good luck to him.

he will impress

I'm getting flashbacks to 1986 with Piquet, Mansell and Frank Williams.

Anyone else?

I don't beleive I have ever anticipated a new season quite like the next year.
A real shakedown, and the grid is oozing with new talent and top drivers in different teams.

True. Especially when you consider Schumi's statement that Mercedes was fine, but McLaren (i.e. Dennis) was a problem which prevented him for every racing for the team.

Seems like a decent guy. Good luck to him. It will be interesting to see how the UK media handles the inevitable highs and lows to come.

Congratulations to Lewis Hamilton - this seat at McLaren is richly deserved, and he clearly is a driver of outstanding speed, aggression and potential.

I was at Silverstone this year and saw Hamilton win two races like he was born to it - one won by leading from the front, the other by a series of beautiful passing manoeuvres (including passing two cars simultaneously at the Becketts complex).

I think he will have an advantage in that he will have competitive machinery from the outset in F1 - I do think that having to drive a shitbox has the potential to chip away at a driver and plant seeds of doubt (see Jacques Villeneuve, Martin Brundle, Derek Warwick etc).

He also will be able to learn from the master, as he will have close-hand view of Alonso at work. Remember how Berger became a much better driver from learning form Senna, as did Massa and Rubinho from being alongside Schumacher.

My only slight concern is that the F1 fraternity can be absurdly quick at writing off new drivers, and I worry that, given that any debutant is unlikely to get on terms with a world champion team-mate in the first year or so (see Nico Rosberg's debut season for evidence of this), that people will jump to the conclusion that Hamilton 'isn't up to it'. That in my opinion would be tragedy.

Actually, I believe there are more parallels with the Raikkonen/Massa partnership at Ferrari.

On one hand, you have an established, highly-rated driver, whose poor results in previous seasons had widely been blamed on the shortcoming of his car, coming into the team who are considered to be the best around.

On the other you have a driver who had been around for a few years, and had widely been considered fast but erratic, and rather middling overall, but had come on strongly in a new team environment the previous season.

I don't think he's ready. That is all.

Based on what?

too much grooming and babysitting?

read all the latest news and the interesting article from AMuS that metz gave us and made your own conclusions.

I don't say he is not good though.

Not as wide off the mark as the JV one

Great news.

Excepted and interesting.

This news is actually not so good for Lewis as it looks like for him and his supporters. To start f1 career with not even proper testing mileage as firm number two alongside the best driver in the field reigning doudle world champion who is even didn`t reach peak of his powers in his 25 - is not a nice thing for 21-old Lewis who is planning to be world champion himself one day. Next three years (if) alongside Alonso may produce loser-complex in the mind of Hamilton. No doudt he will lose. The question in how bad for Lewis it is going to be. Especially for his future.

I think Hamilton will be alot closer to Alonso than people think. Just wait and see.

Great for Hamilton

Uh, he's not number two unless he gets outpaced. And if he gets outpaced - everyone kinda expects it.

Exactly. Furthermore Ron’s comments haven’t helped. (“ I think Lewis would beat a significant percentage of the drivers who currently sit on a Grand Prix grid,"). It's a pity Ron can't keep his gob shut.

Actually he's usually quite good at keeping his gob shut concerning his protogés, I'd say that when someone who's been beening so careful but can directly compare Hamlilton and Raikonnen - who's better than all bar 3 with whom you can only objectively say he's pretty even - you'd have to say There's probably something in it.

He is payed 15 times less than the other driver.

So .he is number two.

Ridiculous.

This speculative thread has been running for months. On the face of it, there is no indication of 'new' news, apart from recent posting.

I had to wade through 3 pages to find the link supporting the news that LH was in the Mac.

Why not KILL THIS THREAD AND START A NEW ONE????

''Lewis to Maclaren-official.'' :\

Actually I'm getting flashbacks to 1993 with Ayrton Senna and Michael Andretti...

I dont think Lewis will be comuting from Nazareth, PA. Andretti did everything wrong in an almost obsessed to make a ballsup fashion, Lewis and his dad are smarter than that.

Best of luck to the lad, he should go exceptionally well IMHO.

But the Senna/Andretti scenario is much closer to the Alonso/Hamilton situation than the already mentioned Piquet/Mansell situation. Mansell wasn't a greenhorn - he was a very experienced F1 driver and also a proven winner.

Out of memory Senna/Andretti is the only precedent of a multiple champion paired with an absolute rookie in a modern F1 top team.

Given where Mclaren were this season I'm tempted to say MS and Piquet at Benneton, but there was of course much less pressure on Benneton to gain form than there is on Mclaren (and it's drivers) to regain it, I doubt Ron is planning for a throwaway year.

Good example apart from the point that Piquet was far behind his prime while Alonso seems to be at his peak. Like Senna in 1993.

I remember reading that Hamilton aims to get F1 title within 3 years.(just cant find the citing)

Add what Dennis said to that and expectations surely are running high.

As they should. Hamilton is either a thoroughbread or not. The pressure will be there, but if he is as good as touted, he will deliver.

Personally I'd say he had been grossly mis-quoted. I mean no-one spouts things like that; especially exponents of Dennis's PR camp.

Yeah looks likely, cant even find the place where it was, it must been deleted.

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=38001

He will prepare like no other driver rookie in a long time, the British Schumacher
I think he has the work ethic to get somewhere, he understands even early on what is required to learn.

I'm a fan already. His attitude is because he is in f1, he has been given his dream come true, as a boy watched Senna, like some of us, now he'a at the team where he raced, with Ron Dennis, and he knows it's a thrill, and he'll be doing everything possible to be considered a top driver, I don't doubt that, you can tell by the manner of this young man.

