Merry Christmas to all our regular readers here at our little blog, it has been a good year for us, being linked by BBC America, among other noteworthy websites.

Most importantly it has been a great year for Lewis Hamilton, regardless of any negative press. I’d be slightly annoyed about him moving to Switzerland were it not for the fact that I’d love to move abroad, for better weather, less banning of everything, and governments more honest about what thieving b’stards they are!

Lewis has achieved a remarkable first season in F1 and make no mistake by thinking otherwise. OK it would have been fantastic if he had won the season outright, but in reality, just like when all our kids get fantastic GCSE results, the critics would be out crying F1 is now all about the car, or computer simulation training would be likened to steroids. You know what the critics are like.

Hamilton coming second by a hair’s breadth shows how competitive and exciting the sport can be – and how much concentration in extended periods is needed to stay on top. Their may be a fair bit of jiggery pokery in the cutting edge cars these days, but one second’s concentration lapse, and as an F1 driver it could be the difference between first and last place in the race.

With Heikki Kovalainen and Nelson Piquet Jr. joining the fray, there will be some fresh new talent in F1 for 2008 and I’m sure it’s going to shake the sport up and make it more exciting for all the fans, bringing more and more people into following F1.

Let’s all wish Lewis good luck for the New year’s F1 season!

Naomi Campbell has been a fantasy gal for me since I was a teenager, so I know I’m getting old when Lewis Hamilton tells the press, Naomi’s “too old” for him. I don’t know, when your in your early 20’s older women have a lot of experience to give – at the same time I’d say ten years older should be the cut off point, so Lewis’ would be right in this case.

I’m sure Lewis’ is very happy being the toast of F1, and that all the romantic experience in the world will come his way – and we are not some tabloid gutter press here at Lewis-Hamilton.org.uk, so we try not to speculate. It’s all about the F1 usually, but hey, its Christmas, and stories are slow.

Age is such a wonderful thing, and it’s both amazing and sobering to see raw youthful exuberance; Amazing when in Hamilton’s case it gets results, and sobering when you hear a youngsters wildest dreams and know they are surely biting off more than they can chew:

Alonso has told the world press it would be crazy to expect him to win next years F1 season, as while the man himself is on top form, he knows the cars at Renault are somewhat less up to par than the ones at Ferrari and McLaren.

Nelson Piquet Jr. however, has set high goals for his debut season in Formula One, and has already told the world press that he believes he has a very good chance of winning the F1 season!

Piquet Jr. has very big boots to fill, and I’m sure he will be an interesting addition to the F1 season next year – but talk about precocious!

The Race of Champions is a pretty cool day out for the family, so it’s really a shame that Lewis’ contract with Mclaren prevents him from taking part, and probably the reason the turn out was so poor. Organisers say it was also a clash with two football matches.

This year saw the likes of Michael Schumacher, David Coulthard, Jenson Button, Heikki Kovaleinen and American X-Games champ Travis Pastrana competing for the title of Champion of Champions around a temporary tarmac track on the Wembley pitch.

This year’s championship was dedicated to the memory of Colin McRae after his tragic helicopter accident in September, he won the event back in 1998 and was signed up to compete in this years race. The one kilometre track includes a bridge jump and provided plenty of opportunities for the Champions to show off their stuff.

The organisers say they are eager to arrange a way that Lewis can compete next year, it would be a great thing to see Lewis in some Rally cars for a change, cars such as Aston Martin N24, Abarth Punto S2000, Ford’s Focus WRC car that were in this years race.

I hope they can work out some contract changes. Let’s keep our fingers crossed!

This Sunday Lewis has done a Nigel Mansel and been caught doing over 121mph in a Mercedes near Laon in the north of France. The police confiscated his car, his licence has been suspended for a month, and he was fined a paltry 600 Euros, which must be small change to him. Just a small burden to pay in a life of driving around Europe in flash cars I suppose.

