Lewis Hamilton

Operation Black Vote hails the magnificent debut of Grand Prix sensation Lewis Hamilton who raced to glory on Sunday leaving his dad Anthony gasping: 'It's incredible, I've dreamt of this day for so long.'

Lewis, 22, came third in the Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne, a remarkable achievement for a debutant. For a Black kid from humble beginnings just getting a coveted driver's place was an amazing feat. Hamilton's team-mate is the double world champion Fernando Alonso.

It doesn't surprise me though because I first featured Lewis in The Voice 14 years ago when he was embarrassing much older kids thrashing them in karting races.

Back then Anthony - who is from Grenada - said he thought Lewis had the potential to be a F1 driver and just needed the support to realize it. How right he was! 'He's got an amazing temperament,' dad said at the time. 'That's his strength. Immense courage and will to win. He also spots an opening and goes for it without hesitation.'

That was evident on Sunday when Lewis made an audacious overtaking move seconds into the race on the first bend to announce his arrival on the biggest stage.

Anthony is a former British Rail worker and now works in IT. He said: 'That was crazy, I'm struggling to take it all in. How can you finish third in your first Grand Prix on a circuit you've never been to before? It feels like a win.'

Anthony was so nervous that he watched the race on a tiny TV in the hospitality area. So dedicated was he to Lewis's development that he used to work three jobs and put up 'For Sale' signs at £15 a time to help fund his son's career. He also bought a mobile home so to take Lewis around the karting circuit. The family, with mum Linda, moved house to help finance Lewis.

Anthony said: 'The emotions are incredible - it's taken us ten years to get here. I don't want Lewis to lose focus. We're ordinary people but we know things are going to change.' Lewis was pipped by Kimi Raikkonen and Alonso. He said: 'This is beyond my dreams, I'm loving it.'

No wonder compliments flooded in. Three-times world champion Nikki Lauda said: 'He is the best rookie I have ever seen.'

McLaren boss Ron Dennis, who has invested £10 million in Lewis, said: 'I don't know where he gets so much belief without it becoming arrogance. You have to give credit to Anthony and his family. They have done a great job.'

OBV director Simon Woolley said: 'We're usually carrying negative stories about our community so it's refreshing for OBV to applaud in no uncertain terms the achievement of this talented Black man. Lewis deserves nothing but praise.'

Lewis, of Stevenage, Herts, was earmarked as a potential world champion after winning go-kart races against adults at the age of just five.

I remember Anthony telling me when he was eight that beaten adults were so astonished they thought Lewis was a midget! They just couldn't believe someone so tiny was so brilliant.

The fact that Lewis was a karate black belt by 12 helped speed his maturity, physical and mental strength as well.
He won his first British go-kart championship at ten, wearing a borrowed suit. Lewis is on £250,000-a-year, compared with the £25m Raikkonen will pocket.

But Anthony believes fame will not go to his son's head. He said: 'Lewis is a feet-on- the-ground kid and as long as I've got anything to do with him he'll remain that way.'

Inevitably, Lewis is already being compared to Tiger Woods. The similarities are remarkable, both in the fashion the two sportsmen have been molded by a strong father figure and the precociousness with which they have stamped their authority on their chosen vocations.

Another reason for Lewis's grounding is that much of his motivation springs from his 14 year-old brother, Nicholas, who has cerebral palsy. 'He's an inspiration. He never complains, always smiles, keeps his chin up, and gets on with life,' said Lewis.

Michael Schumacher was the dominant earner in sport until Woods arrived. But Woods may well have another Black man challenging his supremacy as the world's richest sportsman in a few years. And it won't be a footballer!

Given that his McLaren team boss, Ron Dennis, had described Lewis Hamilton's induction to Formula One as being thrown into a "piranha pool", it was hardly surprising that the grand prix domain rose in unison yesterday to acclaim the 22 year-old as a world champion-in-waiting, following his stunning display in his maiden race.

In the prelude to his debut, there has been an extraordinary amount of hyperbole placed on the first black driver to compete at this pinnacle of motor sport, yet Hamilton responded to the challenge with typical sang-froid, maneuvering the myriad pitfalls of press interviews every inch as adroitly as he negotiated the obstacles of the Albert Park circuit in speeding to his first podium with the sort of thoroughbred professionalism which suggests that it is only a question of when, not if, he starts taking chequered flags in his stride.

