Lewis Hamilton dominates F1 Racing Awards

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Lewis Hamilton claimed five gongs in the annual F1 Racing ‘Man Of The Year Awards’.

As well as the overall prize for Man of the Year, Hamilton scooped Driver of the Year, Personality of the Year, Qualifier of the Year (I’d have put Mark Webber, Jarno Trulli or Nico Rosberg top) and Rookie of the Year (not much of a surprise).

But for all those trophies there was one prize I was astonished he didn’t win. For Kimi Raikkonen won the award for Start of the Year.

For those of you who haven’t read the full article in this month’s F1 Racing, stop and think which of Raikkonen’s starts this year was particularly spectacular?

Raikkonen won the award for his start at the Hungaroring Grand Prix. He lined up third on the grid and moved up to second. Now, though I never like to belittle the achievements of racing drivers, what was so special about that?

He only passed one driver – Nick Heidfeld, who had a slower car and the disadvantage of starting on the dirty side of the grid. I’d go so far as to say it was inevitable that Raikkonen would pass Heidfeld in those circumstances.

I would have put any of the other starts nominated for that award ahead of Raikkonen’s – Heidfeld’s at Monte-Carlo, Jenson Button’s at the Nurburgring, and either of Hamilton’s efforts at Melbourne or Sepang.

And above all surely has to come Hamilton’s start at the Nurburgring – which wasn’t even shortlisted! From tenth on the grid he gained four places by the first corner, and would have taken fourth had Robert Kubica’s BMW not hit the back of his car.

But there it is – Raikkonen 45%, Hamilton (Melbourne) 22% and Hamilton (Sepang) 14%. I know this is just a vote in a magazine but I’m perplexed and wondering if everyone else can see some spark of genius in that start of Raikkonen’s that I’m blind to?

For the record, Raikkonen also won Drive of the Year for his win at Silverstone.

Photo: Daimler

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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21 comments on “Lewis Hamilton dominates F1 Racing Awards”

  1. Drive of the year? I’ve got a more focused view of that and it goes to Mr. Massa. Never in the annals of motorsport has one driver owed more thanks to another than Kimi owing Massa for sealing up second place at Brazil. Had Massa finished anywhere but second Kimi would NOT be 2007 Champion. And the humiliation of giving up his WINNING drive in front of his home crowd to do it. Excepting me, I’ve not heard anyone give the man the thanks he’s due.

  2. Keith: Totally agreed… Raikkonen’s start at Hungaroring was almost irrelevant… Just like you said, any other option would be better, and I’m also convinced the best one was Hamilton’s at Nurburgring.

    As for the Drive of the Year, I would say Raikkonen in Fuji, from last to third, with a spetacular racing line at one corner (I forgot its name, where he passed a couple of drivers, including Coulthard).

    Number 38: Massa played a vital role at the Brazilian Grand Prix, was visibly faster than Raikkonen the whole weekend, gave away his second home win in a row (something that not even Senna achieved, I think only Fittipaldi did it) as a loyal teammate (not a number 2, but out of contention after receiving equal treatment the entire season), but I wouldn’t name it the drive of the year, even though he deserves lots of credit. I don’t think loyalty or generosity are best criteria for the “drive of the year”.

    I think there’s no talk about what he did because of the “team orders ban”, and nobody would like to see another courtroom decision about the championship, so, the more silent the better about it!

  3. Raikkonen’s start at Hungaroring? I didn’t think it was that good :S Lewis should of one that with either Oz or Malaysia :S And your right about qualifier, its got to be between Lewis and Rosberg for me

  4. Au countraire, number 38, look in the annuls of motorsport in the 50’s and you will see drivers giving up thier cars for teammates. I do think Kimi deserves start of the year, alothough better starts have been made, no other driver this year on so many races without having pole position. Every single race Hamilton won this year was from pole (including the pole the FIA handed to him in Hungary)

  5. I’m not a fan of Hamilton at all, but clearly nobody has entered F1 the way he has and as much as I hate so say it he deserves the award.

