Lewis Hamilton: the Rise and Fall of a Phenom in Formula One

Lewis Hamilton's short career in Formula One has been second to none.

Nobody in this sport has ever kicked such a successful maiden season, finishing second in the drivers’ championships with nine straight podiums and four victories to show for it.

Hamilton's caliber ranks him with some of the best drivers the sport has ever seen.

However, despite winning the season opener in Australia, his form has been subpar for the past couple of GPs.  He earned P5 in Malaysia, survived a disastrous P13 in Bahrain, and got back to his podium habit somewhat with third in Spain. 

The total came to 20 points in the drivers’ championship, nine points adrift of Kimi Raikkonen.

Things do not look so bad.  In essence, nine points behind with 14 GPs to go is not worth losing sleep over. 

However, if you compare these stats to last year's and factor in that Kimi Raikkonen and Ferrari are a lot stronger this year, Lewis’ chances of a stint as world champion will hang by a thread.

As if the iceman was not enough for Lewis Hamilton to worry about, how is he going to cope with much tougher competition from Heikki Kovalainen. Kovalainen has already outpaced him and will not settle for No. 2 driver status.

On top of this, how will McLaren executives respond to BMW Saber picking up the pace?

Last year, nobody would have given Lewis a chance in heck to have delivered and performed to the highest standards.  Now we're in reverse motion.

Everyone expects Lewis to lead and bankroll on the title early.  Yet, Mr. Hamilton is trailing the iceman in the drivers’ standing. 

If fans’ expectations were not enough to take account of his No. 1 driver status at McLaren, they mount a quickly building pressure on those young and inexperienced shoulders. 

To that extent, we all know how Lewis responds in such a highly pressurized setting.  See last year's result in Interlagos as evidence.

And if pressure is too much, then how about living up to his words? One key mistake Lewis is making is to believe this year should be his.

He has said this many times, referring to his karting experience and demonstrating he'd always have a good year and a bad one.  This classifies last year's second place in the drivers’ championship as a bad year. 

Hopefully this year, as a good one, is a strategic fallacy. In a competitive sport like F1, finishing second is a very good result no matter what you make of it.

In the end, Lewis is a fantastic character.  He is motivated, driven, tenacious, and a genius at the wheels. 

However, his momentum is waning in the face of a much more competitive environment.  Yet if he picks his moment and focuses on the task at hand, we should have a new world champion this year.

If not, then it's all safe for the iceman to bank on a double...