I have followed Lewis Hamilton since 1998, when he was 11 years old and shortly after being signed by Ron Dennis of McLaren. He was in go-karts at the time and at every step of the way, he won in convincing fashion. He has alway had strong family support and from age 10 until the present has been funded by McLaren. What he has acheived at the least matches what Tiger Woods accomplished in his first PGA year. To put a driver into F1 now costs north of $10million US and the costs continue to rise. To get there you either need to come from a family with money or have a financial backer - Lewis had the latter. Talent alone will never get you to the ranks of F1 with 19,000rpm engines churning out close to 900 hp bolted to cars weghing only 1300lbs with the driver that are capable of pulling 3-4gs in turns and 5gs under breaking. What Lewis has accomplished will probably never be duplicated in racing in our lifetime. He is the most sucessful rookie in the history of Formula1 (since 1950).
