Sir Lewis Hamilton: A Statesman in the Making

The last few weeks have witnessed a lot of action in the world of sports. For my readers in/from India, it couldn’t have gotten any better than the Indian World Cup T20 win. This was followed by the ups and downs in the Euro’s with Spain emerging winners. And on yet another kind of a green surface, Carlos Alcaraz just stamped his authority over an ageing (looking visibly tired and done with, or was it just me?) Novak Djokovic denying him a silver jubilee Grand Slam leading to an avalanche of talks of ‘it’s about time he walks into the sunset’ cropping up.

However, a week prior to Djokovic getting a reminder from Father Time, another sportsperson on the wrong end of the 30s swatted away Father Time by registering a massive, massive victory at his home turf when he won the British Grand Prix. For those aware of, and fans of, F1 this was a victory that was as big as it got. For those unaware, the two pictures below should give even a bystander a very good idea of the scale of the achievement.

Take a moment to let the statistics sink in. Read them once. Then again. And again. It’s okay if you find yourself rubbing your eyes in disbelief.

But today’s post is not about the sporting achievements of Lewis Hamilton. In fact, it is about anything but that.

What got me thinking beyond the achievement, the celebrations, the joy and all the frenzy in media and social media was my daughter’s reaction. She too is an avid F1 fan and not a recent convert like many are thanks to Netflix’s Drive to Survive. She wept. (I don’t mind admitting that even my eyes welled up.) She felt like it was her victory. She was happy for him like she hasn’t been happy for herself. She called it the best birthday present she ever got (she celebrated hers a day prior) – so much for the presents we showered on her. 😤

Jokes aside, Hamilton’s win took me back to the times when I had celebrated the highs with Boris Becker when he won his first Wimbledon title, with Maradona scoring the Goal of the Century (or is it the Millennium?), with Ayrton Senna when he beat Alain Prost (no TV coverage in those days – one had to do reading Sportstar), with Muhammad Ali when one saw footage of his ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight, with Michael Schumacher when he was undisputed in the aughts.

And I have been dejected when Becker served prison time, when Maradona started flirting with 8-ball instead of football, when Senna died in a crash (my world came literally crashing down when I read that news), when Muhammad Ali couldn’t knock out Parkinson’s, when Schumacher met with a skiing accident and has been on a long road to recovery (fingers crossed we get to see his twinkly smile soon).

This kind of affinity with achievers is understandable since these one-sided, but deeply committed and involved, relationships are called parasocial relationships. In a nutshell it means ‘you feel good when something good happens and feel bad when something bad happens to your favourite’.

In the galaxy of achievers, there are only a few who truly transcend beyond their primary area of expertise and expand boundaries of their influence for positive impact. They go beyond being just sportspeople, beyond being called icons, beyond becoming legendary.

They become statesmen.

Muhammad Ali was one such achiever who became a statesman in the last century.

Now here is something I don’t normally do, that is make predictions. But then there are always exceptions.

I am going out on a limb and declaring that in Sir Lewis Hamilton we have a statesman in the making for this century.

The popular impression of the term statesman is its immediate association with political figures. Like Mahatma Gandhi. Like Martin Luther King Jr. Like Abraham Lincoln. Like Jawaharlal Nehru. Like Barack Obama more recently. And if not political figures, then pioneers like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Steve Jobs, Ratan Tata, Bill Gates to name a few. Each of these figures have had a profound impact on society through the power of their vision and their ability to execute and implement. Muhammad Ali is possibly the only sportsperson to make it to these hallowed chambers. And like I said, Hamilton stands a good chance to be seen as a statesman.

So, let’s understand what makes a statesman?

Professor J. Rufus Fears, University of Oklahoma, has the most comprehensive yardstick for identifying statesmen. He propounds that every statesman must possess these four qualities:

• A bedrock of principles

• A moral compass

• A vision

• The ability to build a consensus to achieve that vision

On the face of it these might seem a little too blah, but on internalizing them and on closer examination it will become evident that many might have one or the other or maybe even a couple of these traits, but to possess all four and put them in practice every single time is not everyone’s cup of tea.