Maybe another award from the British Racing Drivers Club will cheer him up. This one was the Richard Seaman Trophy which is awarded to the winner of the Club’s Gold Star points scoring system. Lewis Hamilton’s 2007 F1 debut led him to top the Club’s Gold Star table by a margin of 34 points.

Its been announced that Heikki Kovalainen is set to replace Alonso as Lewis Hamilton’s new team mate, in almost a straight swap as Alonso moves to Renault.

It will be a superb opportunity for Heikki to establish himself amongst the elite of formula one driving. Like Lewis, Heikki started out Karting in 1991, becoming Nordic Champion in 2000 and winning the Elf masters.

His Formula One debut with Renault this year has been somewhat patchy, looking somewhat ragged in his first race but he began to eventually outperform his experienced Italian team mate Giancarlo Fisichella later on in the season.

Heikki expects equal treatment from Mclaren alongside Lewis, it will be interesting to see how far Mclaren can carry this out and I really hope there’s no in fighting next year.

As a rookie driver with a far less outstanding first season under his belt, I think Heikki should keep his head down and do his best this year, If he turns heads he can then talk about equal treatment.

As a lad I always loved Karting, but the chances to have a go were limited to family trips to Spain, the Canaries and various Mediterranean destinations where my sister and I would have to beg and whine if we were to convince our parents to go there.
It’s only in the last five years I have discovered the wonders of Warden Law Karting outside Sunderland, and in any weather it’s definitely a fab day out.

Not surprising then, that Lewis’ first F1 championship has provided a well deserved boost to the Karting industry, and tracks all around the UK have been upgrading their karts.

The Rooksley circuit in Milton Keynes is owned by Datona karts, where Lewis Hamilton himself used to race, and this year saw Hamilton fly in by helicopter just before the UK Grand prix to offer advice to young Karting cadets.

Daytona have just invested more than £25,000 in 160cc 4-stroke Honda
Cadet Karts. The state-of-the-art machines have adjustable seating, increased wrap-around safety bodywork, aerodynamic styling and a sleek profile.

My local circuit at Warden Law have just upgraded to 390cc Biz Thunderkarts too! Of course, if you are young and serious about following in Lewis Hamilton’s footsteps, then it’s certainly worth buying your own Kart. It’s a great way to learn and improve technique before graduating to the national or international circuits and if you’re really good - on to Formula 1.

Writing about the certainty of Lewis Hamilton winning the BBC Sports personality of the year award, I mentioned the small possibility of Ricky Hatton gaining headway over Lewis, but unfortunately I forgot to mention the very possible case of Joe Calzaghe winning, or at least coming very near the top.

Admittedly I am not a huge fan of Boxing, so while vaguely aware of Calzaghe rounding off a decade as world champion with victory in a unification bout against Mikkel Kessler, I must credit the Times; with the only paper I read who gave Calzaghe a look in. Let’s hope there were some good winnings at the bookies for folks at the Times’ offices this Monday morning!

No one else tipped for Calzaghe, although the bookies obviously did to some extent with shorter odds on Ricky Hatton and the Welsh boxer.

The nation obviously has been taking heed of the sporting argument for Calzaghe, helped in no small part by the BBC itself, probably in an attempt to generate interest in the programme. Piers Morgan argued for Calzaghe on The One Show, opining that the British are always supporting our losers and underdogs: Lewis had “lost” while Calzaghe had “won”, but more importantly that Lewis was in the infancy of his career, while Calzaghe had been world champion for ten years.

Lewis has won a good deal of awards this year, and in no way do I, or many of his fans believe he “lost” in any way. Gaining second place in the F1 championships on your first season is absolutely outstanding, and while detractors may say Lewis had the championship for the taking, he has many more championships to come and has already beaten world records. I doubt he has any reason to lose his ambitions.

As for the sports personality, it won’t be the last time Lewis is nominated, but let’s be honest – it’s next years F1 season we’re all waiting for!

The highs and lows of Formula one have never been so steeply set for one as Lewis Hamilton. On Thursday Hamilton got his wish of beating Michael Schumacher by 0.554 seconds in Jerez, and by Friday his McLaren team have found out they will not here about any penalties carried into the 2008 F1 Season until February 14th of next year.

