Grenadian-British genes on track

Lewis Hamilton, 31 and half Grenadian, is the embodiment of that success as the world’s top ranking racing driver and only the third to win over 50 races, after Michael Schumacher and Nicolas Prost.

Car racing is a special sport.

Some question the point of going around a track over and over, but the skill of driving at 300 kph and getting the optimum performance out of a sophisticated, finely tuned machine, pitting yourself against tremendous odds is thrilling, even without the satisfaction of out-driving your opponents.

Very few people possess the combination of driving technique, mental agility, intelligence, braveness, physical strength and fitness necessary. Success requires great individualism on the track and a highly united team behind to produce a car consistently in top form that can edge ahead of opponents by fractions of a second. A driver can be the fastest but his pit crew’s skill in three-second tyre changing and repairs can win or lose him the championship, making it a great team sport.

From the moment I could sit on my father’s lap and steer his threegear classic I wanted to drive, preferably at speed. It is not quite as exciting as the experience of feeling air rush past you while on a motorbike, but I could always succumb to the thrill of leaving things standing.

A 1970s drive in a Jaguar XK 150, a later version of the model that won the Le Mans 24-hour race in the 1950s, turned me on to the sport, but car racing was not a possibility for a girl then, alas, and still is not one in Formula One, except as a beautiful, blonde hanger-on.

Forty years ago the world of Formula One was different in one significant way. There was nobody of colour on the engineering teams, behind the wheel, in the pits, and hardly in the crowd. And certainly, if you did not have a lot of money behind you, you could not indulge your love of the sport, man or woman.

Then in the 1990s the 12-year old Lewis Hamilton came onto the scene, becoming the youngest driver to sign onto the McLaren’s driver development programme and eventually secure a Formula One drive. The story of his rise to the very top is impressive. His black, immigrant father, a car-racing enthusiast, had infused his son with his own passion and nursed Lewis’s talent from a tender age, buying him a go-cart for his sixth birthday and working in several jobs to feed his well-brought-up son’s growing skill. Hamilton Snr charted a delicate course in a rarified world as Lewis’s manager.

Lewis went on to win the world championship in 2008, driving a McLaren Mercedes, the first British driver to win Formula One in 12 years, the youngest, and the first black man. He won again in 2014 and 2015. He has endured criticism but slowly the handsome, multi-millionaire is becoming his own man, on and off the circuit.

Lewis made news this week, winning the season’s final Abu Dhabi race for the Mercedes AMG Petronas team. He, controversially, defied team leader instructions not to drive tactically to enable opponents to overtake teammate Nico Rosberg, in second place. The tactic failed and Rosberg narrowly won the 2016 championship on points. Some put Rosberg’s sudden resignation from the sport down to him knowing he won only because Lewis’s car suffered problems all season and that he could never beat Lewis again.

W h e n all is right Lewis is unbeatable for speed and skill. He is a star. Long may he shine.

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