Since the protagonist of today’s post is an active sportsperson and not someone who is studied as part of syllabus in schools or colleges, one might not know much of him or about him except in the context of his sporting achievements. And that too only a limited audience might be aware of that as well since watching 20 cars go round and round and round a circuit for a couple of hours is not everyone’s idea of watching a sport or recreation.

But Lewis Hamilton’s influence far exceeds the approximately 5 km circuits he drives around about 22 odd times in a year.

The son of a Black father and a white mother, who survived a broken home in his youth, Lewis Hamilton, grew up on a municipal housing estate in Stevenage where his father Anthony at one time held down three jobs to fund his son’s embryonic racing career in karts. His journey was unprivileged and without luxury, but it was clear from an early age that he had an outstanding gift for speed and all the gutsy natural instincts of a born racer. Hamilton showed his racing instincts when he won the British Radio Car Association championships at the tender age of 6, competing against adults. Not only was he the only kid, but he was also the only Black kid. Watch this clip of a cute Hamilton with razor sharp focus and you will get an idea of his precociousness.

F1 is a hyper competitive sport that only has 20 job vacancies and only few open up every year, it at all. Competition is white. Competition is tough. Competition is entitled. Competition is wealthy. And when competition and money go hand in hand, principles are the first to go out the window. Hamilton was an outlier - poor and Black.

In spite of his environment and the difficulties faced on a daily basis, Hamilton happens to be one of the most principled drivers on the circuit for close to two decades now. He will fight, never give up, but it will always be fair and square. He is aggressive on the circuit, but that is only limited to outdriving his rivals. He believes in the fundamental goodness of fellow humans and you will never hear him say anything remotely rude or nasty about anyone. He has an unwavering focus towards winning, but for him winning is not the only thing. He credits this quality of his to his upbringing as well as the adversities he faced as a Black child wanting to make a mark in a predominantly white sport. And in spite of having faced several hurdles throughout his growing up years, he doesn’t have any kind of animosity or holds any grudges towards the injustice. His way of responding has always been to let his accomplishments speak for themselves.

The principles were on full display after the injustice meted out to him in the finale to the 2021 season when Hamilton was robbed of a record setting 8^th World Championship by what was conveniently called a ‘human error’ by the race director. It was a moment when no one would have grudged him a visible show of anger or using strong words or even sulking. But the true sportsman he is, he didn’t let it affect his better judgment and walked across to Max Verstappen to congratulate him on his maiden title. It’s not just a bedrock, but a deep foundation of principles.

From an early age Hamilton’s endeavour has been to overcome social injustice and succeed. While he is not into hero worship, the closest he comes to that is when it comes to Muhammad Ali (no surprises there). He is heavily influenced and inspired by Ali. He has gone on record to say,

“He (Ali) has been one of my biggest inspirations my whole life. A man that knew just what to say. As a Black kid growing up in a predominantly white city and country, it’s hard to be the only one in your class or job. Like all of us, no matter what colour you are, it’s great to have people to look up to. Ali was one of those for me, as well as my dad. He helped me to believe that someone that looked like me could do anything, and that my dreams were achievable, and that’s what I hope to do for the generations after me, and to remove limitations based on race.”

Hamilton’s moral compass is firmly stuck only in one direction – of being good, of doing good, of speaking good.

If you follow Hamilton on Instagram (strongly recommended), you will realise that there is never a word out of place – ever. Even at the lowest points in his racing career over the last 2.5 years, he only had good and positive things to say about the team and the efforts they put in and that they are all in it together and how it drives him to do better every other weekend during the season. And it’s not like he says these words only for effect. Like a true leader, he blames himself when he doesn’t win but is only all praise about the team when he does. It is less about himself, and more about the team. Post the latest win of his, Hamilton made it a point to take time out and visit the factory where all the mechanics toil away to make cars that have allowed him to win.

As a 6 year old Hamilton was the only Black kid in the BRCA championships. As an 8 year old he was the only Black kid who debuted in Go Karting. As a 22 year old he was the only Black kid to debut in F1. It is very telling that even as a 39 year old veteran, he remains the only Black racing driver in F1.

