Debate: can Lewis be as good as Michael Schumacher? | Simon Barnes on Hamilton's risk | 2008 race-by-race | Hamilton's win in his own words | Graphic: the most thrilling championship finish ever?

More than two years on, thousands still click on to the 41-second video clip that announced Lewis Hamilton’s arrival on the world stage. If ever the Formula One historians want one piece of film to demonstrate the Briton’s unique talent, it is in those few moments that more than 579,000 people have viewed on YouTube.

Hamilton, blasting from the back of the field, forces his way through by sheer, unstoppable willpower, three abreast through Becketts corner. Nelson Piquet Jr, now a rival in Formula One, flies off on to the grass, smashing through a polystyrene sign, while Hamilton drives serenely to the chequered flag and a standing ovation from 80,000 spectators.

Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton is a one-off. He proved it on that summer’s day at Silverstone, when he was supposed to be part of the support act for the 2006 British Grand Prix and stole the show in his GP2 car - and he proved it again last night in Brazil.

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Yet for all his gilded talent, his swashbuckling style and that flashing smile, will we ever fall in love with Lewis Hamilton? The dashing Stirling Moss became a legend and did not even win a world title, while everyone adored Nigel Mansell, the beaming Brummie who won the championship in 1992. Every mother wanted their daughter to bring home a Damon Hill, Britain’s previous Formula One champion in 1996. But Hamilton has become Formula One’s Marmite: you love him or you hate him.

There are signs that the adoration of a once spellbound public has waned since the turmoil of last season, when they switched on in their tens of millions to watch his dramatic ascent.

That was when Hamilton was the “kid made good” from a council house in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, battling, it seemed, against the forces of evil as the FIA, the sport’s world governing body, and Fernando Alonso, his teammate at the time, seemed to be ganging up on him. This morning Hamilton is the multimillionaire Formula One world champion who chose to live as a tax exile in Switzerland, goes to showbiz parties and dates a gorgeous Pussycat Doll. Little wonder that the glitter has tarnished.

For one contingent, there is no doubt: many of Formula One’s drivers cannot abide him. They would not say it in public, although their eyes often tell the story of their private loathing of Hamilton’s rocket-like ascent to stardom, his lifestyle and the fact that he stepped from obscurity into an amazingly fast car that they will never have a chance to drive. Most of all, though, they dislike him for winning. They, too, have earned millions and have the apartment in Monaco or the château in Switzerland, but none of them is Hamilton, a single-minded loner utterly dedicated to winning.

They moan that his driving verges on the dangerous and that he refuses to join the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association (GPDA), their trade union. Ayrton Senna, Hamilton’s hero, could be infuriating and arrogant, but he loved extravagant practical jokes. Michael Schumacher won seven World Championships but was chairman of the GPDA and, in contrast to his pugnacious public image, loved the company of his Ferrari team and was happy to let off steam with a cigar and a Bacardi and Coke and a karaoke session at the end of the season.

Hamilton does none of those things. He rarely drinks, is polite, quietly spoken and answers questions with patter delivered as smoothly as a game-show host. He is too good to be true, too cool, too smooth - and, perhaps, too remote. And maybe that is why this morning Formula One fans will have that water cooler moment when they ask: “Do you like him or loathe him?” It is a question that would have been unthinkable a year ago.

Because who really knows Hamilton? He lives in a multimillion-pound bubble, surrounded only by his close family. Insiders at McLaren say that he has spent £200,000 of his £20 million fortune this year flying Anthony, his father and manager, Nic, his brother, Linda, his stepmother, and Carmen, his mother, from race to race. Now Nicole Scherzinger, the Pussycat Dolls’ lead singer, has joined Team Hamilton in first class.

Even Ron Dennis, the McLaren team principal, who mentored Hamilton for ten years before bringing him into one of the most successful teams in sport, seems to have lost his rapport with his protégé. Over a glass of red wine, Dennis will often tell of the pranks he played on Senna and how he once tossed a coin with the great Brazilian to decide whether to give him a $1 million pay rise. Dennis never tells who won, because he says that it does not matter.

But he knows one thing of the young man who could be Senna’s natural successor: he can keep his coins in his pocket. For Hamilton, Formula One is no joke.

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‘Huge congratulation to Lewis! That was the Nou Camp and Istanbul all wrapped into one on that last lap’

After the racist comments on a Spanish website last week there was more vitriol directed at the new world champion on internet messageboards in the aftermath of the chequered flag. This time it was inspired by the belief that Lewis Hamilton’s title was the result of a gift on the last lap. But for all the posts claiming Felipe Massa would have been a more worthy winner, there were plenty lauding Hamilton.

“The fact that Lewis has achieved this amidst a storm of disgusting vitriol and on a decidedly unlevel playing field has made this an even more pleasing victory.”

- Triumph, motorsport.com

“Glock lost over 15 seconds on that last lap and seemingly slowed down right at the very last corner to a snail’s pace. Does anyone else find that worthy of some kind of inquest?”

- Bowers, motorsport.com

“I really feel for Massa, wanted him to win and really didn’t want Hamilton to win it this season, but conspiracy theorists need only look at the two people on dry tyres on the last lap - [Jarno] Trulli and [Timo] Glock - who both set near identical 1:44:00 lap times.”

- Paranoid 124, planet-f1.com

“Unbelievable and huge congratulation to Lewis! That was the Nou Camp and Istanbul all wrapped into one on that last lap.

- DB9, bbc.co.uk/606

“Regardless of the penalties and the controversy, [Massa has] driven absolutely fantastically for the majority of the season. And he took the defeat, under such devastating circumstances, in such a mature manner. You can’t help but feel sorry and show some respect towards him for all of that.”

- Dbfinch, planet-f1.com

“This is the world champion? When a driver from another team suddenly has to pull over without a fight and give it to you? I do not think so. Hamilton may be called 2008 world champion officially, but he knows who the true champion is, as does everyone this year, and his name is Felipe Massa. What a pity.”

- MonzaOne, autosport.com

“What’s with the babies acting like the last race decides whether or not a championship is deserved? I don’t buy the fake outrage over Glock slowing in the last corner. Since the beginning of time, the last corner of Interlagos has always induced understeer. Add slick tyres on a wet track getting wetter and you have Glock going wide.”

- Mpower, autosport.com