“I am either hated or loved,” he accepts. “Unfortunately, when I got into F1,
I sometimes said one thing and meant another and people took it the wrong
way. They don’t forget. For example, go to Spain. They generally hate me
there. You are branded. All you can do is try to change it slowly, but it
takes time. There are tons of people who dislike me but tons who really like
me, too. What I guarantee is that people who don’t, change their opinions
when they meet me.”
Hamilton’s Mercedes debut in Melbourne this weekend signals the clearest
watershed yet in the career of a young man desperate to inscribe his name as
a great.
His frustrations under Ron Dennis’s regime of meticulous control at McLaren,
coupled with a five-year wait to repeat his maiden world title and a
strained relationship with team-mate Jenson Button, all flowed into his
decision to re-establish his credentials at a less heralded team. He is
swift to invoke the example of Ayrton Senna.
“When I speak about greatness, I just know the stories about Ayrton Senna, the
way he would walk into a room, the aura he had, how he carried himself, how
he drove and inspired people, inspired a nation – that is greatness. I hope
that I will have that greatness.”
No one should doubt Hamilton’s devotion to his cause, or the passion he throws
behind his phenomenal natural skill. His palpable relish for the 2013
season, even if his Mercedes is at best an outside bet to help secure his
second world championship, is also explained by his sense of personal
liberation. While his lifestyle of fraternising with rap artists and
shuttling to Los Angeles to see pop star girlfriend Nicole Scherzinger can
be anathema to motorsport purists, he could scarcely care less.
“Everyone has their own tastes,” he says. “I feel that I can express myself
better nowadays, be more myself. I am comfortable with who I am, I don’t
need someone telling me. My dad [Anthony] doesn’t approve of my tattoos, for
example, but I don’t need approval. If people don’t accept me for who I am,
that is their problem.”
Alluding to the regimented ethos he escaped at McLaren, Hamilton adds: “I have
come from a controlled environment where you had to do and say what you were
told. While you have to keep your values and remain respectful and polite,
you can still be who you want to be.”
By his own acknowledgement, Hamilton is not averse to “taking a walk on the
wild side”. The hot-bloodedness he exhibits in his racing is manifested just
as vividly in his life away from the track. “I like to ski or do wild sports
like rock-climbing. I don’t party much – I haven’t had a drink for a year.
If I do, I go pretty hard. I am an extremist – all in.”
This illuminates why he has had his private jet daubed in such a lurid shade.
“Every plane is boring white,” he says, seeking to justify his scarlet
wings. “It doesn’t cost that much to get a paint job. Do it properly.” Or
why he has persuaded Bernie Ecclestone to grant a paddock pass to his
newly-acquired bulldog, Roscoe. “I told him that I had a new member of my
family and he asked me to send a picture. So I sent one of Roscoe wearing
headphones. Bernie wasn’t too happy.”
Sebastian Vettel, the youngest ever triple world champion at 25, is famed for
ferociously guarding his privacy at home in Switzerland; the ‘anti-Lewis’,
if you like. But the incorrigible Hamilton is simply not the type to learn
by example. “I don’t think I need to change. I aspire to be unique.”