Hamilton struggles to be popular | 2008 race-by-race | Hamilton in his own words | Graphic: the thrilling finish | Do you believe in the conspiracy theories?

To sit with Lewis Hamilton in an hotel room in São Paulo yesterday was to confront questions about what we expect from our sporting heroes.

Hamilton was variously asked about money, fame, relationships, racism and American politics on top of how it felt to be Formula One world champion. Even if he was remarkably fresh-faced, having opted merely for a couple of glasses of celebratory champagne, that was a lot to coax from a man described by his father as “just a big kid with a car”.

“No Muhammad Ali,” is how Flavio Briatore, the managing director of the Renault team, recently derided Hamilton, but what became evident yesterday is that Hamilton does not aspire to be a black icon or a man who changes the world.

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Earl Woods once made those sorts of boasts on behalf of his son, Tiger. Woods Jr, it transpired, just wanted to be the best in the world with a five-iron.

In a similar vein, being the first black Formula One champion was not a subject that Hamilton particularly wanted to dwell on.

“I have not really thought about it,” he said. “Pretty much for my whole life, I've never turned up to a race and thought, ‘I'm the only black dude here'. We're just a family who love to race and enjoy the experience.” He was asked, but had little to say, about Barack Obama.

Hamilton is a 23-year-old from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, with a pretty girl on his arm, more money than he knows how to spend and ambitions that do not extend much beyond winning the three World Championships - equalling Ayrton Senna's haul for McLaren - that will secure the car of his dreams as a reward from Ron Dennis, the team principal.

In the McLaren factory sits an orange F1 LM worth about £5million. Hamilton has coveted it since he was given a car book as a ten-year-old and was enraptured by the picture on the cover.

“I don't ever plan on trying to beat any of Schumacher's records,” he said. “It's not something that really appeals to me. I just want to win this car off Ron.

“I have gazed at it every time I've walked past it. I always open it up and smell it. It's carbon, it's fresh, it's No1 out of five and probably the most expensive, beautiful car in the whole world. I told Ron, 'That's the car I really want, what have I got to do for it?'” Two more World Championships is the answer.

Talking to Hamilton and his father, Anthony, and seeing their wide-eyed excitement that their dreams have come true, it was hard to imagine how they had become the source of such envy and resentment to the point where Anthony had questioned whether it was worth staying in the sport.

If we have to acknowledge that they have played a part in Lewis becoming a polarising figure, it is that he sometimes carried the air of a champion prematurely. There was the autobiography at 22, which Lewis accepted yesterday was a mistake - “I won't be doing another one for 20 years,” he promised. There were the overstated claims that the paparazzi have driven him to flee the country, although he is making no apologies - and why should he? - for choosing to live in tax exile in Switzerland.

The family have also talked, a little more than some would like, about destiny and being blessed by God. Anthony said that God had guided Lewis through the last few races of the season and over the finish line, even arranging a wake-up call with the impetuous mistake at the Fuji Speedway three races ago. “I think it was God-sent,” Anthony said. “The whole thing has been a sign: 'Lewis, I'm warning you here. Take [the lesson] in Japan, come back in China and regroup.'” Plenty of sportsmen talk about faith, but his rivals, and others, have detected a degree of presumptuousness. Is Hamilton, they ask, the only one touched by God?

If such talk of blessings and gifts points to a stunning self-certainty possessed by Anthony and Lewis, we must also acknowledge that, without it, they might be working in office jobs in Stevenage. The story has become familiar of how Anthony made sacrifices to fund the young Lewis's career. “When we first started, I was earning £14,000 a year and I was spending £16,000 on mortgages,” Anthony said. “We fell into this karting thing.

“It was just something to bring the family together, more than anything. We weren't following anyone, we had no aspirations, there are no sportsfolk in the family. It was just a great thing to do one afternoon.”

Hamilton came to enjoy the patronage of McLaren, and access to one of the fastest cars in the sport, but only by first proving his talent. Now all that hard work has secured the sport's ultimate prize, there will be no let-up in expectations. Hamilton has proved himself to be very good. Now he is under pressure to show he is among the very best.

By his own admission, he has been inconsistent this season and, on Sunday, demonstrated a familiar weakness of using up his tyres, which made him vulnerable to the late drama. Yet he is the sport's youngest champion, nevertheless.

Last year he drank until he vomited, trying to forget defeat, but this year he sipped water so that he could cherish the memories. He departed the McLaren party after the entire team, from Dennis to the chefs, had sung along to We are the Champions. “It's a feeling you can't put into words to see how happy you've made everyone,” Hamilton said. Then he slipped off to bed.

“That was my prize,” he said, denying that he would be rushing out to buy a vast mansion, a private jet, a yacht - something befitting his new status.

“It's an amazing feeling to know you've made some money, considering I never had £100 to buy myself some trainers when I was younger,” he added. “To think that we can do that now is great, but it doesn't particularly appeal to me. It is nice to be able to take care of my family. That's all that really matters.”

Indeed, the best thing about being world champion, Hamilton added, was that he does not have to carry number 22 on his car any more. “I can have No1. That's the coolest thing ever,” he said. And it all seemed rather sweet and innocent.

He was not Muhammad Ali, just “a big kid with a car” who was first across the line.

Champion must stand on ceremony

You would have thought that, having unearthed a world champion after a long, compelling season, the powers behind Formula One would be keen to parade the sport's new hero. Instead, in an established tradition, Lewis Hamilton is required to wait until a gala dinner in Monaco next month to grasp the silver flower vase that is the prize for winning the drivers' championship. In addition, under Formula One's ultra-bureaucratic guidelines, the 23-year-old Briton will not be world champion officially if he fails to show up to collect his prize.