British Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton returns home to a nation that is often indifferent to his talents
At times, the Mercedes driver seems like a prophet yet to be honoured by his people
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From the moment he arrives at Silverstone, Lewis Hamilton will have but a solitary goal: to deliver a fourth consecutive British Grand Prix victory to his team, to his fans, and to himself.
With Sebastian Vettel 20 points ahead in the world championship fight, after his own recent travails in Baku and Austria, the 32 year-old Englishman knows how crucial it is to turn things around on his home turf. If he were to beat Vettel, that would be seven points wiped off the slate. If he were to lead Austrian GP-winning team-mate Valtteri Bottas home with Vettel only third, the gap would be down to 10.
Another victory here would also bring him level with Jim Clark’s tally of five, but where the legendary Scot remains part of the revered fabric of British motorsport, Hamilton excites differing views. In general British fans seem to love him if all the number 44 logos and Mercedes or Hammertime T-shirts are anything to judge by, yet in his own land rather than on his own race track, there are times when he seems like a prophet yet to be honoured by his people.
“I never feel in any part of my day that I deserve anything,” he says carefully, and in that quiet way he has when expounding things he has spent time thinking deeply about. And make no mistake of it, Hamilton is a deep thinker. As he demonstrated only recently when falsely accused of a brake test in Baku by the disgruntled Sebastian Vettel, how the world view him is important to him. But not to the point of creating expectations.
“I feel that I have been very fortunate to have had a family who have worked hard and handed great opportunities to me, and I’ve utilised the majority of them. I don’t think I’ve done any wrongdoings to anyone in my life, but I don’t feel like I’m deserving of anything. Does my love for the UK feel that it is reflected in equal amounts? I don’t know. I think the love that I get when I go to the British Grand Prix is immense and when I’ve had Sports Personality of the Year in the past people have called in, so I’ve obviously had a lot of support in the UK.
“Do people know how much I love the UK? Maybe not enough. But when I’m on the podium and I show I carry the flag, hopefully people will start to see my patriotism. It’s something I’m very proud of and maybe that’s just going to take time.”
He has been racing in Formula 1 since 2007, and in that time has won three world championships, equalling Britain’s much-loved Sir Jackie Stewart. He has started from pole position on 66 occasions, set the fastest race lap 36 times, and won 56 times. Only Michael Schumacher has won more. So it’s not as if he has just arrived. So why does he think it might be taking time to penetrate the British psyche?
“I don’t know. I think it’s probably a reflection of a long time a lot of shit that’s gone on, maybe. Who knows? Misinterpreted things that have been written? The way I live my life, maybe? Maybe where I live. Who knows? I don’t really think about it too much.”
Maybe the British tendency to back the underdog and a reluctance to celebrate success?
He shrugs. “I don’t know the answer to that one. I don’t know.”
Do people know how much I love the UK? Maybe not enough.
Tennis star Andy Murray received a knighthood, as have several Olympians, who some might feel have achieved less sustained success than Hamilton over the past decade. Would he accept a knighthood, were one to be offered as it was to the likes of racing figures Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss, Stewart, Frank Williams and Patrick Head?
He laughs. “Any opportunity to see the Queen, I would take it! Of course! It’s hard to even imagine that that would ever be the case, of course. But it’s a very special thing to have even met the Queen, so I am grateful of that.”
Memorably, he crowd-surfed here in victory last year, but he says that was something spontaneous, rather than a means of grabbing headlines or just demoralising rivals.
“I don’t feel like it sends a blow to them. For us racing drivers generally it’s just another race, but when all these other drivers come to the British Grand Prix apart from Jolyon [fellow Brit, Palmer], they expect it to be our weekend. If anything, they want to go there and beat you on your own turf. So of course you turn up there and you absorb a little bit more strength and power from the energy of that crowd, and really give it everything you’ve got because you want to deliver for them.”
He starts a sentence and then breaks off with a laugh.
“And the roar when you cross the line, you can almost be sure that the guy behind – hopefully that’s Vettel… or hopefully that’s not Vettel, hopefully that’s someone else! – they’ll hear that roar and that strength... “
Oddly, he says he doesn’t remember much about his first British GP, back in 2007. Fresh from his maiden brace of victories in Canada and the US and third in France, he took pole position, led, lost the lead to Kimi Raikkonen’s Ferrari in the first round of pit stops, and finished third behind the Finn and Fernando Alonso’s sister McLaren.
“I don’t really remember the race,” he admits. “It wasn’t really a great one. But yeah, it was a great week. I remember a lot of different occasions there – I remember the pole position I got and the reception that I got. I wish I could have converted it. Then otherwise I just remember 2008 [when he dominated brilliantly in the rain for his first win here], the growth over the years.
“I just wish that when I go to those grands prix there was more time to see more of the fans. You see them at such a distance, it sucks, and it’s not so easy and there’s not much time to interact with them. So the crowd-surfing thing was the greatest thing for me because it was the first time that I really got to engage with the fans in a different way. Let’s hope I can come up with some other way this year!”
Had he not experienced a gearbox problem prior to the Austrian GP, which brought about a five grid-place drop, he might have been on target this weekend to equal Michael Schumacher’s record of 68 pole positions. As it is, he may well record number 67. But he says such things matter less to him than to the fans and statisticians.
“I don’t think about that at all,” he confesses. “I have so many other things that I’m focussing on that take up all my time, to be honest. It’s a constant challenge and a constant battle, so I don’t have time to think about the racing side of things. It’s very crazy to think where we are and where we’ve come from, and, I don’t know, it’s very surreal to think that I have the same amount of pole positions and championships as Ayrton. It’s just weird. It’s weird when you are in the moment living in it, whereas we all look down the line and say ‘it would be cool if that something was to happen up ahead, something magical’. But when you get there and it’s actually happened, then it doesn’t feel real.
“I didn’t even realise when I went to Montreal that if I got the pole I’d equal Ayrton. I’d just forgotten about it and it wasn’t the thing that was driving me to get the pole. It was just cool when you come to the realisation that you do match it.
“I know that I will at some stage get to 68 because I’m not going to stop driving the way I drive. If I don’t, then obviously something drastic has happened in my life, but I’m not fazed either way. If it doesn’t, it doesn’t. And if I do, then great. When I think of Michael, he did 68 poles but 91 wins. He won a lot of bloody races without starting on pole! My ratio is a little bit different. but I want to keep qualifying on pole, so I don’t know how that is going to balance out. It will be very strange if I ever get to the levels Michael got to, because in terms of results he was the greatest of all time.”
It’s curious that both Hamilton and his arch-rival Vettel each share the characteristic that many react to them like Marmite, either loving or hating them. Both seem to divide opinion, while acting in very different ways on and off the track. But Hamilton’s last comment leaves no doubt of the streak of patriotic fervour that runs through him.
“To be up there would be great and I’m proud I can be a part of putting a Brit up there, because for ages it’s been a Brazilian and a German. So I hope that at the end of my time Brits can say there is a British driver up there when they see the results and look at the flags next to them.”
On Sunday afternoon he will be intent on taking yet another step towards that goal.
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