Lewis Crowned Ahead of His Time?
Hamilton Declared 2007 F1 Champion Too Early by Some
To proclaim that a driver has clinched the Championship before it is mathematically impossible for any other driver to do so is of course, risky, to say the least.
It would seem that Lewis Hamilton is almost surely going to win this year's championship. At this point in the season with 6 races still to go, and his lead being only 7 points over Fernando Alonso, it seems ridiculous to proclaim him as the champion yet.
However, there are only a few examples in the last 10 odd years that a driver has NOT won the championship when leading at this point in the season.
In fact, the last time a driver lost the World Drivers Championship after leading by more than 7 points was in 2003 when then McLaren driver Kimi Räikkönen led by 16 points after the 3rd race and by 14 points after the 4th race, over then Ferrari driver, Michael Schumacher.
In 2000, Mika Hakkinen was 6 points ahead with only 4 races to go, but he still lost by 19 points at the end of the season to Michael Schumacher. Schumacher did win the last 4 races of the season in a row, but this was before the dominant 2001 season where he scored almost double the amount of points over the 2nd placed David Coulthard (123 to 65)
In 1999 Eddie Irvine lead the championship by 8 points with 6 races to go and still ended up losing the title by 2 points. In fact he was 4 points ahead going into the final race of the season, but Mika Hakkinen won the last race in Japan and Irvine could only manage a 3rd place which at that point in time was only worth 4 points.
Lewis Hamilton has been either sharing the lead or had the lead outright in this championship since the 3rd race of the season, and even though it is of course still mathematically possible for 5 other drivers to claim victory in this year’s championship, it seems highly unlikely that he would relinquish his lead. It appears as if history also stands on his side. And on top of that it seems as if a book to be publish only in November this year, Lewis Hamilton: the Biography, thinks Hamilton will win it all as well.
The book’s hardcover synopsis proudly proclaims, "Thrown in at the deep end 'on a mighty whim' by F1 team owner Ron Dennis," the description reads, "Lewis Hamilton crowned his 2007 debut season by winning the title in Japan in October.
Being only August, it seems a profound prediction, and of course the fact that the race in Japan is actual held on September 30th, doesn’t seem to faze them either.
And to top it off, the book’s synopsis also states “It was an outcome no one seriously could have predicted."
This book might be ahead of it’s time, but so is Lewis Hamilton it seems, and only time, and the final results at the end of season, will truly proclaim whether Lewis Hamilton indeed won the 2007 World Drivers Championship, or whether he will be one of the statistics of those who tried but failed in the end.
