New Kid on the Block

I've been watching Formula One since I was five years old. I don't know why I have this passion. To be honest, I don't know where it came from. I just know it's there. Somehow it seems intrinsic to my very being.

I think the first race I ever saw was the final race of the 1986 season when Nigel Mansell suffered a catastophic tyre failure which saw him crash out and rob him of his championship dreams. That was the first time I think F1 made me cry.

I've never forgotten the second time. It was Sunday May 1st 1994, and I was watching the great Ayrton Senna, my true hero, crash head-on into a concerete wall on lap seven at the Tamberello corner during the San Marino Grand Prix in Imola.

I had the amazing moment of meeting Senna once, as he used to fly model aeroplanes at Prospect Park, next to where I lived in Reading in the mid-80s. At this point, he was just starting out on the most amazing career of all, as he was proving his spurs at Toleman. Anyhow, being a cheeky little wotsit back then (and not knowing who he was!), I squeezed past one of his minders and tagged at the bottom of Senna's jacket, pleading for a go. He smiled and politley declined my request, before pressing a model car into my young paws. I ran away delighted with my new found motor, and went to play with it in the sandpit with my mate Kevin. Then my mum came over and gave me a clip round the ear for disturbing Ayrton Senna, whoever that was. Anyway, it was worth it for my new set of wheels.

So there I was ten years later watching Senna's final moments. I didn't think it was that bad at first - I had seen worse accidents. But the tone of Murray Walker's voice said this was serious. And he would know.

When Senna's head began to violently jolt as he sat otherwise motionless in his Rothmans Williams Renault FW14, I thought this was a good sign. He was alive. But it later transposed that this was a final throw of the dice by his brain, as he lay dying. Live on BBC TV. I watched my hero die on a mid-Sunday afternoon on the telly. Just like that.

I never thought I'd see anyone again with the balls and charisma that Ayrton Senna da Silva had. Even Mansell was a bit of a moaner, despite my staunch patriotic support for him. And Schumacher was truely gifted, but was aligned to cheat to win. And that's not in the spirit of F1.

Then 13 years later, I sat back to watch the Australian GP kick off the 2007 season. I wasn't expecting much. But how wrong I was. I saw Lewis Hamilton drive.

I thought Jacque Villeneuve's debut in '96 was stunning. But this new guy was - well, f**k me, brilliant. Totally brilliant.

A true racer at just 21 and in a foreign car to him. Destroying the opposition, cutting through the traffic like a carving knife cutting the Christmas turkey. I thought that this wouldn't last though, that he would soon get destroyed later on in other races by the established names and made to look like a kid who has just peeked into an adult party.

But I was proven wrong, just like Alan Hansen for his infamous comment that you can't win anything with kids. Just like Manchester United in the Busby Babes years and then again in the late 1990s, here was a kid showing the world how it should be done. And in style.

Lewis Hamilton has proven to have more than burning ambition and talent. For the first time since I last saw Senna, I now think that here is someone else who had a meeting with God and was given something special to come to Earth with. The way he saw off double World Champion Fernando Alonso in his rookie year (and made Alonso quit in a huff) was simply remarkable. No-one has ever beaten a teammate like this before, not even Herr Michael. Granted, Alonso made some ill thought out choices (like ratting on his McLaren team during the Spygate saga), but what was it that was pushing him into making these rash decisions? It was the pressure that Hamilton was putting him under. And he collapsed under the weight of it.

So eventually, Hamilton would win three GPs and a host of other accolades for his trophy cabinet. He even finished runner-up in the world championship to Ferrari's Kimi Raikonnen at the final race of the season in Sao Paulo.

But his biggest victory was how he took part with style, panache and sheer determination that was reminicent of the late Senna. Hamilton says that Senna, too, was his hero and inspired him to become an F1 driver. I know what he means, as I tried karting once as a youngster with a friend of mine who's dad had a team. Whereas I didn't have the talent to succeed long term, this new kid on the block does. Which is why Senna fans have now taken him to their hearts.

So what next for Lewis Hamilton? Hopefully, not the Gazza and George Best route, as our young maestro does seem to like a party or two. I predict that he will shatter every record in the book. There is no reason why he can't keep racing for the next 20 years as long as he remains competitive with that innate hunger to win, and stays within the confines of a top team. If he can do this, he will shatter every record going.

Absolutely every one of them.