Hamilton's 'appliance of science' is down to education
John Surtees Weblog - 18 June 2007
Another superb performance by Lewis Hamilton in the US over the weekend. He used practice in a very methodical and focused manner to put it all together for a superb qualifying session and then did everything that could be asked of him, including fending off an extremely determined Alonso, to win his second Grand Prix.
The team certainly did a wonderful job for both cars and I hope the pace that the race was run at doesn’t bring about an engine reliability problem the next time out.
It is interesting to read in BusinessF1 Magazine how people are waking up to the simulator that McLaren has developed ie their rather advanced in-house 'PlayStation'.
Obviously this must be of help to a driver going to a circuit for the first time but only if that driver can really focus his mind on making the utmost use of the technology available to him. That brings me also to a point that was made in the same article - the fact that Lewis has the intelligence to learn and file it away in his mind in a similar way to Michael Schumacher.
It is my belief that those parents or backers, who I have seen in the world of karting, who disregard education for the sake of trying to gain a short-term advantage by having more test and race days make a grave mistake.
Youngsters have to have a balance in their lives and be able to relate not just to machinery but also to people - and educcation is a vital ingredient in this development.
So we need not only quick drivers but also intelligent ones who can make the most of the opportunities they have...and we don’t have better example at the moment than Lewis.
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