You all know the story. He was signed, at an early age, to McLaren’s Young Driver Support Programme and was guided through a very ‘complete’ early career – certainly when compared to teammate Jenson Button’s. Whereas Button’s journey into Formula 1 feels somewhat rushed, Hamilton’s is a carefully mapped series of steps up the ladder.

He won the Formula A, Formula Renault and Formula Three championships before reaching Formula 1’s feeder series, GP2. Hamilton won the GP2 championship in his first time of trying in 2006, and certainly thrilled me in the process. I was sat at Maggots/Becketts at Silverstone for the race – and I’ll be honest, I wasn’t particularly interested in GP2; it was more something to fill the time before the big boys came out. But then Hamilton pulled off that breathtaking three abreast move right in front of my eyes and I was in awe. I’m sure you know the one I mean – it’s on YouTube. It was good to have some excitement: I had really gone to see Jenson Button who pulled off on lap 8 with an oil leak!

Not many were surprised when Hamilton entered the top-flight in 2007, however some were surprised with his team. Many thought McLaren would put him in a smaller team to give him time to find his feet, but going into the season it was announced he’s be thrust straight in at the deep end alongside double world champ Fernando Alonso. He finished his first race on the podium, and got his first pole and victory in Montreal.

Of course it wasn’t all plain sailing. The spy-gate saga plagued the team that year and they were docked all constructors’ points. The Hamilton-Alonso relationship broke down. But at the end of it all, Hamilton finished 2^nd in the championship: a stunning effort in a debut season.

For 2008, the team tensions were removed with the termination of Alonso’s contract and Hamilton went on to win the championship, completely showing up new teammate Heikki Kovalainen in the process. The championship went down to the wire and it looked like Felipe Massa would triumph, until Hamilton made a last gasp overtake on the slow moving Toyota of Timo Glock to steal the championship away on Massa’s home turf.

2009 was a major disappointment for the Brit. The MP4-24 was astonishingly bad by McLaren’s standards and there was of course drama from the outset with the lie-gate saga at the Australian GP. The car was improved by the team and Hamilton managed to ring two victories out of it. By contrast, Kovalainen’s best finish was one fourth place.

For 2010, Hamilton will line-up against his compatriot Jenson Button. On paper, he should have a less easy time against his teammate than he has for the last couple of years – let’s see what he does.

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