  6. F1 Racing and their journalist Peter Windsor have been pushing the barrow of boring F1 now for many years. When Michael was winning race after race after race after… (and so forth) and viewers were turning off in droves, It was F1 Racing that tried to convince their readers that watching Michael circulate for 19 laps, put in two purple sectors, a fast pit stop and out lap, was the sort of performance that should be reacted to by lying back in ecstacy and enjoying a post coital cigarette rather then switching channels to the football. And this decision about “Start of the year” is an example of the readers, being fed horse **** for so long, starting to believe the lies.
    Yeah, Kimi makes up one spot at the Hungaroring. If he hadn’t he would have leap frogged Nick in the pits anyway!

    I broke my habit of reading F1 racing a few months ago when I realised that
    a) All of thier information was old by the time I read it, The internet is the place to go for F1 news these days.
    b) I fundamentally disagreed with their philosphy of F1. I am the fan who finds Massa and Kubica driving each others’ wheels off good racing, not watching the timescreens enraptured with the ebbs and flows of sector times.

  7. AmericanTifosi
    30th November 2007, 4:00

    Is anyone esle as mad as I am that so far a magazine titled “F1 Racing” has not yet had a cover featuring the F1 world champion? They should change their name to “Lewis Hamilton Monthly” if they wish to retain any credibility. I am not at all suprised that Lewis won “Man of the Year” and “Driver of the Year” all the voting took place before he embarrassed himself in China and Brazil. If Lewis is driver of the year then Kimi is racer of the year. I think I’m suffering from Hamiltonitis, every time I see his picture or read about him I start to get mad.

  8. ROTF! Could not have thought that someone would so eloquently put it, as you have, AmericanTifosi. Well, i guess i’m fairly ******, cos i had to go about a dozen kilometers to buy that magazine, then they had that picture which i was dreading that would be. It made me so mad, i shot a mail to them, decrying their man love for Hamilton. You are right on the money about “Lewis Hamilton Monthly!”

  9. It was F1 Racing that tried to convince their readers that watching Michael circulate for 19 laps, put in two purple sectors, a fast pit stop and out lap, was the sort of performance that should be reacted to by lying back in ecstasy and enjoying a post coital cigarette rather then switching channels to the football.

    Couldn’t have said it better…

  10. “They should change their name to “Lewis Hamilton Monthly” ”

    Well put, I think this site could also change its name to http://www.hamiltonfanatic.co.uk . What’s next Keith, a review of Lewis having a shower in the morning?

  11. With the last one i think, you need to contact a certain Raikkonen or Domenicali. For that matter, he did speak, about how this season was the best he had in F1, if you did not notice it. About me not liking the attention showered at Hamilton, of-course, i think he may very well be another Villeneuve(remember him?) and not the right one, Giles, i.e. I only ask for cautious approach on this, as Jaques Villeneuve, he was also a runner-up in his rookie year, with as many wins. Thereafter, he also won a championship and then he went into obscurity. I just wonder how, not if, but how, media will be out to destroy him, if he does not win, which may or may not all be down to his doing(Remember Button?). Macca has gone bust one too many times, in the last few years(think Kimi, wasted seasons and the questions asked).

    Also, i do not buy that Hamilton’s title was thrown due to bad management. A Senna/Prost/Schumacher etc. would have had pitted much before the tyres went kaput. McLaren/Hamilton were infact busy racing Alonso, when they could have won the championship. Lewis should have had buckled and won the championship. He failed to do so, in China, it was down to his mistake and his alone(to a large extent). I do not think Ron would have refused him a pit-stop, if he went in a little earlier than planned, especially when he was about to secure the championship. Brazil was his fault when he jumped the gun to pass Alonso, on the first given opportunity, without thinking it through. Later, what happened was a reliability issue(well, that’s what Macca say). Still they only 4 points in 2 races, not an insurmountable task.

    About comments on Schumacher, i can only say(think) that it would be SO DIFFERENT, if he were British or driving something, anything British. Not many can refute that, or can they? Considering Fangio winning his 5 championships in his dominating Alfa’s,Mercedes’ et all, is considered amongst the best. What baffles me even more is, if the other 11-10 teams(depending on what year), failed to get their act together, how is it Ferrari’s & Schumacher’s fault? Since 2002, the FIA changed the rules no less than 3 times, to stop the Schumi-Ferrari Steamroller. Which they did succeed in, in the year 2005. What about his performance right after a years break, now both on a bike and in a car?

