Forgetting Lewis Hamilton

Call it diffusergate, call it the triumph of the underdogs. Be brutally honest, and call it McLaren making a total hash of their F1 design for 2009.

Whatever, the fact is that F1's perfect storm has left the 2008 champion stuck on a reef, and facing a difficult recovery to happy waters.

Ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys, I want to put a proposition to you.

Let's forget about Lewis Hamilton for a year.

Let's not bother to love him or loathe him this year. If we think of him at all, let it be as just another driver. We never really did care who came eighth or 11th, now did we?

The advantage would be that nobody would feel obliged to compare him with other F1 drivers of the past or present, to denigrate or defend him, to sing his praises or sully his name.

Frankly, my dears, the whole Hamilton is great V Hamilton is crap debate has become a sterile and tedious distraction.

This year maybe we can see Rosberg/Button/Kubica/Glock/Another as regulars on the podium, and that can only do us and F1 good. Everybody likes a new pair of shoes, some new computer kit, just about anything that's new and fresh.

I think we could enjoy some new hero's.

While we get into a debate about the merits of the sport's new leading men, Lewis will not be suffering. Be assured that wealth will still flow his way. And if his pride is punctured that will be good for his soul, develop his character.

Next year, or the year after, or who knows when, McLaren will again be competitive, and a former champion may rise again.

By then we may be ready to admit that we're bored with that Polish or German guy winning every year, and be ready for a triumphant return.

So who's that guy on pole?, we may ask. Lewis Hamilton? I remember the name, but I can't recall his face.