The Formula One world championship decider between Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg is like a Wimbledon final. It’s like a prize fight for the heavyweight world title, or a penalty shootout at the end of a World Cup.
The double points issue has been a big talking point, but now everyone is talking about this race. If Lewis doesn’t win the championship you could say it’s unfair, because he’s won more races. But people do like a showdown. There’s pressure on Mercedes, too, because no one wants the title decided by a technical issue.
We now have to count Lewis among the great drivers of F1, even if he fails to win in Abu Dhabi. His wins total, 32, is massive, and if he had been picked up by Red Bull he would easily be a four-times world champion by now. He was very unfortunate not to win his first world title in 2007 and has been let down in terms of car reliability by McLaren and Mercedes since then.
I believe Lewis is driving better than ever now. He is starting to marry his natural talent with experience. When you have the right mix you get the guy in his absolute prime. It’s uncanny how it happens between the ages of 29 and 33. That seems to be the golden patch for racing drivers. I didn’t get into it until I was 33; I might have missed my peak. Drivers just seem to settle at this stage, and have more confidence than desperation.
Lewis is certainly quick enough and, like Fernando Alonso, he’s a hard man to keep behind you. He just seems to pick up speed in a race. In qualifying, he has sometimes overcooked it to Nico’s benefit. Nico seems able to take it to the edge without going over. Lewis has sometimes gone over. But once he settles into a race he has been hard for Nico to manage.
Looking at Sunday afternoon’s race, it is a misconception that it is easier for Nico because he has to win and Lewis can go for second. Nico had to get pole and win the race. He has done the first part. That’s always more difficult than having the luxury of being able to come second.
Psychologically, he has resigned himself to the fact that he has a slimmer chance of becoming world champion. So he can enjoy it a bit more. It is less enjoyable for Lewis, who is aware that he could lose something he probably feels he has already won.
He started from behind, after Australia, he’s caught up, overtaken, dropped back, caught up and overtaken again, so over the season he has shown that he has got the edge on Nico. If not quite a travesty it would be uncomfortable for Lewis not to win the championship. Most people think that his performances have outranked Nico’s.
Some have compared this to my championship win in 1996, when I went into the last race ahead of Jacques Villeneuve. Second would have been OK for me, just as with Lewis on Sunday. He will do it his way. He’s going to have to be thoroughly prepared so that he’s in a good frame of mind and covered everything when he goes to the car, but still has an open mind for any eventuality.
He certainly takes his fans on an emotional rollercoaster ride with him. He wants to win badly and not winning seems to affect him quite a lot, but he can shrug it off more quickly than he could in the past. He has grown and matured. He’s a good guy with a lot to give. He has to be himself and he has been lately. Sometimes we want a particular type of hero to follow, and we can be too critical of him. He took the decision to go to Mercedes and not to be managed by his dad. It’s got to be healthy when you’re not working with your relatives.
Lewis is the first person to be picked up at such an early age and groomed, in a sense, to come through to where he is now. There has to be a cost in that process, in terms of personal development. That’s a question in all sports, about the consequences when you do reach the top.
As for Nico, he’s not a journeyman. He might not be sublimely quick but he is very thorough, polished and professional. He’s not just the guy who happens to be in the right place. He’s got talent. He’s just a different style of driver to Lewis. He works hard and uses his head. He really gets into how the car works and makes the set-up work for him.
He was outstanding in Brazil, where there was a lot of pressure on him throughout the race, and he was pretty impressive in Monaco, which was an exemplary weekend for him.
It has been a big year, a good year. It could have been a lot worse, with one guy winning everything. The engine change was a big issue but the story that has been obscured by all the bickering is that the entire season has gone by using two-thirds of the fuel we did the previous season – and the cars are just as quick.
I’ve never heard a fan going away complaining about the engine not being loud enough. They have all gone away remembering the race and the cars’ performance, which is still awe-inspiring. The engines could be louder. But maybe we make too much noise anyway.
Sky Sports is showing the last race of the 2014 Formula One season in Abu Dhabi as part of an autumn of sport on Sky