This appointment is exactly what 2007 needed in my view, if Hamilton wasn't at Mclaren, and Delarosa parterned Alonso, it would be ok, but not interesting or maybe exciting. Now more interest is there. With Schuey gone, to have all these drivers, Kimi, Hekki, ALonso, Hamilton in new teams or first time drives, will make 2007 better for it.


A toast to 2007! A toast to Hamilton, the road of possibilities!

He is quotable too!

"I love racing so much I sleep in my overalls!"

Hamilton has definitely got the credentials to support the hype, but I believe he's in for a tough career with Alonso as a teammate. I'm predicting McLaren as a whole will struggle next year and Hamilton especially. Alonso will likely beat him in the first few races and at that point we'll see if he can keep his head or if he feels the pressure to go faster and subconsciously starts overdriving the car and making errors.

It's very reasonable objective. In three years a talented rookie should have honed his abilities in a level when winning WDC is possible. When a rookie is lucky enough to land in a top team straigh away (well... a team in difficult times but nevertheless a top team) he might as well have the right equipment available.

it is not deleted -> http://news.bbc.co.uk/sol/ukfs_sport/hi/av/player/player.stm?title=Hamilton targets world title&clipurl=http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/avdb/sport/video/67000/nb/67305_16x9_nb.ram&cs=cs1://http://news.bbc.co.uk/sol/ukfs_spor...9_nb.ram&cs=cs1

Sour grapes or justified comment from DC?

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/55789

Personally I think its a bit of sour grapes. In all walks of life there are those that say "I had to do the hard way" therefore they don't like to see anyone not go through the same struggles.

I really wish they would stop this first black business. His colour his irrelevant, it's his driving skill that has got him where he is.

I would be more interested to know Jenson Button's view on Lewis's promotion to F1.

I too am whole heartedly looking forward to 2007 with the addition of Lewis though. He does not have to beat Alonso to be considered doing well. All he has to do is to stay close, keep calm and most importantly finish races. If he does that then the results will surely come IMO.

according to this (http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/sport/articl...ook+out,+Jenson!/article.do)

Coulthard: "It's great for Lewis to be the first black driver in F1"

But I've found this in another website:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danny_Ongais

"He was a Formula One driver who participated in six Grands Prix, debuting on October 2, 1977"




So Hamilton isn't really the first black driver, is he?

This black white brown yellow blue purple green thing is really confusing and not really relevant at all.

BTW, isn't Lewis's mom white?

Of course isn't relevant, but I want to know wether it's true or not.

You have to remember that black in this context does not just refer to colour, Black really means Afro/Caribbean. Karthikeyan is another example that doesnt count. It's all crap.

Yeah pacific races eg. Hawaiian, Aussie Aboriginal, Maori, various Islanders etc. seem to get classified as asian not black.

I think it's justified comment from DC. Perhaps not correct (time will tell), but as someone who has had a debut in F1 as a young driver he certainly has a right to comment.

I see... thanks for the explanations.

So Alonso can comment on this matter cuz he joined F1 at around that age plus he is a 2x Champion

Personally I think DC is spot on with his comments. I just hope McLaren's move doesn't destroy such a promising career.

I'm not sure what the definition of black is in your neck of the woods, but no one on the left side of the pond would consider The Flyin' Hawaiian black (nor Karthikeyan).

I don’t think DC comments are a case of sour grapes. What’s more, I think that would be a very jaundiced interpretation of what he’s saying. He’s simply making a balanced and pertinent point.

I happen to agree because 21yrs old, to me at least, seems very young for someone to be put into F1, especially when it’s for a top team like Mclaren. I’m actually quite surprised at Mclaren for doing this, as I thought they’d give him a year of testing, so he could get to know more circuits in an F1 car etc., before putting him in a race seat. That way they’d minimise the risk to what has been a long-term investment for them.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to see Hamilton do well and I’m genuinely pleased for him, but I’d also hate to see him have his career, which promises so much, damaged by going too fast too soon. If he proves me wrong, I’ll be delighted for him.

Maurice Hamilton has a good article in the Guardian today, which pretty much matches what DC is saying. He makes some good points about how Rosberg has struggled with the step up from GP2 and the impact Alonso may have on Hamilton. It’s an interesting read and, to me, a fair analysis of Hamilton’s situation.

Inevitably, there’s going to be a lot of hooplah from the media about Lewis; he’s the new kid on the block, he’s a fantastic talent, he’s British, and he’s black. I don’t see that his colour is remotely relevant, but I’m not naïve enough to think the media won’t have a field day with it.

DC and Hamilton’s comments aren’t sour grapes - they’re not putting the boot by any means - but at least they are a welcome alternative to what will likely be jingoistic nonsense from certain parts of the media.

Cheers,

Steve

Considering DC started his young F1 career at the (then) dominant Williams team, it's seems a touch hypocritical?

I don't see how DC's comments can be read as "sour grapes" or hypocritical. It's not like he was snubbed of that McLaren seat was it? Besides, he's a "self-confessed Hamilton-fan."

He's made comments like this before, and it is because he takes a genuine interest in the up and coming drivers. Remember the comments about Klien being rushed in?

(Not to mention "I've seen drivers with a rep for being the dogs dangly bits enter the sport only to dissapear after a year" - He just thinks the young drivers should do it gradually, ideally with one year of testing.)

That's exactly why It might be sincere.
DC spun in the formation lap of Monza when he was the pole.
Button almost crashed into MS in the formation lap of Monza.

LH has made two days of testing and is already promoted to a potential WDC car.