Graphic: A tale of two rookies

Anyone who has taken even the most superficial interest in the extraordinary exploits of Lewis Hamilton over the past four months, during which he has won two grands prix and finished on the podium in each of his seven starts, will be aware that something unusual is occurring.

In fact, it is difficult to point to a rookie starting at the top of any other professional sport who has immediately amassed a record to match Hamilton, who, with his second successive race win at the United States Grand Prix in Indianapolis on Sunday, leads the World Championship by ten points.

The young British racer has rewritten the Formula One record book and is favourite to win the world title in his maiden season, which no one has got close to before.

His progress has been so fast that it is easy to forget that he is a beginner in motor racing’s toughest arena. So competent is he under pressure and so fluent has his car control been even on circuits that he had not driven before, that the rookie factor has slipped into the slipstream.

But Hamilton is not the only novice in Formula One this season. The other talented youngster on the grid is Heikki Kovalainen, the Finn, who drives for Renault. The comparison between the way the two have performed is evidence of how out of the ordinary Hamilton’s driving has been.

Until Hamilton came along, the rule in Formula One was that rookies would make mistakes as they tried to make the leap from lower formulas to the big time; overdriving, poor car control, impatience, recklessness, tactical naivety and errors of judgment are the stuff of the rookie season.

However, Hamilton, bar his crash during Friday practice in Monte Carlo where he was driving too fast on a new set of tyres that had not heated up sufficiently, has been mistake-free. There may be tiny errors, things that might have gone better, but in general terms he has driven the perfect season.

Kovalainen has been showing what Hamilton should have been doing, had he not been the best-drilled, best-educated (in a racing sense) beginner in motorsport history. Kovalainen had a horrible first race in Australia, where he drove more like a rally driver than a Formula One pilot. While Hamilton was contesting second place and finishing third, Kovalainen was lucky to finish tenth.

Since then, the likeable Finn has been in the minor points a couple of times, but has often disappointed to the extent that there have been rumours (denied by Renault) that he may be shipped off to Williams. His worst weekend was in Montreal, where he crashed in practice on the Friday and then crashed again in qualifying on Saturday. This was the same weekend when Hamilton was driving to his first pole position and his maiden race win.

Ironically, in that chaotic race, Kovalainen salvaged his best finish of the year, finishing fourth from nineteenth on the grid. Making comparisons between Hamilton and Kovalainen is unfair in many respects and Renault are understandably sensitive about this.

There is no doubt that the Renault R27 has been a difficult car to drive, lacking balance, grip and pace in comparison with Hamilton’s “silver arrow”, which is fast and much easier to drive.

Kovalainen has also had to cope with a number of technical failures, which have lost him valuable track time on new circuits, and he has suffered as a result.

In Indianapolis last weekend, Kovalainen finally had a trouble-free grand prix and showed what he could do, qualifying in sixth place and finishing fifth. He talked of finally getting some “momentum” going after a difficult start to his Formula One career. But there is still an enormous gulf between what he has achieved in his first seven races and the record that Hamilton has compiled.

By the law of averages, Hamilton will make a classic rookie mistake in a race – or even struggle through a weekend – but there has been no sign of that happening. If he was ever likely to start compounding one mistake after another, it would have been after crashing at Sainte Dévote during Friday practice in Monaco. But his response was to drive on the limit through qualifying and the race and to emerge disappointed not to have won.

This debate has stirred a vast response, both below and on Edward Gorman's weblog. To read Ed's blog, click here.