Lewis Hamilton is revelling in a looming championship duel with Ferrari and Sebastian Vettel, though his concentrated sentiments undermine the worth he places on his erstwhile intra-team battle with Nico Rosberg.
The three-time champion has foreshadowed Mercedes’ impending showdown with the Italian marque as “the best battle he can have… it’s just so much more satisfying”, which can be interpreted as a tacit rebuke of his three-season showdown with the retired 2016 World Champion.
At the risk of inviting criticism, this isn’t a direct assault of the Briton – whose prodigious talent is undeniable – yet the notion that prevailing with the title twice from three attempts boasting equal machinery as Rosberg wasn’t enthralling, casts into question the esteem in which he holds the German’s legacy.
Outlining his desire that “nothing mechanical comes between our sheer battle in ability… an out and out fight through stubbornness, through mental stability, through composure… just outdriving the person on-track”, nothing if not directly champions the perception that Rosberg inherited last year’s crown on account of Hamilton’s over embellished misfortune.
In deference to Hamilton, he’s waited the balance of his career to encounter Vettel mano a mano, with circumstances dictating one’s inexplicable sidelining while the other has prospered despite their combined domination of the sport since 2007.
Comprising seven titles and ninety-seven victories, it’s understandable that the 32-year-old views triumph over Vettel, while Fernando Alonso continues to operate in a separate orbit, coupled with the allure of beating the fabled Prancing Horse to the ultimate prize – having done so previously in 2008, as a defining hallmark of his own legacy.
Having previously elicited a lukewarm appraisal of the four-time champion – whose superiority came turning the wheel of peerless machinery at Red Bull, perhaps Hamilton acknowledges that possessing a class of the field package is no guarantee of triumph. The German enjoyed Mark Webber’s measure throughout his reign, thus a reassessment of his credentials in light of last season’s outcome is distinct possibility.
Despite their calamitous solitary campaign as teammates, Alonso’s continued absence from the reckoning is would be as galling to Hamilton as it is Formula One’s supporters, though a driver can only beat their nearest competition.
In Hamilton’s case, this has been provided in recent seasons by Rosberg. Defeating him to the title on multiple occasions, only to later surrender it, in doing so maintaining the necessary resilience which would have sustained damage following the previous concessions, would logically have enhanced the former’s view,
It’s probable that the Briton is aggrieved by Rosberg’s subsequent departure from the sport, depriving him of an opportunity to settle the scores, yet it’d be dismissive of Hamilton to utilise this trope as a means of diminishing the reality and everything which accompanied this chapter.
As much as these still raw events represented the closure of one portion of Hamilton’s career, battling interior and exterior rivals only provides greater versatility to his legacy, thus embracing all components in equal measure, irrespective of the final outcome is a wise course to uphold.
Intra-team battles often conclude in acrimony and this was largely no exception. It’s natural that Hamilton is enticed and perhaps relieved to face a fresh rival, it certainly looms as a pleasure for supporters, though a repudiation of Rosberg is by extension a repudiation of his own legacy.
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