Hamilton heads for GOAT

Five v Four

You’d have been a brave F1 fan to have bet against Lewis Hamilton winning the Formula One World Championship last Sunday in Mexico.

He’d almost managed it the previous weekend, and arrived in Mexico in the comfortable position of only needing to finish seventh to bag the trophy, even if his rival, Sebastian Vettel, won the race.

As it turned out, it was a challenging race for the British star for a rare change, and Vettel came reasonably close to winning. Hamilton might not have stood on the podium, but his fourth place was enough for him to be crowned a five time champion.

That 5th title really is something special, putting him on equal footing with the great Juan Manuel Fangio from the sport’s early days, and bettered only by Michael Schumacher’s seven titles.

I may not be Hamilton’s biggest fan, but even I have to concede that what he’s achieved is something genuinely special... even if he does have a silly haircut and some questionable fashion sense.

Is the Greatest Of All Time (GOAT) moniker appropriate, or even achievable? He, and the Mercedes team that he drives for, do seem to be have been at the top of their game for a while now and, much like Schumacher and Ferrari a few years ago, able to consistently get the better of their rivals.

I didn’t expect to see anyone getting anywhere near seven titles again in my lifetime, but this could be a genuine challenge from Lewis – he’s still young enough, and whilst he’s performing at this level, he’s hard to beat.

True, Vettel and Ferrari could be strong enough next year to beat him... maybe even one of the up and coming youngsters, like Verstappen or Leclerc, could better him some of the time. But consistently? Over a full season? When he’s this strong?

There are big regulation changes coming up in a couple of years’ time. It might mix things up a bit, but it may also be too late to stop Lewis becoming the GOAT.

Disappointingly for those not paying for Sky’s F1 coverage, this title-deciding race was a highlights only affair, shown after many people’s bed-time, on Channel 4. Like Lewis winning everything, we’d better get used to that. Next year, all but the British Grand Prix will be highlights only.

You might love F1, but unless you’re willing to pay, you’ll be getting less laps, later. What a shame.

This post first appeared as my "A wry look at the week" column, in The Mail, on Friday the 2nd of November 2018. The version used on their website was re-titled as "Has Lewis got the stuff to be GOAT?".

Unfortunately, the print edition suffered some debilitating format errors. The title appeared as "Has Lewis got the stuff to be" and the final line missed "a shame" off, leaving the last word of the column as "What". Schoolboy mistakes, really.

Disappointing that a Brit becoming the 2nd most successful F1 driver of all time was reduced to a highlights package late on a Sunday night, but that's the way all sport seems to be going. Unless you're willing to pay for the bells and whistles coverage, you either get slim pickings or nothing at all.

(CD A-Z: A homemade compilation of randomness - currently an unofficial extended instrumental version of ELO's "Another Heart Breaks". Soothing.)