Monaco is a place that encourages memories, even in the young. Lewis Hamilton
remembers last year’s grand prix in the principality very clearly. In
particular, he remembers how he felt when he realised he wasn’t going to be
allowed to challenge teammate Fernando Alonso for a win that he believed was
there for the taking. Whether it was is arguable. Having qualified a
brilliant second, despite being fuelled to go five laps further than his
pole-sitting teammate, during the race itself Hamilton was brought in just
three laps later than the Spaniard. Those extra two laps, in clean air and
on minimal fuel, might have given him enough time to build a big enough gap
to remain ahead after his own first stop. At the very least, he would have
been right on Alonso’s tail.
Hamilton was bitterly disappointed. If he accepts that from the team’s point
of view the call made strategic sense, as far as Hamilton is concerned
Monaco 2007 will always be a race, perhaps even the race, that got
away. It was the point at which his relationship with Alonso began its
downward spiral. It wasn’t just a race lost when it might have been won that
got to the Briton, outraged though his competitive instincts were. Nor even
that the decision would eventually cost him the world championship and hand
it to Kimi Raikkonen. It was the fact that an opportunity to score his first
grand prix win, at Monaco - whose unique challenge he already relished more
than any other - had been taken away from him that got under his skin like
nothing before or since.
“The deterioration [in the relationship with Alonso] probably started from
there and went south from then on,” the 23-year-old acknowledges. “This year
I know for sure I’ll get an equal opportunity. If [teammate] Heikki
[Kovalainen] out-qualifies me, if he does a better job than me, like at the
last race in Turkey, I’ll say to him, as I said then, ‘This is your race to
win’. I wouldn’t have wanted anyone else except him to win there, but I was
ready to just try to collect as many points as I could behind him.
Unfortunately he got a puncture, which compromised his race. This weekend,
if he out-qualifies me, the race will still be on, but again it would be his
to lose.”
The implication is clearly that he had expected Alonso to react exactly that
way. Instead, the then champion pulled rank. Hamilton does not regret
letting the world know what had taken place. On the podium, his unsmiling
face spoke volumes. And just in case anybody misunderstood, he did not
hesitate to explain what had happened, in the subsequent press conference. A
year on, he still thinks that was the right thing to do.
Even if he’d come out of the stop just behind Alonso, he says, he had an
overtaking strategy in mind. “Fernando would have been a tough driver to
force into an error, but anything’s possible. If I’d been allowed to get
close behind him, I could have put him under pressure.”
Overtaking at Monaco, Hamilton reckons, requires a certain state of mind in
both drivers concerned. “It is difficult to impose yourself on the guy in
front here, but you have to be even more aware of what’s going on and when
they’re going to lift, even when you might be right behind them,” he says.
“At one point last year I had Robert Kubica right in front of me, and all
the way through the tightest turn we have here, the left-hander [the Grand
Hotel hairpin], I was behind him and it looked as if he was going to turn
in. Then he turned to the right, to let me go, and I almost followed him.”
An aspect of Hamilton’s driving that does concern him at the moment is what he
perceives to be a tendency to catch slower cars at the “wrong” time, coming
into a series of tight corners, for example, whereas he believes other
front-running drivers seem to catch them at the right time, such as coming
on to a straight. A more likely explanation is the touch of paranoia about
luck that seems to afflict all the supremely talented.
Ayrton Senna, considered by many to be the greatest Formula One driver of them
all and a six-time winner in Monte Carlo, sometimes talked about the
attitude required to succeed around the ridiculously narrow streets of
Monaco. Of arguably his greatest pole-setting lap, he claimed, spiritually
speaking, to have been in another place. Hamilton, less inclined to the
mystical, just about understands where the great Brazilian was coming from.
“I can relate to that mindset, that commitment to getting round this place.
When you hook up that lap, it feels almost effortless. It’s almost like
everything goes quiet. Totally.
“You really do feel - it’s hard to describe - everything seems to go well, it
feels as though you’re on rails, you turn in at the right time, you brake at
the perfect point, there’s no need for corrections. I’ve had experiences
like that. Even last year in qualifying, that was a great lap, but to
experience it the way Senna talked about, that would be another level.
Perhaps it will happen.
“Monaco is so tight and narrow, and when you consider how quick you are
driving, it is unreal. To be quick, you need to use every centimetre, even
including touching the barriers at some points. You are hitting some corners
at 170mph and you know there is no run-off area, you can’t see the exit, all
you can see is what is directly in front of you, probably about 50 metres.
“In some corners it is almost a guess; where the car should be, hoping you are
in the right place, relying on instinct and memory, and, well, basically
hanging on for dear life.”
Some of the other younger drivers, such as Felipe Massa, admit they hate
Monaco, preferring the wide, modern circuits with their long, fast corners
and forgiving run-off areas. Hamilton says he loves every single minute he
spends on the track. The way he performs here suggests he means it.
Even if it rains. “It will be tricky, especially without traction control and
the aids we had last year that helped reduce the rear wheels locking,” he
says. “Monaco is the best track, wet or dry.
“For sure it will be a little bit more dangerous in the wet, but that is
exciting. It’s the weekend I look forward to more than any other, the place
where the best drivers really can make a difference. And this year,”
Hamilton warns, “I’m a better driver than I was last year.”