Obviously, comparisons with Tiger Woods are inevitable, but there again, when one listens to Hamilton, the similarities are remarkable, both in the fashion the two individuals have been molded by a strong father figure and the precociousness with which they have stamped their authority on their chosen vocations. Just as Woods appeared on the Bob Hope show at the age of three, so Hamilton talked about his racing aspirations on Blue Peter as a six-year-old.

And, although neither figure was blessed with minted parents, Anthony Hamilton christened his son after the American athlete, Carl Lewis, with the same confidence in his offspring as that displayed by the late Earl Woods. From a distance, some people might deprecate the notion of infants being denied their childhoods, but the reality is that Lewis, in his tiny kart, only had one dream. And that was to climb into a shiny Formula One vehicle and drive to the edge of eternity.

In which light, as he admits, yesterday's third place wouldn't have been remotely possible without the encouragement, succour and sacrifices made by his dad, an IT manager, and step-mother, Linda, whose flat in west London was worth less than their mortgage, and whose faith alone transcended the financial difficulties, which meant that their progeny's first kart was second-hand.

"I have been incredibly fortunate having my father's support, because I don't recall any of the other competitors coming from the same background as us - they all had wealthy parents," says Hamilton, who has thus far achieved the rare feat of being supremely confident without a trace of arrogance creeping into his psyche. "I know there will be setbacks during my career, but I have the attitude that if it was easy to win championships, then everybody would be doing it.

"I guess that approach springs from the fact that, ever since I was nine or 10, I have spent every weekend at a race-track, so I wasn't hanging out and doing stuff with my friends, I was with Dad, and was best friends with him. If you want to fit in and mix with the grown-ups you have to learn at a faster pace than other youngsters, and although I suppose I missed out on doing the silly things at school, I quickly realised I can have all the toys that I want if I keep working and winning at McLaren."

Understandably, the normally hard-to-please Dennis declared, in the wake of his protégé's exploits in Melbourne that Hamilton possesses all the requisite attributes and ability to emulate Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso in the future. It must seem aeons ago since his introduction to Master Lewis, when the latter walked up to Dennis at an awards dinner and announced, quietly, but insistently, that one day, he would be a McLaren driver and vying for honours at the highest level of the F1 empire.

In the intervening period, from excelling in single-seaters to joining the Formula Three regulars and strutting his stuff in Macau and Korea, prior to nestling comfortably into the GP2 arena, where he orchestrated a series of stunning performances, including one occasion in Turkey where he charged back into contention from 18th to finish second, Hamilton's gifts have regularly been on parade. Yet, befitting his ability to distinguish between mere sporting travails and true adversity, he confesses that much of his motivation springs from his 14 year-old brother, Nicholas, who has cerebral palsy.

"He's an inspiration. He never complains, always smiles, keeps his chin up, and gets on with life," says Hamilton.

As for his skin colour, it is important to his heritage, but he shrugs off suggestions that he is a trail-blazer. As Lewis Hamilton acknowledges, if he concentrates on honing his skills and sharpening his speed, other race issues will take care of themselves.

England's Lewis Hamilton couldn't have had a better start to what appears will be glittering Formula One racing career.

After dominating lower-tier racing circuits since his teens, Hamilton, F1's first black driver, announced his presence in motor racing's elite by finishing third at the season-opening Australian Grand Prix.

That made him the first rookie to make the podium in his debut race since Jacques Villeneuve of Iberville, Que., took second here in 1996.

Hamilton, 22, even found himself leading the race for four laps before he was eventually overhauled by winner Kimi Raikkonen in a Ferrari and world champion Fernando Alonso, the Briton's McLaren teammate.

Hamilton was understandably elated by his performance. "To lead into my first Grand Prix was a fantastic feeling," said Hamilton. "To be in my first Grand Prix, something I have been working for so many years. The hard work has just paid off."

Hamilton, whose grandparents come from the West Indies, won last year's GP2 championship, a feeder circuit for F1. In 2005, he dominated the F3 series, winning 15 of 20 races.

He joined McLaren's young driver program in 1998, starting in karts and working his way up through the ranks before testing his first McLaren F1 car at the Silverstone circuit in September.

Hamilton said he wasn't daunted by his F1 debut. "It was just another milestone for me," he said. "It was a new experience for me and I enjoyed it."

Now he can look forward to bigger and better things.

"Every time you finish a race you gain confidence in the car and what you can do with it," Hamilton said. "In terms of me as a whole I don't think it's really made much of a difference. I'm confident I know what I need to do.

"It's good to have your first race under your belt, get it over and done with and now I can go and let my hair down and look forward to the next race."