Not that I'm suggesting for one moment that I expect Lewis to be flying off the road all the time. Yet, by the same token, I'm not really expecting him to win a grand prix either. Going into your first season of F1 head-to-head against the best active driver of the current generation, on tracks you've never been too and in a car that needs to be significantly better than its immediate predecessor, is going to be a huge challenge for
F1's first black competitor. But, on the other hand, if you have the fundamentally ingrained talent, then the rough-and-tumble of a debut grand prix season is just part of the learning process, something to be got through and built on to demonstrate even better form second time around the following year.
McLaren have demonstrated admirable loyalty and consistency towards Hamilton since they first made contact when Lewis was a teenage kart racer. There will inevitably be huge interest in his ethnic background in the same way as there was with global sporting superstars such as Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods, but, for Lewis, the immediate challenge is more clearly and obviously defined. He wants to prove that he can race with the best of them at the sharp end of the F1 field.
It will take some time, obviously, before Hamilton can demonstrate whether he has the stamp of greatness on him, rather than simply being very good. Yet one only has to glance at his CV to date to realise that this personable young man is certainly off to a flying start.
