Grapevine: Analysis: Hamilton gets closer to F1

"I'm Lewis Hamilton and I just want you to know that I'd like to drive your car one day," he said, offering an outstretched hand.

If Dennis thought that he had seen it all in decades as a hardened Formula One team principal, Hamilton made him think again: he was tiny, 12 years old, extraordinarily self-possessed and black.

There has not been a black Formula One driver since the world championship started in 1950 but the 20-year-old Briton now looks certain to be the first. He could well be on the starting grid in 2007.

So dominant has he been in his carefully-managed rise through the junior categories that some have already cast Hamilton as motor racing's answer to Tiger Woods.

McLaren, who have backed the race ace throughout his formative years, are interested only in what he does on the track and they believe he can be a world champion.

"His blackness isn't important," Dennis told reporters at the McLaren factory last week.

"I have constantly said to him 'The moment that you exploit your blackness, you are going to have a problem with me. Basically you've got to develop your career on your ability to drive a racing car'."

Extraordinary Talent

That ability is evident. Hamilton has won a string of karting titles, was British Formula Renault champion in 2003 and dominated this year's European Formula Three championship with 15 wins from 20 races.

"The way I see it, my colour is an advantage in that it's something people talk about," he told the Sunday Times newspaper earlier this year. "But the bottom line is that it's clearly not why I'm in this position.

"I'm happy if other black kids see what I'm doing and realise it can be done, but that's not what motivates me. I'm doing it for me, because I want to win in F1 and because I believe I'm good enough to do that."

Next year he is set to race in GP2, the feeder series that has served as a stepping stone to Formula One for Germany's Nico Rosberg and American Scott Speed, with champions ART.

"In our opinion Lewis has extraordinary talent, he's been developing year on year and getting stronger mentally in his approach," said McLaren chief executive Martin Whitmarsh.

"We believe he will become a McLaren driver in the future.

McLaren would not be paying the bills unless they thought Hamilton had the potential to succeed at the highest level.

"There's every reason to believe that he is a very special driver," said Whitmarsh.

"The European Formula Three championship is probably the toughest formula outside of Formula One and he dominated that to an unprecedented extent. He's got all the natural talent necessary to win in Formula One."

McLaren told Hamilton, whose paternal grandparents came from Trinidad, to dominate every category he raced in and he has done that. Now he has one more hurdle.

"If he dominates GP2 there is a very strong opportunity for him to immediately step into a Formula One car and race," said Dennis, while also advising Hamilton to be patient.

"It's highly unlikely that the first Grand Prix race that he has will be in a McLaren, and he knows that. But equally he knows that we will be supportive all the way through."

Fair Lady

Dennis admitted that Hamilton, from a family with no motor racing background, had been something of an experiment.

"There's no question that there was a bit of 'My Fair Lady' about the challenge: can you take a 12-year-old and guide him to Formula One?" he said.

In the rags-to-riches musical of George Bernard Shaw's play 'Pygmalion', Professor Higgins takes cockney flower seller Eliza Doolittle off the streets and teaches her to speak and behave like a duchess.

Dennis was careful not to stretch that analogy too far.

The only similarity, he said, was in providing the tools for a talent to express itself: "She (Doolittle) was beautiful, she was lots of things naturally and she was guided to a specific position. Well, he (Hamilton) has natural talent.

"He came up to me, and this was the key, at 12 years old dressed in a black tie outfit, absolutely minute, so short that he was looking up at virtually everybody, so small that he could have been virtually trodden on.

"I said if you win this (karting) championship, next year come back and see me. Next year, there he is in front of me. 'I won the championship'.

"It was his whole persona and very obvious passion and commitment, nothing else, that made me think this guy is worthy of our help. He had the fundamental ingredients, it wasn't as if we created them."