Debate: Can Britain learn to love Lewis Hamilton?

When Lewis Hamilton roared across the finishing line at the Brazilian Grand Prix, he not only became the youngest world champion in Formula One history, the first British champion since 1996 and quite possibly the most bankable sporting commodity on the planet. He also became, unexpectedly, one of the most divisive British sporting figures for a generation.

On internet forums and radio phone-ins across the nation yesterday, thousands of fans took the time to express their pride and joy in a British driver who held his nerve to triumph in one of the most pulsating, dramatic and emotionally charged sporting events of recent years. They eulogised about his strength of character, raved about the example he sets to youngsters and drooled over his winning looks.

But thousands of others took a different view, dialling in to express their dislike for a man who, they believe, symbolises everything that has gone wrong with modern sport.

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If Hamilton, 23, is perplexed by the schism that he has created in British public opinion, he is not alone. Many of those hosting the phone-ins – expecting a good-natured bout of national rejoicing – seemed stunned by the backlash. The issue seems to go far deeper than Hamilton, whose handlers like to cultivate the image of a flag-waving patriot, living as a tax exile in Switzerland.

There is also a pervasive feeling that the driver is aloof and manipulative: a cleverly spun, commercially groomed media creation with whom many feel little or no affinity. “He is confrontational. He is arrogant. He is selfish. In short, he is an entirely un-British sportsman,” wrote one blogger.

It is striking that Hamilton’s capacity to divide opinion is not confined to the British public: it also extends to the security-controlled perimeter of the Formula One paddock. Although adored by many within his McLaren Mercedes team, which has cultivated his formidable talent for more than a decade, Hamilton is despised by many rival teams, including many of his fellow drivers.

Just over a year ago, he walked into a briefing before the China Grand Prix and was confronted with an atmosphere so hostile from the other drivers that he said afterwards, they were waiting “with rifles, ready to shoot me”.

Hamilton’s admirers will argue that this dislike is at least partly fuelled by envy: the British driver has the best car, the most commercial clout and, arguably, the prettiest girlfriend. But his detractors will respond that many of his most high-profile predecessors as world champion did not suffer in anything like the same way. But back to the reaction of the British public, for it is this that will strike most fear into those charged with exploiting Hamilton’s commercial potential, estimated to be in the region of £500 million over the next decade. Even though Hamilton is one of a select band of sportsmen whose appeal transcends national boundaries, his handlers will be aware that continued unpopularity at home could seriously taint his global image and hamper the flow of endorsements. Has Hamilton’s race got anything to do with the problem? Although this is undoubtedly the cause of his unpopularity with a small group of Formula One fans outside Britain, particularly in Spain, where Hamilton endured racial abuse from spectators during testing in February, there is little to suggest this is in any way responsible for the coolness felt towards Hamilton by large sections of the British public.

Most of yesterday’s anger was directed at his tax status and there is no doubt that the initial decision to move to Switzerland last year was spectacularly mishandled. Straying beyond spin into barefaced deceit, Team Hamilton touted the idea that it was all about avoiding the paparazzi and had nothing to do with tax avoidance.

Nobody was fooled – particularly as he was about to embark on a publicity blitz to coincide with the publication of his autobiography – and a contrite Hamilton was forced to come clean on the Michael Parkinson show a few weeks later.

But given that many sportsmen and entertainers have beaten a similar retreat from the British taxman without suffering comparable condemnation suggests that there is something else about Hamilton – his character, his attitude or, at the very least, his carefully cultivated image – that is turning off large sections of the British public. Hamilton has won the world title. He faces a tougher battle to win the heart of his nation.