Hamilton, the clever opportunist

[Ian McC]

Part of Lewis' strength comes from the fact that he's used to racing, wheel to wheel, rather than tooling round in test sessions. That experience counts for a lot, as demonstrated by his consistantly great starts.

Always been my point, never like the idea of shoving good drivers into testing for a couple of years as it's the 'best route into F1', load of cobblers more like it. I wouldn't go as far to say "Those who can, race. Those who can't, test" but people seem to lose their edge. For example I think will will see more from the Ant as the season progresses.

[wedge]

Wheel to wheel racing on the limit is natural to him.

Derek Warwick famously said that the majority of drivers have to drive at 97% of their ability to drive on the limit. The special ones can cruise at 90% of their ability and they're still close to the limit and yet have the extra mental capacity to deal tactics and strategy.

Lewis is gifted.

If you've got 'it' then you don't lose it.

Lauda took a sabbatical and still became WDC.

I firmly believe if Lewis took a break from racing he would not lose some of that magic.

On hindsight Lewis could easily make the transition from F3 to F1. Ron wanted to confirm his suspicions that Lewis wasn't another Jan Magnusson.

[raphael123]

I think we should wait a bit longer before talking about him in this way. At the moment, you guys are making out that he is going to become the best in the world, become one of the greats in F1! From here on, he can only fail to meet our expectations. Even if he only wins one title before the end of his career, it will be deemed a failure, as some of you guys are comparing him to the likes of Senna and Schumacher etc.

Some 'mind-readers' on this forum may think because I'm not licking his a*se and claiming him to be the next F1 god, must mean I don't like the guy. That's not true. From what we've seen so far, he will undoubtedly hav the talent to go on and win title/s and many many race victories. However I do feel we shouldn't get too carried away after just 4 races. Yes...4 races!!

But you have to admit, I don't think we've ever seen such an impact from a rookie driver! Not even Schumacher, or Alesi! I hope he does go on to become a great!

Regarding the testing, I think your forgetting Massa and Alonso, two recent drivers who took a year out testing, and came back VERY strongly! However, the likes of Wurz and De La Rosa have been testing for too long. Panis is also another good example.

[ClarkFan]

I do recall one rookie who showed form very close to what Hamilton is showing now. John Young Stewart in 1965. He had a pretty OK career, too. Stewart didn't ever lead the championship that year, but Alonso and Kimi still aren't up to Jim Clark at the peak of his driving powers.

ClarkFan