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Lewis News

Lewis News

If Anyone Can Speed Its Lewis Hamilton

So the story has hit the world's press about Lewis Hamilton, the Formula 1 superstar, being caught speeding. Not to be blase, but it is not really surprising.

Firstly, he is a 22 year old man and there are plenty of young men who speed regularly; the fundamental difference I believe is that Lewis Hamilton possesses a Mercedes that is capable of touching 180 miles per hour. Most 22 year old men cannot afford such a car and so are not as likely to make it up to 122 miles an hour on a French A road.

The second point that can be derived from the news story is that if anyone is capable of driving at the rapid speed Lewis Hamilton was caught at, it is a Formula 1driver. Regularly racing at speeds in the one fifties to eighties, a paltry 122 cannot be seen as that fast for a man who makes his living driving at high velocity.

His mental ability to calculate risk and distance have been seen countless times on the racetrack throughout the last season, going along a motorway is probably an easy task for someone who's mind is constantly in overdrive.

Road campaigners will argue that as a popular public figure he should curtail his speed for the sake of his fans. There is no doubt that his popularity is huge at the moment and hoards of fans follow his progress throughout the season. Possessing such worldwide celebrity is reason enough to slow down, or at least not to get caught.

Other racers have been caught speeding in the last month and we have heard nothing of it; Ralf Schumacher was recently caught doing 130 km/h in an eighty zone and has been banned once before. These racers are in fact that; racers. Be it on the track or the road, the temptation to floor the accelerator seems to take over.

Lewis Hamilton has been slapped with a one month ban on his driving license and given a four hundred and thirty pound fine. Both are not serious for the young Formula 1 star. The fine can be viewed as pocket change when considering the money Hamilton earns in a season while the ban will not affect him greatly.

For his regular trips between Switzerland and England he will now have to fly, I am sure Lewis will be vexed at this fact but it is little more than an annoyance. I am sure he enjoyed his cross country drives.

McLaren have stated 'we are aware that Lewis was stopped for speeding in France whilst driving in a private capacity.' They were insistent that it would not affect his professional driving career, and nor should it, racing drivers have always been caught out by driving offences.

Only if you drive for Ferrari and get caught in Italy will you get away with it, every other police force in the world relishes the chance to catch racing drivers such as Lewis Hamilton as it sets an example and gives great publicity. Hamilton can consider himself fortunate he was not in Italy, as home of McLaren's major rival it is a certainty the penalty would have been harsher.

Racing drivers will always drive at high speeds, it is there trade and seemingly they operate at a higher brain speed than the rest of us. This does not however give them reason to speed, they may well be able to compute driving situations with great rapidity but the rest of us on the road cannot.

It is understandable that road safety campaigners will be up in arms about the incident but Lewis has received his punishment, although it will probably happen again in his career I am sure it will make him stop and think for as long as his hyperactive brain will allow.

Huey Lewis And The News - If This Is It (2006 Digital...