Speed Reader: Lewis Hamilton Special

It's a pretty safe bet that when the 25th rolls around, a lot of motor racing fans are going to find themselves having been gifted a book about Lewis Hamilton. And quick visit to Amazon confirmed that those attempting to cater for the F1 nut in the family would have been confronted with no less than nine different books about Britain's new hero when they went out hunting for presents.

Unless you have one of those really annoyingly well-organised partners/parents/siblings who do their Christmas shopping in July, chances are that there is still time to have some influence over exactly which Hamilton book finds its way into Santa's sack.

Of the nine, I have so far read just under half. One, which was among the first to be released (i.e. rushed out) was reviewed in this column not long ago. If you missed the write up, the bottom line was that it wasn't good for much more than using to teach the next generation the importance of recycling paper.

Another title appeared on my desk a couple of weeks later but was equally awful, so I simply didn't bother to review it at all. I must be losing my caustic streak as I get older.

I tried to get my hands on the autobiography, but the publisher never got back to me. Interesting to see that one store is already offering it at half-price, though, given that it was only released about a month ago.

Which leaves two books, both of which, I'm happy to say, are quite good - Mark Hughes's 'Lewis Hamilton: The Full Story' (published by Icon Books) and Andrew van de Burgt's 'Lewis Hamilton: A Portrait of Britain's new F1 hero' (published by Haynes).

Now, before I go any further, I do need to make a small declaration. In one sense or another, I work with both of these guys. Hughes is one of the people that I routinely share a row of desks with whenever I attend a GP, while van de Burgt and I actually work on the same floor in our 'day jobs' - his being with Autosport, mine being with Motorsport News. Both titles live under the Haymarket umbrella, along with F1 Racing, and we all share the same floor and coffee-making facilities.

But that having been said, both journalists have established their credentials more than strongly enough not to need me to make them sound like they know what they're doing. Van de Burgt is the editor of Autosport magazine, and readers of Hughes's work, including his Autosport column, will already know him as perhaps the best, most insightful British F1 journalist in the paddock.

The two books come from somewhat different angles. Van de Burgt's strength comes from having followed Hamilton during his formative years in race cars, which adds an authority to his account of the early years that many other books very noticeably lack.

It also means that he is familiar with a lot of the people that worked with Hamilton during that period, which paves the way for some interesting interview material that hasn't already been reprinted ad infinitum - and at a time when quotes are being regurgitated at horrendous rate, the value of anything new cannot be overstated.

Van de Burgt has also taken the time to include Hamilton's season statistics right back to karting, where many other books limit them to either the 2007 season, or don't bother with them at all. Stats may not be my thing but they excite a lot of other people, so there are plenty who will appreciate the extra effort.

This book's other strong point are the photos. Where most books seem to be using the same shots over and over, a lot of the pictures used here are ones that I had not seen before, particularly where the pre-F1 years are concerned.

It's not a weighty volume, and the generous ratio of words to pictures means that it's not the sort of book that will keep you busy for a week. But the flip-side to that is that it's free of waffle, and what is there, is worth reading. As a snapshot of a young star at the end of his first season, and a solid account of how he got there, it's worth picking up.

Hughes, meanwhile, having been a long-time regular in the F1 paddock, would not have seen much of Hamilton's rise other than when he was racing on an F1 support bill. As a result, he entrusts his chapters covering Hamilton's early years to the thoughts of those who worked closely with him, and the result is genuinely revealing, not only about Lewis, but about his father Anthony and the nature of their relationship as well.

Some of the best material comes from Hamilton's former kart mechanic/chaperon Kieran Crawley, who had to juggle responsibility for preparing his young charger's kart with making sure that an occasionally underlying flair for mischief was kept in check - quite a handful for someone who was only 25 years old himself.

It's interesting how the accounts sometimes conflict, though. Early in the book, the reader is told that while Anthony had a hot streak, Lewis was unflappably calm in pretty much any situation. Yet later, we learn that Lewis sometimes had a short fuse himself, and would often react to teasing from his Italian mechanics, or early attempts at mind games from a young karting rival named Robert Kubica.

But it is ultimately Hughes's analytical strength and ability to put things into perspective that makes this book so worthwhile. Anyone can tell you what happened; Hughes goes to great pains to make you understand the underlying forces that contributed to things playing out as they did.

Whether dealing with the innate complexity of the relationship between a very ambitious father/manager and precociously talented son/driver, or the overt technicality of what precisely happened between Hamilton and Fernando Alonso during qualifying in Hungary, Hughes has the gift of explaining it to his audience in such a way that makes it clear without coming across as condescending.

Most Hamilton books will appeal almost exclusively to fans of the 22-year-old, but this one has enough substance to offer something for motorsport enthusiasts as a whole to digest as well. Two thumbs up.

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- The Autosport.com Team

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