When Lewis Wins, It’s Like We All Do
I don’t like to dwell on the passage of time, like wondering if anytime I do something if it’ll be ‘The Last’ time. However, as a fatalist, and a profound worrier, it’s a natural point to dwell on, agonize over, and generally fret about nothing but the times gone by, and the times yet to come. Sport, for the most part is one of those things that always feels like it’s separate from that worry, always there to look forward too, that endless opportunity and possibility that it will be different, better, and that your hero; and by extension you will triumph again.
A lot has happened between Sir Lewis Hamilton’s 103rd and most recent, 104th win. Two long years since the nightmarish results of the 2021 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, two long years of floundering through the new rules, Mercedes finally falling after eight years as a juggernaut barely facing a challenge for their team’s title. It’s been an odd sight to those of us who have never known a season without at least one win from the man from Stevenage since his stunning debut in 2007, and one that lead me to wonder if I had already seen the last win in that incredible career.
Not to say I had always been a fan of the man, hell, there were a few years there as a bruised McLaren fan that I hated that he had betrayed us for the greener pastures of the works team, abandoning the Woking team that had rescued his career as child. But, through the early hybrid years, I realized that the McLaren of my Youth, and his, was gone, and needed to be remade anew before any glory could return. And through his years of fighting his childhood friend Nico Rosberg, I felt like we saw a tense, lost Lewis, desperately trying to stake the claim on what he felt like was his.
But, it was those years post the turmoil of Rosberg that I feel like we got to know the real Lewis, and through his friendship with Sebastian Vettel, I truly felt like the grid had the first real role-models we’ve ever had. And, after their battles faded, and Lewis was left unopposed, he started winning not just for himself, and individual glory, but he started winning for causes, people, and for Us.
It was that record breaking 2020 season that I will always think about when the day does finally come that Hamilton hangs up the helmet for good. A year of turmoil, uncertainty, and a lot of pain, from a lot of places.
But, throughout all of it, the bright star of F1 decided to rise above, and use his place as the greatest of our time to demand space in the sport for those that it had been so hostile to for decades. Getting Project 44 off the ground through sheer force of will and star power, and speaking honestly about the racism he faced, all in the midst of the George Floyd uprisings of the summer of 2020 is still awe inspiring.
And personally, as a trans woman who was living in deep red Texas, seeing Lewis take the progress pride flag to the top step of the podium in almost every country that F1 raced in that would criminalize my existence was important. He didn’t have to do that, and the fact that he did it over and over again, and still continues to wear a rainbow lid just means the world.
This is a lot of words to say that it just felt natural, correct, good! watching him extend his records even further, and while I have my own deeply held problems with the United Kingdom, seeing him get that record 9th win at his home race, in front of his crowd, his adoring audience, it felt like we were home, it felt like we were back, and F1 will never forget what He Did. Still We Rise.
