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When Lewis Hamilton made his Formula One debut in 2007, the records of recently retired Michael Schumacher seemed simply insurmountable. But, thirteen years later, the Englishman has just equaled the German’s historical record of victories (91), getting closer and closer to his seven world titles: the other great record of the ‘Kaiser’.
Hamilton debuted with Mclaren right after the double Spanish world champion Fernando Alonso (2005 and 2006, Renault) dethrone the myth. Born in Hürth, about 100 kilometers from the Nürburgring, where this Sunday the spectacular and eccentric Stevenage champion continued to make feasible what he does not so much seemed impossible.
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Schumacher -who returned to F1 in 2010 to drive three years at Mercedes, probably without knowing that he was ‘preparing’ the single seater triumphant to Hamilton – he had established, among many others, the record for pole positions (68) and podium records (155) in F1.
The Briton surpassed the one of the first places on the grid – raised in the meantime to 97 – three years ago, in Monza (Italy). And this season he got better, on the circuit barcelonian from Montmeló (Spain), that of ‘cajones’.
That with this Sunday it is already 160. The ‘Kaiser’ won its first two titles in 1994 and 1995, with Benetton and next to the Italian Flavio briatore; with which the great Asturian pilot also celebrated his crowns.
Later, Schumacher marked an unprecedented streak by chaining another five World Cups (2000-2004) with Ferrari, the most awarded team in history. The irruption of Hamilton it was brutal. And, after a year in which sparks ‘flooded’ with Alonso; That ended like the rosary of dawn after the delirious management of Ron Dennis and with the Finn Kimi Raikkonen winning the (so far last) title for Ferrari, Hamilton scored his first World Cup in 2008, with the Woking team.
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To that crown he would add another five more, during the past six years, with Mercedes. Team With which only a real misfortune will prevent him from celebrating his seventh title this year, equaling those of the German, still convalescing from the serious skiing accident he suffered at the end of 2013 in Meribel (French Alps).
The year of its premiere, Lewis broke all the schemes and F1 – a gigantic business that with ‘Schumi’ applauded its enormous expansion thanks to the German market – immediately realized that he had discovered his last great jewel: a black champion . Whose successes could overcome the attachment to a nationality. Hamilton he was going to be a global star. He Tiger Woods of the premier engine category.
His first triumph came in Canada in 2007. Season in which he won four times, something that only the Canadian had achieved as a rookie. Jacques villeneuve. One of them, in Hungary; where this year he equaled another Michael record -which debuted in 1992 in Belgium-: that of victories in the same Grand Prix: eight, which the ‘Kaiser’ had celebrated in France.
Y Schumacher He won the San Marino Grand Prix seven times, Hamilton did the same in Great Britain. And both have scored seven times in the Canadian Grand Prix, in Montreal. Nobody doubts that English will surely surpass the German mark this year. And everything indicates that he will be the first driver to surpass a hundred victories.
But his triumph this Sunday – the second in the Nürburgring, where ‘Schumi’ won five times – equals two champions. Of different races. With identical goals. In 1982, when Michael was 13 and there were still three years until Lewis was born, Stevie Wonder and Paul McCarney immortalized ‘Ebony and Ivory’, a song in which they wondered why, if ebony and ivory coexisted in perfect harmony in the keyboard of a piano, the same could not happen with human beings of different ethnic groups.
In the World Cup pandemic and in another year marked by race riots, especially in the United States (where Hamilton won six times and Schumacher, five), the Englishman has become a standard bearer against racism, leading the demands – planted in a different way, but with the same intention – of the Formula 1.
That manifests itself against discrimination, as it happens in other sports. Hamilton and Schumacher, black champion and white champion, rejoined their names this Sunday. Sport, once again, points the way.
EFE
