Lewis Hamilton celebrated his victory in last year’s British Grand Prix in front of 140,000 fans by going crowd-surfing.
A year on, crowd numbers will be down to nil but Hamilton will again be the focal point as much for race as his race craft.
In the moments before Sunday’s grand prix, the six-time world champion will again take the knee, with a less shambolic showing planned by his fellow drivers.
At the last race, in Hungary, Hamilton took the knee, with Sebastian Vettel among those to follow suit while others arrived late or else missed the moment altogether — a public relations disaster for such an image-conscious sport.
Formula One chiefs had been in charge of the moment in the season-opening race in Austria when Hamilton and 13 of his rivals took the knee, before the drivers decided to take matters into their own hands.
Ross Brawn, the sport’s managing director, said of Hungary: “It wasn’t what Formula One wanted to present. It was rushed and it didn’t look great and it poorly reflected on Formula One and we need to fix it because that’s not the message that exists within Formula One. So, at Silverstone you’ll see a much more focused message.”
Is it important that Sunday sees all drivers kneel as one with Hamilton? Brawn said: “I don’t think it is. In a way it shows diversity. What’s important is the drivers’ commitment to the message.
“One could fairly say that persecuting someone for not taking the knee is the kind of message we’re trying to get rid of. It’s the attitude we want to remove, so I don’t think that’s significant.”
Brawn’s boss, F1 chief Chase Carey, has pledged $1million to tackle racism and inequality, so too motorsport’s governing body, the FIA. But Hamilton said action was needed to back up the pay cheque.
Brawn said: “I don’t think Formula One ever felt it had any racism within the sport but that’s not enough. We know we have to be proactive. We need to encourage more diversity. We’ve started but what someone like Lewis can do is accelerate that. It’s great he has become a catalyst for change and F1 is with it.”
On the track, Hamilton is as much the talking point as off it, bidding for a hat-trick of race wins and a seventh in total at Silverstone. Six more Grand Prix victories would eclipse Michael Schumacher’s record of 91, while he needs one more world title to match the German. Brawn is well-placed to compare the pair, having acted as team principal to both.
“[For Lewis] to maintain his performance with all the thoughts and emotions running through his mind is truly impressive,” he said. “He’s a very special driver. I was part of the Schumacher era and I never imagined anyone would come close to the records Michael set.”
Unlike Schumacher, there is little trace of the dirty side shown by the German when it came to such things as season-ending clashes with Damon Hill and Jacques Villeneuve. “Michael sometimes let his emotions get the better of him,” said Brawn (right). “One can’t make any excuses for Michael, and he wouldn’t himself, but his emotions just took over.
“I guess there’s a question of how hard Lewis has been challenged. Michael had some pretty tough years when he didn’t win the championship at the last race and that maybe generated an anxiety about winning.
“I’d love to see Lewis have two or three years with Max Verstappen (below) in the same sort of quality of car. We’d really see what he’d be like when the gloves come off.”
For now, Verstappen in the Red Bull can only aspire to have Hamilton’s race pace. Such is the Mercedes’ dominance, argues Brawn, that their rivals have been forced to push the boundaries to close the gap — and slipped up.
“During periods of domination, your competitors in trying to catch up fall over,” he added. “They almost run too fast and stumble. We’ve not had the expected challenge from Red Bull as yet, and Ferrari are out of sorts.”
As things stand, it is hard to look beyond Hamilton leading his sport from the front on and off track at the next two Silverstone races.