This reality was not lost on Hamilton while he was notching up one victory after another, breaking one record after another. The unwavering focus we saw in the 6 year old in the video earlier is now firmly set on making the world, not just his sport, a more inclusive place where the colour of one’s skin would not come in one’s way. With a vision to reduce inequality in society and not just in sport, Hamilton set up the Mission 44 Foundation (44 is his car number) to build a fairer, more inclusive future for young people around the world. Its priority areas: Education, Employment & Empowerment. For someone raised in public housing, Hamilton now moves in privileged circles. But his vision never leaves him. How wedded he is to his vision of eradicating inequality is also seen in small gestures like him buying a table on his own account for a designer of colour for the Met Gala.

As far as consensus building to achieving that vision is concerned, what more proof than Hamilton co-opting Formula 1 parent FIA into Mission 44. For those unaware of the FIA, it is possibly one of the most political, and most divided organisations known for its machinations and scheming and profiteering ways where the only language spoken and understood is Money. Needles to say it is white. To get that organisation to endorse Mission 44’s vision and mission is no mean feat. Hamilton has been one of the most visible proponents of the Black Lives Matter movement, getting his fellow drivers to take a knee in support of the the killings that followed the torturous death of George Floyd.

And since injustice and inequality goes beyond skin and into softer territories like gender preferences, Hamilton identifies with the struggles of the LGBTQI movement as well. The only part of his official livery that can have some level of customization and personalization is the helmet. Sure enough, Hamilton’s helmet proudly sported the Pride colours during, of all the races in the calendar, the Qatar Grand Prix! He has gone on record to state that he was prepared to get thrown in jail in support of the cause. Hamilton had said of Muhammad Ali that ‘no one had the balls that he had.’ Well … to stand for a gender equality cause in an ultra conservative country also takes balls.

Another cause that Hamilton fervently promotes is to raise the status of Africa as a continent – an homage to his African roots. Not just spoken words here. He practices what he preaches. His last few annual vacations have been to countries in Africa. He unabashedly promotes the places he visits to his almost 40 million followers. Without expecting any endorsement deals for promoting tourism in those countries. In fact, he has managed to weave in his vision even in his endorsements – the latest being his association with Christian Dior which is going to launch a special project around African heritage that will promote African designs and fabrics.

Lewis Hamilton seems to go against the grain of conventional thinking when it comes to highly competitive, determined, and successful people. No emotional outbursts – rather appearing calm, composed, and gentle-natured. There’s no denying his steely determination to succeed, but this seems in stark contrast to descriptions of him as humble, caring, and altruistic – traits not often associated with pioneers. Resilience is often described as the ability to bounce back. Hamilton has consistently shown that it is not only about how we respond to setbacks on-track and off-track, but also not give up on causes that one believes in by exploiting the platform that you are fortunate to have for accomplishing the larger vision.

An F1 car is all about marginal gains. It’s possible that Hamilton has used this principle, redirecting his accomplishments to make improvements, rather than wasting it on expressing his frustrations.

Statesmen, per se, are not meant to be relatable since their achievements generally do not touch people at a visceral level. They are supernovas - the brighter they get, the more distant they become. But then there are some statesmen with whom people form parasocial relationships. These statesmen raise the bar for other statesmen because they remain uncorrupted by the trappings of their achievements. Just like how it was with Muhammad Ali. Just like how it will be with Lewis Hamilton.

With an impending move to Ferrari next year, Hamilton is on the cusp of all-time greatness on track (it’s not that he isn’t a GOAT already) with a potential 8^th World Championship that he was denied 3 years ago. But he seems to be just getting started on emulating another statesman, his idol Muhammad Ali, for off track greatness. And that is something to watch out for and keep track of.

Be braver. Be kinder.

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In keeping with the sport that Lewis Hamilton excels in, for Keep Watching this time I am sharing my review of a documentary on another legend of the sport - Michael Schumacher - whose name is synonymous with fast driving. Unlike his racing though, the documentary leaves a lot to be desired.

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A documentary on the legendary Michael Schumacher, it traces the phenomenal rise of the man to greatness in a sport that he was born to rule. With archival footage that starts from his go-karting days to F1 glory, it also shows the human, emotional, loving side of Schumacher which many fans like me would never associate him since we only experienced the clinical, competitive and driven driver side of his. The documentary however has a sense of foreboding all through that gives the impression that he’s being spoken of in the past tense, and that I think is it’s failing.

Schumacher | Netflix | Documentary