Lewis Hamilton Wins Indianapolis Grand Prix

Originally Posted on Foxsports.com on June 17, 2007.

Lewis Hamilton backed up his pole run with a win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. His main competition was his teammate, Fernando Alonso. Alonso, a two time Formula One Champion, actually had a noticable bauble on the track that probably cost him the race.

Hamilton, a Formula One rookie, has already had a storybook Formula One career. He has never started a race farther back in the pack than sixth. He has never finished off the podium, and now, he has won twice, with the races running back to back weekends.

The win puts him 10 points ahead of Alonso in the Championship standings. A win is equal to ten points, thus Alonso needs to win a race, and to have Hamilton not finish in the points to tie.

The win adds to the tension on the team, as Alonso was McLaren's #1 driver, with Hamilton the team's #2. In Formula One, while all drivers are going for the win, the #1 driver is the presumed leader of the team and the driver the team thinks has the best chance of winning (and winning the Championship). Hamilton has rapidly turned that logic on its head.

In a USAToday article after last week's win, the reporter prodded Hamilton about a Nascar career. Hamilton didn't rule it out but pointed out that he had many goals to achieve in F-1 first. If Montoya brings Nascar the hispanic community, what would happen if another F-1 driver (possibly a Champion) hopped over to drive stock cars?

Personally, I don't think Hamilton will do it. He's British and has grown up with the ideal of a Formula One Championship as the penultimate goal. At retirement, even if that happens tomorrow, he'll probably go the way of Sir Jackie Stewart - to the broadcasting booth or Michael Schumacher - as an adviser/talent scout for his team.

F-1 Rookie Phenom Motors to Montreal Win

Originally Posted on foxsports on June 10, 2007.

Lewis Hamilton won the Formula One race at Montreal today. Why is this news?

First, Hamilton is off to a fantastic F-1 career - he's finished on the podium in his first six F-1 starts. Second, he is the"second" car in the McLaren stable, behind Fernando Alonso, the two time reigning Formula One champion. "Second" car drivers aren't supposed to lead the points, they are to support the primary driver in the stable.

Hamilton apparently didn't get that memo, as he has run better than Alonso at several races, finishing no worse than third thus far into the season. Hamilton also became the first black (he's British so he can't be African-American, right?) to win in F-1.

News reporters have been calling Hamilton the Tiger Woods of autoracing. I'm not sure this moniker fits, as F-1 is a much bigger deal in Non-American markets than it has ever been in American markets. While Woods is limited to playing a few events overseas, Hamilton yearly races in Bahrain, Australia, Brazil, Canada, and China. My guess is if you ask the average man/woman in the street in Beijing, Madrid, London, Rio, Johannesburg, Dubai, and Sydney who Lewis Hamilton is, they may have an idea, they probably won't know Tiger Woods. In other words, Tiger Woods is the Lewis Hamilton of golf.

If his first six races are any indication of Hamilton's talent, then Schmacher's records may not be as secure as everyone thought.