Sir Jackie Stewart was thumbing mentally through his lexicon of great grand prix racing drivers, trying to place Lewis Hamilton. Various legends came up - Ayrton Senna, Alain Prost, Jim Clark, Stewart himself even - before the Scottish triple world champion gave up. No, there has never been anyone like Hamilton, he concluded.

What Stewart meant was not that there has never been a driver like the young Briton, who won the Australian Grand Prix in such style on Sunday. He meant that there has never been an individual in Formula One with the talent that Hamilton has in the car and who has also made the sort of cultural and commercial global impact that Hamilton has been able to in the space of only one season in the sport.

To Stewart's educated eye, Hamilton, the most successful rookie in the sport's history, is the perfect package for the modern world; a well-presented, articulate individual who is broad in outlook yet also a supremely talented professional sportsman, whose ethnicity and charm allows him to project motor sport and what he stands for across new frontiers.

Over breakfast in the Williams motorhome at Melbourne's Albert Park at the weekend, Stewart searched other sports for points of comparison. He mentioned Wayne Gretzky, the ice hockey legend, Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus, the golfers, and Muhammad Ali, perhaps the greatest sporting icon of all. But even he, according to Stewart, did not make the impact that Hamilton has been able to. “There's only Tiger,” Stewart said, “there's nobody else.”

So, one race and one victory into Hamilton's second season as a grand prix driver, the Tiger Woods comparisons are back as the great and good of Formula One try to measure the breadth and scale of the Hamilton phenomenon. It should be remembered that his victory in Melbourne was only his fifth grand prix win. Michael Schumacher, the most successful Formula One racing driver of all time, took the chequered flag 91 times.

Somehow, however, Hamilton's level of ability, his poise in and out of the car, his unique “education” as a young driver signed by McLaren when he was only 12, has convinced judges such as Stewart that last year's championship runner-up has at least the potential to surpass them all. Just like Woods, who is only five major championship victories short of Nicklaus's record of 18, Stewart believes that Hamilton will threaten the greatest record-holders of his sport.

The Scot has no doubt that Hamilton will continue to make a “massive impact”, provided that his career is not cut short by injury. He believes that the young man is equipped to handle the wealth, the fame and the pressure of even the ambitious expectations of men such as Stewart (Niki Lauda shares them, by the way). “He's not going to lose it because he is too smart for that. But he's got to be careful to handle it well,” Stewart said.

A couple of points of housekeeping worry him, however. One is the decision by Hamilton's father, Anthony, to eschew all involvement by professional agents or managers in his son's career (which is already on the scale of a small industry) and take care of it himself.

“I think his father is a great guy, but I think he's got to be very careful because this could ruin a family relationship,” Stewart said. “Lewis is going to get such pressure and such commercial impetus - it's going to be even bigger than his father can handle. Once you get bigger than your dad, working with your dad becomes more difficult.”

Another issue is Hamilton's decision to resist membership of the Grand Prix Drivers' Association (GPDA), a body that has played an important role in promoting drivers' interests, especially in the area of track safety. Looking in from the outside, Hamilton's decision may seem unimportant, but to men such as Stewart, who lost so many friends in racing, this is not to be taken lightly.

With no fatalities in Formula One since the death of Senna nearly 14 years ago, Stewart worries that drivers such as Hamilton and Kimi Raikkonen, the world champion, who is not a member of the GPDA either, are showing signs of complacency. Stewart believes that, although racing is the safest it has ever been, track safety should not be taken for granted and the new generation of drivers should be doing all they can to improve standards.

“The GPDA does an immense amount of good and does an immense amount of communication,” Stewart said. “When you go to a GPDA meeting, you are doing it not only for the good of yourself, you are doing it for the sport and your colleagues - the whole damn thing.”

Lewis landmarks

Formula One wins Five

Titles Seven (four karting, one Formula Renault UK, one Formula 3 Euro Series, one GP2 Series)

First grand prix win 2007 Canadian Grand Prix, aged 22

Rookie year Won four Formula One races in 2007, was on the podium 12 times and recorded six pole positions

Present streak Won first race of the 2008 season in Australia on Sunday

Other records Youngest driver to be signed by a Formula One team, by McLaren; youngest karting world champion at 15; became only driver in GP2 history to score two double-race wins in a season, in 2006; became youngest driver to lead Formula One World Championship, in 2007; recorded the most consecutive podium finishes from the start of a Formula One career (nine in 2007), the most consecutive podium finishes for a British driver (nine) and the most pole positions in a debut season (six)

Earnings £2.5million in 2007, estimated £15million this year

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