From the 13th of September this year, the FIA has been carrying out a full and forensic inspection of the garages at the Woking based Mclaren, including a full technical inspection of Mclaren’s 2008 car. The report was finished today, and a decision was expected to be made on the outcome, but the FIA have given Mclaren and Ferrari a further 2 months to be afforded the chance to present their views on the report.

This is quite a rollercoaster ride for Hamilton and it looks bleak for the Mclaren team; if nothing had been found in the inspection, Mclaren would have been simply cleared.
Since the FIA has involved Ferrari, it may be the case that the FIA have found out that technical data has been used for the 2008 car.

If the FIA have discovered that McLaren have copied components, or used design ideas that can be traced back to the original Ferrari blueprints, further sanctions will most definatley be imposed such as minus points. The team could even be thrown out of the 2008 championship.

Mclaren denies any foreign intellectual property has gone into the new car and believes they have nothing to hide. Us Brits have no luck with our sportsmen, if it’s not a case of them losing out at the very last minute, its always some red tape that has us defeated on a technicality. Keep your chin up high Mr Hamilton!

While Lewis’ celebrity status in Britain continues to grow, his popularity in Spain, is not surprisingly quite low. We know this from comments from our Spanish readers! In Spanish magazine, Grand Prix, he got just 1.8% of the votes for driver of the year while Alonso, despite his petulant ways still got 75%. Lewis’ share of the vote probably came from our ex pats in Gibraltar and the Costa del Sol!

On the track, Formula one’s final testing session of 2007 started yesterday, with Nick Heidfield coming out the fastest. Controversially, Michael Schumacher had been set to join yesterday’s test, but Kimi Raikonnen replaced him at the last moment.

Schumacher was scheduled to test with the Ferrari team on Thursday and Friday, he has already showed he had lost none of his competitive edge during two days of testing at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya last month, posting the fastest lap times on both days. While 38-year-old Schumacher maintains that his decision to retire is “irrevocable”, the tests at Barcelona and Jerez had many F1 pundits hoping for Schumacher’s return, including a very excited Lewis Hamilton.

“Bring it on,” Says Hamilton “I was disappointed that he left [formula one] just as I got there, having watched him for so many years. There’s no doubt Michael is a phenomenal driver and I’d love to race against him.”

With the Spygate fiasco already looming over 2008’s grand prix for Lewis, Michael Schumacher’s return would be a fantastic boost to next years F1 season especially for Lewis Hamilton, and I’m sure would have the world glued to the edge of their collective seats.

OK this one is possibly a no-brainer right now, but at lewis-hamilton.org.uk, we’ve been sure of it since his first grand prix. The only real contender may be boxer Ricky Hatton if he manages to win the WBC welterweight title in Las Vegas on Sunday morning several hours before the show.

Lewis has been the darling of the media in the past few months after his first successful F1 Championship, and well; racing F1 is just a little more glamorous and upmarket than boxing really. The only public sin Lewis will have blotted his coffee book with is moving to Switzerland, and while it may stop him getting honours one day, it probably won’t sway the BBC.

Last night’s Top Gear saw Lewis attacking their test track in the “reasonably priced car”, coming 0.3 seconds shy of the track record set by the anonymous “stig”. Hamilton’s time was recorded in wet and oily weather, handicapping a possible record attempt but still putting him above current rivals Jenson Button and Mark Webber. He was as affable and charming as ever, I’m sure Clarkson will be a fan in any case. Lewis has already agreed to come back and race the track in dry conditions.

Lewis’ face is already all over TV ads, and lots of spots on the BBC including “Children in Need”. He has also won three honours at last nights Autosport awards; after a moving tribute from the late Ayrton Senna’s sister, Hamilton was honoured as British competition driver of the year, best international racing driver and rookie of the year.

He also picked up a gold star from the British Racing Drivers’ Club after four victories and a total of 12 podium finishes in his debut F1 season. He may not have won the F1 season, but Lewis has already secured his place in history.