sport) he’s this rash, rough and extremely menacing driver in F1 who’s all about speed, aggression with no respect for a sense of direction. But then you can’t blame them; they might be confusing Hamilton with Maldonado!

For the people of North America he’s the boyfriend of pop diva Nicole Scherzinger. And to the rest, he’s F1’s greatest talent of this generation, combined with his abilities to attain poles, the ability to overtake and push under extreme and varied conditions.

It wasn’t hard to have reached a conclusion looking at his talent and his achievements in the 90’s that he was meant for bigger things, no wonder Ron Dennis (Then Team Principal of Mclaren Racing) took him under his wing as a part of Young Driver Support Programme 13 years ago. He also launched him 7 years later in 2007 F1 Season as one of the Prime drivers alongside then Reigning World champion Fernando Alonso in the overhauls of Mclaren Mercedes. Hamilton lost the World Championship by just 1 point that year.

The Brit’s Journey so far has been wonderful as a driver, he’s had great fights with a lot of fine drivers, his relentless attitude to push and move forward has always enthralled his fans and produced wonderful moments in this sport. There have been ups and downs, but his achievements are still pretty Impressive. The table below portrays his career graph so far:

Championships	Race Starts	Wins	Poles	Podiums
1	137	26	35	60

Now, this article isn’t about glorifying Lewis Hamilton’s achievements, or to portray him in anyway as this “Legend in the making”. No. This article is more of an inquiry to understand what makes circumstances favour someone over the other in this wonderful Sport, this “favouring” is also colloquially referred to as Luck or Fortune. To further get to the point, lets add another column to the above table:

Championships	Race Starts	Wins	Poles	Podiums	Race Retirements
1	137	26	35	60	18

There you are, 18 race retirements, in 8 years of racing. 18 Races, that’s almost equal to an entire season. So it won’t be hard to say that Hamilton has almost lost 1 season out 7 completed seasons (8th Season is still in progress) in race retirements. The point of the question here is race retirements mean that the driver did not finish the race, due to many circumstances – be it a crash, engine breakdown/mechanical failure, pit-stop mishap or a disqualification for breaching the rules of the game. You might argue that race retirements are a part of any drivers career and that all big drivers have at some point or the other faced them.

Fernando Alonso for example has 30 of them, but you see, a Fernando or a Schumacher or a Hill did not start careers with established teams, they were great drivers who got breaks by smaller teams which had feeble equipment and were probably strapped down by cash of dearth of sponsors or were start-ups. They had to work hard to make their way up, you can expect that from a Jordan, Minardi or a Torro Rosso. You do not expect teams like Vodafone Mclaren Mercedes to make such mistakes that cost World Championships.

In 2012, Lewis Hamilton had 5 race retirements out 20 races, he was racing for Mclaren then. The most common factor of those DNF’s was Mclaren’s tardy pit-stops. Many might argue, but some still believe that Hamilton had a good shot at the title that season, and 4 out of those 5 race retirements that season he was leading the race. This was clearly a lapse on the Team’s part, and as they were unable to rectify them, this lead to fallout between the two and on September 2012 it was officially announced that Lewis Hamilton will move to Mercedes AMG Petronas.

There’s nothing more important in a sport than winning. Decades lasting relationships break, friends fallout and sportsmen change teams searching for it. F1 as a sport is the pinnacle of and the biggest achievement of Automotive Engineering. There was a time in the 1960’s when safety equipment were virtually non-existent, the only way to succeed was to push the car to its limit and be willing to take a leap of faith, a leap of risk – almost fatal at times.

There are very few drivers in this day and age who would do that. With pit-strategies, fuel modes, and throttle setting switches – the sport has been divided into an electronic heap of dirty mathematics, which is killing the racing instincts of drivers. Lewis Hamilton is one of those last few, who believe in old school racing, who believe the only way to win is to take a risk, the only way to the finish line is to take that leap of faith.

This year Lewis Hamilton possesses the best car on the grid, he has achieved 4 poles and 4 consecutive wins, despite that he trails behind his teammate by 29 points in the Drivers Championship. He has had two race retirements (mechanical failures) & four pit-stop mishaps. It’s the same story as above, and I do not intend to belittle Nico Rosberg as he’s an extremely fine racer, but the fact that two races where Hamilton retired, he was about to win.

Hamilton’s career started on an extremely high note, so much so that he had the best debut in all of F1’s history; at that point the 2007 loss of title did not feel like that big a blow. It was assumed that with his pace, talent and with such a great team he will conquer F1 with great panache. But that didn’t happen, and as much as we can point out the things that went wrong, it will not be fair to blame anyone.

None of this is intentional. It is fate, but it has definitely affected his legacy. It will be unfair to rule him out for title run, but if this ill-fate continues, I wonder where this will lead. The reason for him leaving Mclaren was inconsistency. Every good driver needs stability to move ahead, and now Mercedes has provided that. But if his title hopes vanish, how would he react?

F1’s heritage is filled with great drivers. Sir Stirling Moss is considered by many as one of the finest racers in all of racing. He never won a Championship. But will drivers like these stand the testament of time? Will the next generation remember them for their talent, rather than their achievements?

I believe history remembers achievements. They don't remember or recollect DNF's, crashes or disqualifications. Decades from now, you will only be remembered by your wins, your pole positions and Championships. One can argue then that maybe Nigel Mansell was a much more talented driver than Nelson Piquet. On paper Piquet will always remain 3 time world champion, Mansell on the other hand struggled and only managed one, despite having more wins as a driver.

People only recollect the numbers, never the reason for failures. Hence, the last column above has no meaning here, it’s the first column that matters the most, that ensures you’re not forgotten with time.