Sir Frank Williams has made it clear that if Lewis Hamilton was not tightly secured to a McLaren contract, the 22-year-old rookie would be at the top of his driver wish-list for 2008.
“I cry he’s not in a Williams, but I rejoice for formula one,” said the eponymous team principal, who whilst also referring to Michael Schumacher described the 22-year-old as “another superhuman” racer.
Not only has Briton Hamilton made history after driving to the podium at every race in his fledgling career so far, he has won over some of the most hardened of F1’s usual cynics.
Today as a commentator, triple world champion Niki Lauda is famous for letting fly with cogent insults, but even the great Austrian is rolling out the superlatives when describing F1’s new boy.
Crediting Ron Dennis for Lewis’ “perfect” preparation in junior categories, Lauda also said: “Hamilton made perhaps one small error so far, but most importantly he is showing that he is on a level with the double world champion Alonso.
“I have never seen something like that in all my time in motor racing.”
Lauda, however, said Hamilton will “inevitably” make bigger errors this year.
1992 world champion Nigel Mansell, meanwhile, gives at least some of the credit to the competitive MP4-22 McLaren, observing that Schumacher and Ayrton Senna’s debuts in inferior machines were arguably more impressive.
“What he’s done is what he should have been doing anyway,” Mansell told the Daily Telegraph.
