The team did a fantastic job

Like most children in the UK over the last 50 years, I grew up watching programmes like Blue Peter. Not only did this particular show make entertaining viewing as a child but it also provided me with two of my first love interests in the form of Caron Keating and Katie Hill. Other females who stole my heart as a child were Michaela Strachan when she co-presented the Wide Awake Club, Penny from Inspector Gadget, Daphne from Scooby-Doo and Cheetara from Thundercats, but that’s a different story altogether.

Anyway, amongst the many adventures involving sticky-back plastic and things they made earlier, the one that captivated me the most was the Tracy Island made out of Paper Mache. For some bizarre reason the only other thing I vividly remember on Blue Peter was this little piece they did in 1992 on a 7 year old boy who was racing radio controlled cars. Apparently he was quite good. His name was Lewis Hamilton.

Fast forward 5 years and he was on the show again but this time he was actually sitting behind the wheel. I took a great interest in this exposé because back in 1997 I was just breaking into the world of karting myself.

Shortly after this bit of publicity he was signed on a long term McLaren management deal and started seriously tearing up the karting world. After that I didn’t hear any more about him. It wasn’t until 2001 or 2002 when I was sitting in my office pretending to be busy and I suddenly thought “I wonder whatever happened to that guy”.

So I Googled him and found out that he was now racing in Formula Renault. Whilst he was doing a respectable job, he didn’t seem to be doing anything spectacular from what I could see.

After a couple of years racing in that series he moved up to something called the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2004 and, again, didn’t exactly set the world on fire with his performance. I remember thinking at the time that McLaren may well have wasted their money on the guy.

However, the following year his career really started to gather momentum. He dominated the Formula 3 Euroseries in 2005 and then won the Masters event just to rub it in a bit. He then swept to the GP2 title the following year at his first attempt, putting in some stellar drives along the way.

When McLaren gave him his break in Formula 1, they were taking a huge risk. Despite his obvious talent he was still a rookie and it was a lot of pressure to put on one so young, especially as he was being teamed up with arguably the best driver on the grid at the time.

Now at this point in time I liked Fernando Alonso. Not only was he a super talented driver who put one over the mighty Schumacher machine - not one but twice - he also seemed like a genuinely smiley and friendly guy. Half way through the season, however, my opinion had changed somewhat.

Aside from claiming to have brought six-tenths of a second to the car and having got his team booted out of the championship, he started acting like a tiny cock because Lewis had come into the sport and proceeded to make him look a bit ordinary. This didn’t sit too well with the mono-browed reigning champ. He started throwing his Piella out of the pram and suddenly turned into an even more obnoxious prick than Schumacher had become a decade earlier. On the other hand Lewis came out looking like a bit of a star and I was gutted that he lost the championship that year. How amazing would it have been to see a rookie win the title? Especially home-grown talent.

Anyway, roll on 2008 and he was always going to win that championship. Or was he? Like Schumacher a decade earlier, his dominance so early on in his career had obviously pissed a lot of people off and it seemed to me like he was being victimised at times. Controversy followed him everywhere. Sure he is an aggressive driver and yes he makes mistakes but that’s what makes him such a good driver; he is a true racer who isn’t afraid to put himself on the line out there. When I hear drivers complaining because he had the audacity to overtake them it makes me want to punch them in the face. He is about the only Formula 1 driver who even knows how to overtake. Vettel is probably the only other driver who attempts to pass but he always ends up crashing into people when he tries.

Anyway, I remember sitting down to watch the final race of the season in Brazil that year. I was severely pissed off that day because I had just returned from Northamptonshire where I had lost a championship of my own as a result of some feckless moron ramming me into the tyre wall at the first corner so I was looking forward to getting drunk and watching Lewis do me proud.

He had it in the bag until the last lap when it all went pair-shaped because of a sudden downpour. Have you ever seen a grown man cry? Well I almost broke down in tears in the closing stages when the rain came down and Lewis was left languishing down the field. I almost threw my bottle of beer through my expensive Plasma TV I was so annoyed.

As history will tell, he amazingly won it on the last corner of the last lap, saving me a very expensive repair bill in the process.

Since then he has proven himself time and again to be one of the most naturally quick drivers currently in Formula 1. Certainly he and Vettel are the two quickest and best racers in my opinion. Although he can sometimes be a bit hot-headed, especially compared to Jenson, and he is prone to take too many risks from time to time, I think this is a good thing and is something that Formula 1 needs more of to improve the sow. Personally I like his impetuousness because it gives him something that he otherwise lacks: character.

So far in this article it sounds like I worship the ground Lewis walks on. Well I don’t. I think he is a great driver. He’s probably one of the finest racers of recent times and I admire him for that. However, there are many aspects of his character that I really don’t like. Firstly I don’t like how much of a robot he is when he talks to the press. Whilst he puts on a good show when he’s out on track, he is overly predictable when he’s interviewed. Obviously this is largely down to the way he’s been programmed by McLaren since before he hit puberty but I don’t like it. I don’t like hearing “the team did a fantastic job” and “the guys do a fantastic job” every other word.

I also don’t like the fact that he’s 4 years younger than me, is a multi-millionaire and is dating a Pussycat Doll. I mean, that's just taking the piss isn't it?

Jealous? Me? Not in the slightest.