Lewis Hamilton has always found BBC Sports Personality of the Year a thorny subject. Should he go? What if he puts his foot in his mouth? What if, worst of all, the vote tells him he is not as loved as he would like to be?
He will feel these pangs acutely on Sunday because by any measurement he deserves to lift the prize for a second time. A quick recap on what he has achieved this year tells us this: 11 wins from the 16 grands prix in which he has competed, despite incurring penalties in two other races he would have won, and suffering or carrying Covid in a further couple of rounds, one of which he triumphed in regardless.
The margins and manner of many of his victories were more startling than even his dominant Mercedes invited, the best being his drive in Turkey that put him level with Michael Schumacher on seven world championship titles, having already surged ahead of the German’s old record of 91 wins.
Lewis Hamilton, aged 35, is one of the most high-achieving sportsmen in history through F1
This all makes Hamilton one of the most high-achieving sportsmen in history. Aged 35, his reactions remain undimmed and augment his preternatural clarity of thought and vision at the wheel of a 210mph racing car.
And to think that he broke the mould of the possible by emerging as a mixed race boy from a Stevenage council flat to bestride a largely white enclave.
This against-the-odds success underpins his imminent knighthood — taking a knee, you might say — in the New Year Honours. That will please many of his fans, but other observers will gulp. ‘What about his tax affairs?’ is the usual refrain. Well, yes he is domiciled in Monaco. In passing, we should point out that he is hardly unique in this arrangement — practically all the greats and often not-so greats have squirreled themselves and their riches away in tax havens over the years.
Nowadays, HMRC award green, amber or red lights to honours candidates. Red means forget it. Amber means work on it and come back to us. Green means good to go. I understand Hamilton came up green in a check last month, so he will receive the seal of official approval that he craves but has been careful not to be seen to have campaigned for: Arise Sir Lewis.
Yet despite his success across 14 seasons, Hamilton is something of an enigma to the British public.
Yes, he keeps up a constant stream of social media updates and has more than 21million followers on Instagram alone, but he is highly selective in what he really reveals.
When I think back to the young, homespun Lewis emerging on the world scene as a dazzling GP2 champion back in 2007, I remember him being more open and relaxed. Now £250million richer, he lives in a gilded cage, mixing with mortals no more than is strictly necessary.
I remember the young Lewis, emerging on the world scene, being more open and relaxed
It is a sterile existence. For example, even if he is not on a private jet he will be ushered on to flights at the last moment, taken to the front row, then escorted off and zipped away by chauffeur-driven car. He has not seen a luggage carousel for a decade!
This strange way of life is indicative of his place among sporting royalty, alongside such as Roger Federer and Cristiano Ronaldo, but is the cossetted routine really all that much fun?
We have seen Hamilton develop a strong sense of social conscience in recent years, championing veganism and green issues. Critics naturally wonder how easily these well-intentioned causes sit with his day job of racing gas-guzzling cars on five continents.
That kind of contradiction is typical Lewis: instinctively kind if sometimes a little naive.
This year has seen him wade much further into politics than ever before, as an advocate of the controversial Black Lives Matter movement. Before the season, he put on a mask and marched through London and has since led his fellow drivers in ‘taking a knee’ before each race in a call for greater equality and diversity.
This year Hamilton has waded much further into politics than before with Black Lives Matter
Actually, the bar to becoming an F1 driver is not skin colour but the prohibitive cost of getting there. Having a billionaire father is the best assurance of progression though motor racing’s ranks. Hamilton recently said: ‘Naturally, the human rights issues in so many of the places we go is a consistent and massive problem. As a sport we need to do more.’
He has spoken out about the fate of a Bahraini man facing execution over the death of a policeman in protests six years ago. ‘I won’t let this go unnoticed,’ he said. Well, he was perfectly positioned to make the argument while staying in one of the royal family’s palaces as he recovered from Covid.
He has started his own workforce looking into racism — the Hamilton Commission — which is due to report back next year. This is the cause he feels most passionately about, a topic given impetus by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of a white policeman in Minneapolis.
Sometimes he has gone a bit far in espousing his beliefs, such as when at the start of the season he accused other drivers of being complicit in racism unless they spoke out as strongly against it as he did. The denunciation went down like a dose of bronchitis. Hamilton can be his own worst enemy, a sensitive, guarded soul, who is prone to feeling persecuted and occasionally lashes out. He called Bernie Ecclestone ‘ignorant and uneducated’ for controversial comments the former F1 boss made about racism.
Hamilton called Bernie Ecclestone ‘ignorant and uneducated’ for his comments about racism
Ecclestone, who said black people could be as racist as white people, responded: ‘Lewis could start by making people aware that those who are other than white are employed by teams and are given the same opportunities.
‘When you win another championship, it will be by your talent, and being in the right place at the right time. Like most successful people, you’ve had a bit of luck and worked hard. But you are a special driver and a special person.’ What Hamilton made of that rebuke we never heard.
Whether his politics are your cup of tea or not, there is no denying that we are talking about the most successful practitioner in British sport today. He has won fairly and has shown what is possible if you work hard, no matter your background. Those are reasons enough why he, a self-made man, deserves the public acclaim on Sunday night.