Although Lewis Hamilton saw his hopes of an historic World Championship at Interlagos dashed yesterday, he has enjoyed an unprecedented first season in Formula One that, at the very least, announces him as a champion in waiting.

Last winter we all knew that the young British driver was going to be good but nobody guessed just how good. In March you would have been laughed out of court for predicting that he would lead the title race almost continually until the decider in São Paulo and would finish agonisingly close to becoming the first rookie champion in the sport’s history.

The first people to spot what was happening, unsurprisingly perhaps, were the handful of former world champions and greats from the past who regularly appear in the Formula One paddock, men such as Niki Lauda, Sir Jackie Stewart and Sir Stirling Moss.

While most were struggling to comprehend Hamilton’s run of early-season success, these men recognised one of their own, a special breed of driver, such as Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher. Hamilton was quick, often quicker than Fernando Alonso, his illustrious teammate and defending world champion, and almost inhumanly reliable.

Expert View

The Hamiltons were so unfailingly upbeat that it was fair to wonder if it was an elaborate façade to hide the most colossal despair

Matt Dickinson

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Background

• Hamilton driven to despair in Brazil

• Search for answers gets under way

• Lauda and legends so quick to spot Hamilton greatness

• Champagne on ice after parties crashed

Background

• Hamilton ready to overtake Beckham

• The young man will soon have his time

• The Insider - October 22

Multimedia

• Should McLaren win appeal?

As one podium finish after another led to his first pole and first race win - those milestones came together during a memorable weekend in Montreal in June - the next element to become clear was that Hamilton was not just a prodigiously talented driver, he was also the best-prepared rookie in Formula One history.

All those years in karting and the long tutelage at McLaren, after the fairytale meeting between a ten-year-old Hamilton and Ron Dennis, the team principal, were paying off in the most spectacular way. Hamilton’s uninterrupted schooling in junior formulae, his work on the psychological preparation for racing, his thousands of hours in the highly advanced simulator at the McLaren headquarters outside Woking, Surrey, had turned him into something of a rookie “veteran”.

There are many qualities in Hamilton but the key is his unerring ability for much of the season to deliver on the day, when the pressure is on. In Brazil things certainly did not go his way but, for the most part, no matter what was going on around him - and the storms certainly raged during this epic season - he was almost always able to produce under pressure.

Looking back, the early races of the season seem a charmed time when Hamilton brightened millions of lives with his racing and his candour out of the car. But from Monaco onwards, that innocence was steadily overshadowed as the poison in McLaren began to spread with the breakdown in relations between Hamilton and Alonso.

Hamilton must share some of the blame for the eventual deterioration into all-out war between the two, but the prime mover was Alonso, who could not cope with the fact that his upstart teammate was often quicker than him. Undoubtedly, Alonso had his grievances but he handled the challenge of coming into McLaren and taking on Hamilton about as badly as it was possible for him to do so.

Thus the second half of Hamilton’s season turned into more of a struggle. During this time he stuttered a little and lost the initiative to Alonso, before refocusing his efforts and coming back to win in Japan.

From there Hamilton should have gone on to win a title that had looked his for months. But a calamitous decision to leave him out on worn tyres at the Chinese Grand Prix in Shanghai meant that one golden opportunity slipped by, then it all went wrong for him in Brazil yesterday, again partly his fault and partly that of the team.

There has been so much to savour this season and although he may not have gone all the way, Hamilton has handled most of the obstacles with ease: the challenge of Alonso and his machinations; the distraction of the McLaren/Ferrari spy scandal; the sudden onset of superstardom and the endless media attention that entailed.

The Hamilton file

1993 Racing career starts, aged 8, in karts. Just two years later, wins his first British kart championship

1995 Meets Ron Dennis (team principal of McLaren Mercedes) and tells him of his ambition to race in Formula One for McLaren

1996-1997 Wins a further four British kart titles

1998 Dennis offers his patronage, Lewis signs long-term contract with McLaren

1998-2000 Wins European and world karting titles

2003 Champion, Formula Renault UK

2005 Champion, Formula 3 Euro Series

2006 Champion, GP2 Series