    All that was said above, does not however absolve F1Racing, for doing what they did/do. I think the idea was right, to try and educate people about Schumacher’s talent, now perhaps Hamilton. It was i guess an overkill though. F1Racing, i must say, they are in desperate need to get their act together. It’s high time.

  12. Regarding MichaelK’s comment, I know there have been a lot of reviews of Hamilton books lately (and I have acknowledged it before) but that is simply because a lot of them have been published. If there were a new book about another leading active driver out – Alonso or Raikkonen for example – I’d make it a priority to review it. It’s not my fault there aren’t any.

    That said there are a lot more titles coming out now because of the time of year so there’ll be two reviews this weekend instead of one – and they won’t both be Hamilton books!

  13. bernie's nemesis
    30th November 2007, 13:17

    Hamilton has entered the sport in an unprecedented manner, so he has received the plaudits he deserves. As I stated before the season finale, Alonso would do everything he could do to make sure Lewis would not take the title if he could not, and Mclarens performance definately dropped after the witch hunt.
    But all you Hamilton haters out there who now complain that Button has been dropped like a stone, I remember having to listen to his dim girlfriends dreadful song at the beginning of itvs show.
    Sycophancy?
    They were all over him, so you should just decide, do you dislike Hamilton, or his coverage.

  14. from bernie’s nemesis: “do you dislike Hamilton, or his coverage.” YES! BOTH! ALL THE ABOVE!
    “Hamilton has entered the sport in an unprecedented manner”…….spot-on, fed by McLaren’s silver spoon since birth. What other rookies have received such a start? And then the ATTITUDE set in and now stories of his night life and salary demands…….he’s the genie out of the botttle and Ron will never get him under control again. I’m just anxious to get 2008 started, there are 21 others drivers of interest.

  15. To be fair (or unfair), ITV’s sycophancy over Button pales into insignificance compared to that over Hamilton. ITV’s coverage pre-Hamilton was certainly Anglocentric and looked at/on Button in close detail, but it was nothing remotely like the Lewis Hamilton show it was in 2007.

    Back on topic, were thes awards voted for by the public or an F1 Racing-assembled panel? (I stopped buying it months ago)

  16. Robert: probably the Lewis Hamilton show on ITV is proportional to his acheivements, considering that Button, despite his poor results(a single race win and a few podiums when BAR was ‘best of the rest’), received, like you just said, a huge coverage, like Barrichello did in Brazil at the post-Senna era… every single podium down here was passionately celebrated when he drove Jordans and Stewarts…

    The point is: nowadays, any TV channel, anywhere, would be annoyingly patriot with such a hot talent like Hamilton…

  17. Yes Robert, the F1 Racing Awards are voted for by the public.

  18. The other point to bear in mind was that voting opened in early August and closed in mid-October. This may also have had a bearing on the results.

    I have to admit, though, that I found F1 Racing’s obsession on Lewis quite frustrating this month. Nobody else got six pages to celebrate winning. Muchael Schumacher got three awards twice before (in years where his team also won lots of awards, and only had a small section of one page to summarise his achievements each time…

  19. Personally I won’t say Raikkonen’s Hungaroring Grand Prix start was the best for the year but Kimi DID have the best start for the year. I can’t quite finger it right now but I know that his start at the Brazillian GP where he took out Hamilton and almost took Massa too was pretty brilliant. There was also another start where he passed Hamilton again, but I think Massa won that race. Drive of the year I’d give to Kimi or Alonso, Honestly. Kimi came from 3rd to 1st in British GP n he did it on sheer speed and skill, first hunting down Hamilton and taking him out and then out pacing Alonso to take 1st on the 2nd round of pitstops, and I don’t think anyone can forget Alonso and Massa’s wet battle at Nurburgring, that was an amazing drive by Alonso to catch and overtake that Ferrari, that too could have served for drive of the year. As a season opener though I guess Hamilton’s brilliant start at Melbourne stuck in our heads the most but I really think Raikkonen had the best start for the year, just not the he won the award with.

  20. i think Lewis Hamilton is the best and will win it for years to comeand if he dose not come first then he will be in the top 3

  21. I think that should be a trophy titled “Finish of The Year”..hmm..Lewis was really black and blue by that.. :D

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