First Black F1 driver starts the new season in Australia, this weekend
Good interview, useful article - including the
pre-season gossip and guessing.
Hamilton after winning the 2006 GP2 Series
Long article and insight from a writer who’s speed friendly. There will be lots of hype from media types who’ve never been around fast iron [and carbon fibre] and they’re likely to screw up a measure of what they write.
Lewis Hamilton is starting his rookie season in Formula One racing.
He expects to do well. Not to win the championship, but to do well, to impress, to lay the foundations of a glittering career. But I suspect he doesn’t yet realise the size of the enormous expectations that now trail along behind him. Because this bright young man is something else. He is the first black driver ever to compete in Formula One, a position that makes him impossible to ignore. Those without the slightest interest in the normal machinations of grand-prix racing have heard of Hamilton, and are intrigued by him, and by the question of why it’s taken all this time for a black driver to establish himself.
“I don’t really think about that until someone mentions the subject,” says Hamilton, and you can hardly blame him. The colour of his skin may interest many, but it’s hardly breaking news to him. Yet surely he can understand the interest created by his imminent, mould-breaking arrival? “Oh yes, and it can be a positive thing, certainly if it has a positive influence on the sport. A lot of youngsters from all sorts of cultures will be able to look up to me and see that it is possible. And hopefully that’ll encourage them to try to get into the sport.
“In tennis you’ve had the Williams sisters, in golf, you’ve had Tiger, and they’ve brought their sports out to an enormously wide range of people. Now I think it is time for Formula One to open up to new cultures.”
Good interview, useful article - including the pre-season gossip and guessing. I’ll be watching practice for the Oz GP, tonight. Looking forward to the weekend and the start of a new season.
Posted: Thu - March 15, 2007 at 08:26 AM