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Two races in seven days. Lewis Hamilton in the thick of both. And errors both times. I found myself thinking - again - of something Alain Prost said 15 years ago. He was on the way to his fourth title, and retirement, with a young Michael Schumacher in the ascendancy. Talking about a champion's make-up, Prost said that you could afford one mistake a year, maybe two, but no more. He hinted that when Michael stopped making his, the rest were in trouble. Hamilton has been the standout driver in 2008 but has made a lot of mistakes - Bahrain, Canada, France, Belgium (harsh, but true) and Italy. Five in 14 races, a 35 per cent error rate. Massa and Ferrari have made mistakes too, and Raikkonen has been below par. Lewis and McLaren must be thanking their lucky stars that Schumacher sits on a prat perch these days, and not in a Ferrari cockpit. He'd be out of sight by now. "Most of Lewis's errors are from inexperience," Jackie Stewart said at Monza. "He's only been in F1 18 months. A new driver coming into a top team and immediately having the chance to win the world championship, historically just doesn't happen. "And therefore he puts himself in situations like going out of the pitlane and running into another car, not listening to the radio. He's leading the race, the safety car closes it up, he goes in and the two guys he's competing against get out before him. And the radio is talking to him. He can't take it all in. It's like chewing gum and walking. When you're a young child you can't do it. © 2021 Autosport
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