Formula One, a circus on a world tour is, despite its tinselled, even exotic image, a very conservative place, for its leading figures are generally middle-aged and middle-class traditionalists.
So when Lewis Hamilton slips into his urban argot he can leave some people floundering in the same way he leaves his rivals standing when the lights go out.
Hamilton, when asked about Juan Manuel Fangio, who just might have been the greatest F1 driver, replied: “What a privilege to be mentioned in the same sentence as Fangio. For me Ayrton Senna, growing up, was the guy I wanted to be like, but Fangio is up there and is really the OG above him.”
Cue bewildered expressions all round (apparently OG means Original Gangster).
The reason Fangio had come into the conversation was El Maestro from Argentina is the only driver to win three Italian Grands Prix on the trot, 1953-55, a record Hamilton will equal if he wins on Sunday.
Fangio’s figures are astonishing: in seven full seasons he won five world championships. He competed in 51 F1 races and won 24. He also set 28 pole positions and 23 fastest laps. OG indeed but this is the rarefied atmosphere Hamilton has moved into lately.
Hamilton shook his head. “It’s pretty frickin crazy when you mention Fangio. Jeez!” Victory on Sunday would also be Hamilton’s 50th, placing him one behind Alain Prost; when he goes past him there will be only Michael Schumacher ahead, though that is quite a climb, for the German won 91 times.
In 2012 BBC Sport profiled the 20 greatest F1 drivers of all time. They rated Fangio second to Senna, with Jim Clark third and Hamilton in 15th place. That was four years ago and the British driver has improved his grid position since then.
The world champion has never been stats-driven, though it meant a great deal when he equalled Senna’s record of three world titles last year.
“It’s not that I undervalue it [the records],” he said. “It just hasn’t been my focus. I have to pinch myself every day that I even have the job I have. I get to travel, do the great things I get to see and experience, and then I arrive and drive and do what I love.
“I don’t know how, but it just happens. I don’t know why in the world things happen the way they do and I am just grateful for the position I am in.”
He is 31 but an excited, bright-eyed child lives on within him. His lead over his team-mate, Nico Rosberg, is nine points but he cut an utterly relaxed figure in the Mercedes motorhome.
“The good thing here is I don’t have anyone trying to hold me back. If anything, the brighter I shine the better it is for this team.
“Joining Mercedes has allowed me to take the last step. Ron [Dennis, the McLaren chairman] even said at some stage ‘I would never let him to do that’, and who is anyone to hold someone back?”
This led us, inevitably, to Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, the driver most likely to unseat Hamilton as the biggest box office draw in the sport and the competitor whose aggressive style has ruffled more feathers than a fox in a henhouse.
“Max has grabbed his opportunity with both hands,” Hamilton said. “First, give the guy a break, Verstappen is 18 years old. What the heck were any of us doing at 18?
“He has won a grand prix. The pressure on his young shoulders is something most people will not be able to comprehend.
“Come on, he is just young and he is learning. I don’t know what I would have been like at 18 on track but I would have made lots of mistakes.” Urgently, he added: “I would have been quick!”
He went on: “I just see a young, talented kid who just seems to have an enormous amount of raw talent.At 18, the maturity hasn’t caught up with his ability and that might go faster with some people, or slower. Only time will tell.”
Hamilton’s maturity, one senses, has caught up with his staggering ability at last. Throw in a dominant Mercedes car and it is an irresistible combination.
