Highlights

Hamilton still has long way to go

(Reuters)
Updated: 2007-03-23 17:34

Lewis Hamilton's dream debut in Australia last weekend gave him membership of a select, but not exactly great, group of Formula One drivers.

It includes the likes of American Mark Donohue, Sweden's Reine Wisell, Britons Mike Parkes and Peter Arundell, Italians Giancarlo Baghetti and Cesare Perdisa as well as Canadian Jacques Villeneuve.

Not the Sennas and Schumachers, then. Most of those names, with the exception of 1997 world champion Villeneuve, have little resonance to most of today's grand prix watchers.

Excluding the first championship race in 1950, 14 drivers have finished on the podium on their debut and just two -- Italian Alberto Ascari and Villeneuve -- went on to become champions.

The statistics would therefore suggest that Hamilton's third place in Melbourne is in itself no guarantee of great things to come.

Yet the manner in which the 22-year-old Briton achieved it hints that he could ultimately belong to a very different club, one to which only those touched by greatness are admitted.

Overtaking your double world champion team mate at the first corner, with an instinctive jink around the outside, and then keeping him behind you for lap after lap is a pretty good indication of talent.

"Throughout the race he had enormous pressure, he didn't let that tell and did a fantastic job. Anyone who is here now must know we are at the start of a career that is going to be phenomenal," said McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh on the Sunday afternoon.

"He will be a world champion, it is just a question of time now," he added.

TOUGH CHALLENGE

Hamilton had arrived with much to prove, particularly after pre-season suggestions from some quarters that McLaren would have been wiser to give him a year's testing before a race seat.

With Fernando Alonso as a team mate, he had a tough challenge to measure up to and plenty of pressure from soaring expectations at home.

He knew what the headlines would have said had he flopped, and needed to make an immediate impression.

"Drivers who have gone on to become great like Michael Schumacher, Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna arrived and went bang," Britain's 1996 world champion Damon Hill had said back in January.

"They were on the scene, on the pace, outpacing their team mate, there right from the word go."

Even if Hill overlooked that plenty of Formula One champions have had very ordinary debuts, Hamilton made everyone sit up and take notice anyway.

Hamilton still has a long way to go and plenty to learn. There are bound to be mistakes along the way but first impressions do count for a lot. "He was absolutely fantastic," said Renault engineering head Pat Symonds, who worked closely with Senna at Toleman, Schumacher at Benetton and Alonso at Renault.

"I know the result sheet says that Fernando beat him, but I think those who can read a race well will know that wasn't necessarily the case. So all credit to Lewis, to me he had it in the bag. I think he could well have beaten Fernando."

Hamilton was the first rookie to finish on the podium on his debut since Villeneuve came second in Australia with Williams in 1996.

Seven times champion Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna and Alain Prost never managed that.

DEBUT RACE

In fact Senna lasted just eight laps of his debut race with Toleman in 1984, after qualifying 17th, before retiring with a boost pressure problem.

Schumacher failed to make it to the first corner at Spa with Jordan in 1991, even if he had stood out in qualifying with seventh place on the grid.

Triple champion Niki Lauda, who hailed Hamilton as the best rookie he had ever seen, qualified 21st for his debut in his native Austria in 1971 and lasted just 20 laps in a March that he had paid to drive.

"Ayrton's first race in Formula One actually wasn't a great race, some of his slightly later ones were," said Symonds.

"I think that to be a great driver, you need a lot more than just speed. You need intelligence, application, a good work ethic.

"On the occasions I have met Lewis and spoken to him, I get the impression he is very bright," he added.

"I think everything we know of his career shows he is a hard worker, therefore I think the result he's had I'm sure will be backed up with a lot more."