Is Lewis Hamilton accident prone? First he crashed into the back of his
erstwhile teammate Fernando Alonso at the Bahrain Grand Prix in April, then
last month he misjudged the pit-lane traffic lights at the Canadian Grand
Prix and ploughed into the back of Kimi Raikkonen, earning himself a
10-place penalty for the next race in France.
Then, eight days ago, in the latest catalogue of slip-ups, he was onboard a
60ft racing yacht that smashed into another boat, dislodging the mast. “Oh,
nooo . . . Christ, shit!” he said at the time. Hamilton will be hoping that
his calamitous run will end at Silverstone this weekend, as he lines up on
the grid of what he says is his most important race of the season. He is
currently lying fourth in the drivers’ championship after his less than
auspicious start to the current campaign. He has found himself in the
unusual position of reading negative headlines.
“People who are aware of what’s been said over the past couple of months, of
whatever has been said in the papers . . . I just hope that they aren’t
throwing vegetables at me because of what’s happened in the last few races,”
he said recently. He has toughened himself up both mentally and physically
in preparation for today’s big race. More important, he says, is the boost
he will get from spectators.
“There’s something about racing in your home country that definitely affects
you,” he told The Sunday Times. “You can’t really say what it is, but
there’s something about the familiarity of your surroundings and the
constant support of the crowd that gives you a boost throughout the whole
weekend. It’s not something you experience anywhere else, but it does make
you that bit more determined to succeed.
“Last year at Silverstone, I found the support was just immense and definitely
made the weekend a lot easier to get through.” If the combination of advance
preparation and moral support does the trick, it will mean more to him than
winning at any other circuit.
“Winning your home race is something that every driver wants to achieve.
People talk of winning the ‘big four’ – Silverstone, Monaco, Monza and Spa –
but it’s more straightforward for me. I want to win the first race of the
season, I want to win Monte Carlo – which I did for the first time this year
– and I want to win my home grand prix. Those are my goals and I’m ready for
the challenge at Silverstone.”
A win would help turn the tide of misfortune and dispel some of the less
favourable news coverage. His high-profile move from his home in Stevenage
in Hertfordshire to Switzerland – ostensibly because of press intrusion –
smacked to many of leaving the country in which he learnt his trade, while
becoming a tax exile before his 23rd birthday. It seemed unnecessarily
mercenary.
At the same time, his willingness to indulge in bizarre publicity stunts on
behalf of his sponsors has also backfired. Last week’s collision while on
board the Hugo Boss yacht, which sponsors his McLaren team, ended with a
£20,000 repair bill to the boat.
Should anything have happened to Hamilton, it could have proved much more
costly.
And who could forget the sight of Hamilton dangling from steel cables and
flapping his arms and legs prior to the Turkish Grand Prix? That stunt, on
behalf of Vodafone, which sponsors him and McLaren, was blasted as “tacky
and unprofessional” by the media. Even Max Clifford, the hard-nosed
publicist, reckoned the driver came across “like a performing puppet”.
Against this backdrop, the spygate scandal of last season and his
well-documented rivalry with then teammate Fernando Alonso, who now drives
for Renault, seems like a distant memory.
“I still speak to Fernando,” he says, “but obviously I know he is thinking the
whole time that he wants to beat me, and I am thinking the same thing.”
Despite it all, Hamilton says he is a stronger driver than he was last season
and will prove the doubters wrong this weekend. “It’s one of the best
circuits on the calendar – a real driver’s circuit, and it’s super-fast,” he
says. “I’m ready.”
The way he tells it, supporters will be hard-pressed to catch sight of him as
he powers around it: “The first half of the circuit doesn’t require any
braking at all, just little lifts and shifts down through the gears,” he
says.
“In fact, you need to watch the brake temperatures don’t drop too low because
you’re not using them for much of the lap.”
Let’s just hope that he manages to find the brakes, should he need them to
avoid another Raikkonen-style encounter.
