Hamilton: A more rounded champion

Was it really six years ago that Lewis Hamilton claimed that first world championship at Interlagos?

Back then, he was a rough diamond, capable of stunning speed and great wins, but still capable of foolish mistakes. Who could forget him clouting the rear of Kimi Raikkonen's Ferrari at the pit exit in Canada?

But if he could win the title as a raw driver in only his second year, the smart money was on him racking up championship after championship. Had you suggested that night in Brazil that it would not be until 2014 that he would win it again, the reaction would have been one of incredulity.

There are sound reasons why Hamilton has not won his second title sooner and they stretch far beyond any of his own troubles.

Hamilton spent the first half of 2009 scrapping outside the points © XPB

In 2009 the McLaren started the new aerodynamic rules era badly, and, although the car improved, his wins in Hungary and Singapore represented dramatic overachievement.

The following year, after winning the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa to take the lead in the standings, Hamilton looked every bit the likely champion. But as Red Bull hit its stride, McLaren didn't win again in 2010.

That was the start of the era of Sebastian Vettel and Red Bull. But it would be wrong simply to look at this period solely as McLaren's failure.

While Hamilton drove superbly in 2012 and would have been right up there were it not for a series of mechanical problems and team errors (and, in Brazil, a wipeout courtesy of Nico Hulkenberg), the 2011 season was his worst year in F1.

That campaign is remembered for his series of clashes with Felipe Massa, although it was blundering into Kamui Kobayashi at Spa like an out-of-his-depth rookie that represented Hamilton's nadir.

The speed was still there in fits and starts, as three wins proved, but there were times when he seemed to be all over the place mentally.

There were a variety of reasons for this, many of them personal and most of them impossible to appreciate or analyse from the outside.

The crash-filled 2011 season was a career low © XPB

But as he revealed late in the season at the Abu Dhabi GP, when he talked about the 'happy bubble' (a phrase he later distanced himself from), there was a time earlier in the 2011 season when he was not so content.

During the McLaren years, you could certainly argue that he merited winning the world championship in his rookie campaign in 2007, and he was also very impressive in both '10 and '12. Had things panned out differently, the title he won this year might conceivably have been his fifth!

That wasn't the way things worked out. But then had he enjoyed that level of success at McLaren, Hamilton might never have made the most important decision of his career to date - one that has played a crucial role in him emerging as a driver still of searing pace, but far more rounded than he once was.

Walking away from McLaren was a bold move. There was always a risk in leaving an established, consistently frontrunning team (even one that had occasional lean periods, and which has struggled since he left), for a Mercedes squad that had won a grand total of one grand prix in three years.

Superficially, it seemed to be motivated by money. Certainly, the sums involved were impressive, but it was always clear that there was far more to the story than that.

Hamilton needed to leave McLaren, the team that had literally brought him up in motorsport, to realise his potential.

Jerez, February 2013 - Hamilton's new era begins © XPB

There were also sound competitive reasons for doing this. It was already clear that Mercedes was taking action to up its game, with key recruitments such as Geoff Willis, Aldo Costa and Bob Bell already having joined the team.

The new engine regulations also loomed on the horizon. At the time, it was obvious that Mercedes was the best equipped to meet the challenge of these complex new power units, so on paper there was a sound argument that having a Silver Arrow in 2014 was very desirable.

Mercedes had to justify this faith and it was not a foregone conclusion this would work, but in the long term there was always a reasonable chance that the decision would pay off.

What Mercedes really allowed Hamilton to do was to be his own man, to do things the way that he not only wanted to, but needed to if he was to get the best out of himself.

The 2013 season, when the Mercedes was fast but prevented from winning more races (at least until Red Bull became unstoppable) by tyre degradation problems, was crucial in that process.

It allowed Hamilton to go into 2014 knowing the team was on a sound footing, and ready to make the most of a car that was always likely to be of title calibre.

