Can Britain learn to love Lewis Hamilton? Posted on November 23rd
By Ben Smith
No one can dispute that Lewis Hamilton is a unique talent, a man who is clearly on his way to sporting superstardom. He proved that when he burst onto the scene last season and he showed it again in Brazil last night.
Yet for all his talent, his all-action daring style in the cockpit and that flashing smile, Britain still seems to be in two minds about the man.
There are signs that the adoration of a once spellbound public has waned since he hit the headlines as the kid-made-good from a council house in Stevenage. This morning that image has been replaced by a multi-millionaire Formula One world champion who chooses to live as a tax exile in Switzerland, goes to showbiz parties and dates a Pussycat Doll.
Hamilton’s detractors don’t see a young driver blessed with prodigious self-belief tempered by a down-to-earth modesty. Instead, they see Hamilton as arrogant, a man who struts around with a sense of entitlement about his place in the sport that is unattractive and unjustified even by his already impressive achievements.
Hamilton is who he is because he is single-minded and utterly dedicated to winning. Some say he is too good to be true, too cool, too smooth and, perhaps, too remote. For all his success some believe that Hamilton has become Formula One’s Marmite: you either love him or you hate him.
Will Britain ever learn to love Lewis Hamilton? Over to you.