The Brick Wall Lewis Hamilton Will Hit

Since his arrival on the F1 scene, Lewis Hamilton has provoked two common reactions among F1 fans.

On the one hand, there are people who have welcomed him as a breath of fresh air in the sport. Young, confident, good-looking, instantly successful, and the first non-white F1 driver and champion.

If mentioning Lewis's mixed race makes me a racist, then OK, I'll wear that hat for you. Pass it over. I think it's important precisely because F1 is another area in which it has been demonstrated that results are what count, not colour.

Lewis is not a poor little rich kid like so many racing drivers; his dad had to work darned hard to get him started in karts, and he has seized every opportunity to demonstrate his talent on the road to the top.

Count me among those who admire Lewis for coming from humble origins to the summit of the world's most glamorous sport.

I think he is an example to every kid, his story shouts at them that they can make it to the golden streets of Monaco. Hard work and family support may not be fashionable government-endorsed virtues, but they are the sure stepping stones for anyone who wants to achieve their ambitions.

On the other hand, Lewis has produced lip-curling sneers from the sour, the bitter, and the success-haters. Am I talking to you?

Lewis, they say, has had it too easy. Success, whine the anti-Lewis brigade, has been handed to him on a plate by a benevolent McLaren team. But that is not true.

After he had approached Ron Dennis as a 10-year-old, Lewis was not given a free pass to an F1 seat. As he progressed through the lower formulas, he had to prove himself like any other driver. And when was his McLaren F1 seat confirmed? Only when he had won the GP2 series, which is the recognised final training ground for F1 drivers.

Should Lewis have turned the McLaren drive down, and insisted on driving for a few years at the back of the pack? Of course not, he was given an opportunity and he took it.

Not being totally starry-eyed about Lewis, I recognise that he has not proved himself capable of scoring in an inferior car, he hasn't had to. I also recognise he has shown a little recklessness at times, perhaps some immature judgements. Those factors cannot detract from what he has achieved.

The anti-Lewis squad would have have us believe that he could outscore his first F1 team-mate Fernando Alonso, whom I greatly respect, only because McLaren were against the Spanish driver they had lured with an enormous salary. I don't believe it, and the reverse may be true.

Alonso won in Monaco that year, with Hamilton not being allowed to race him, there was even an FIA investigation. Probably after Alonso had realised the danger from Lewis, and made his threats at the Hungarian grand prix, the team would have had a poor attitude to him. But surely nobody can believe that Alonso would have received any less support than Hamilton, he would simply not have accepted that.

We are asked to believe that Lewis became 2008 world champion because his team-mate was sabotaged, and that there was a shady deal involving Timo Glock at the Brazilian grand prix. That theory ignores the fact that there were other able drivers seeking the title. Kubica, Massa, Raikkonen, those are formidable guys, and Hamilton beat them all.

Whatever Lewis achieves in 2009 and later years, he will run into that brick wall of bias erected by those who simply refuse to recognise his ability. Why they do not simply rejoice that he is in F1 I do not know. After all, I and many others took an instinctive dislike to Michael Schumacher, but we always recognised his ability and his achievements.

Lewis, I know, can rise above it all, and soar wherever his talent takes him. Go Lewis, go, and stick it up 'em. Through that wall of irrational animosity lies your destiny.