The Hamilton we have seen this season is unquestionably better than ever. During the Pirelli era, he did make better progress at adapting his style to the demands of managing tyres than he was usually given credit for.

The cerebral Rosberg was expected to thrive in 2014 © XPB

But still there were some legitimate doubts about whether he had the right mindset to thrive under regulations that privileged a more calculating approach over simply pursuing speed. The rules package seemed tailor-made for team-mate Nico Rosberg.

Against that backdrop, a lot of what Hamilton has achieved this year proved contrary to expectations. He was generally the smoother of the two drivers, and while Rosberg having the better qualifying record was distorted by Hamilton's Q1 problems at Hockenheim and the Hungaroring, it has been on race day that Hamilton has truly shone.

In Malaysia, China, Italy, Japan, America and Brazil, he was emphatically faster than Rosberg in race trim. And when he had the pace advantage he generally made it stick, something that Rosberg failed to do in races such as Bahrain and Spain. Had the shoe been on the other foot, who would bet against Hamilton having made a pass work, in Bahrain at least?

His fuel usage was consistently better than Rosberg's, and when it came to the wheel-to-wheel stuff he was comfortably the more convincing driver. Only twice was there a genuine passing move completed by one Mercedes driver on the other outside of race starts. On both occasions, Suzuka and Austin, it was Hamilton doing the overtaking.

But until the Italian GP, it still seemed that Hamilton might miss out on this golden opportunity. While there had been four wins in the bounce in Malaysia, Bahrain, China and Spain, there were qualifying errors in Monaco (on the first run in Q3), Canada, Austria and Silverstone, and his spin on cold brakes after starting from the pits in Hungary was foolish.

Rosberg skates off at Monza while under pressure, setting the tone for the title run-in © LAT

Spa changed everything. The collision with Rosberg was not his fault, but while in Monaco Hamilton felt that the team had let Rosberg get away with his mistake - or 'mistake' - in qualifying, after Spa it was clear that Rosberg was held firmly responsible for breaking the greatest of all commandments: thou shall not hit thy team-mate.

On the day, it was 18 points gained by Rosberg but what followed was Hamilton at his best. From race day at Monza, he embarked on a run of form that netted five wins on the bounce.

First, Rosberg made two mistakes under braking and lost the Italian GP lead, then he suffered an ERS-related electrical problem that put him out of the Singapore GP.

In Japan, Rosberg took pole but Hamilton outclassed him in the wet. While you might automatically expect that, it's worth remembering that there were times last year when Rosberg was the more impressive when the rain came.

In Russia, Hamilton looked the faster and then Rosberg cracked heading into Turn 2 when the lead was his for the taking. And in America, Hamilton passed Rosberg after the German called for a delayed ERS boost rather than the required instant one.

Even in Brazil, where Rosberg held him off, Hamilton was the stronger in race conditions. After the spin, he caught Rosberg at a quarter-of-a-second per lap.

That meant that whatever Rosberg could do in Abu Dhabi did not matter provided Hamilton could finish behind him - and in the event it was Hamilton in front throughout, looking certain of the title even before Rosberg's ERS went awry.

The explosive rookie of 2007 has matured and improved © XPB

The Hamilton of 2014, certainly post-Spa, was a more rounded version of the driver that thrilled in his early days.

F1 has changed a lot since then and Hamilton has had to adapt dramatically.

To his credit, he has long done so, but as this season progressed he appears to have bought into that necessity in far greater depth than before.

It hasn't always been easy and there have been far more low points along the way than there should have been, but underpinning the more calculating, pragmatic approach of Hamilton beats a racer's heart.

Hamilton has always been stunningly fast - just look at the quality of his drive in the wet in Suzuka for a reminder of that. But he has added a strong awareness of the big picture now that has served him well.

There was a time when Rosberg could have better exploited Hamilton's limitations. But this year, those limitations were not the Achilles Heel they once were.

At the start of the season, there were legitimate question marks over whether Hamilton really knew how to stamp his authority on a championship.

Those questions have now been dispelled.