Motor Racing
German GP, Sunday
IN 2008 Lewis Hamilton won the drivers' championship in Formula 1 with a superb display of his talents throughout the season - but it also helped massively that his McLaren car was a winner, too.
The previous year - his debut campaign in F1 - he had finished second in the drivers' championship.
But since then, Lewis has never managed to reach those heights.
In 2009, he finished fifth, in 2010 fourth, last year he was fifth again and now he lies fourth in the race for the title.
And that is unacceptable for the man who is undoubtedly THE driver of the generation. He should have had FOUR titles to his name rather than ONE.
And that is why he is in such a delicate, life-defining stage of his career as he heads to Hockenheim this weekend.
Last year he triumphed at this circuit and how he could do with a repeat of that now.
Another non-finish or poor result and he will fall further behind his arch rival Fernando Alonso and the Red Bulls of Vettel and Webber.
The headache he faces is simple: stick or twist. Should he stick with McLaren when his contract runs out at the end of the season...or should he twist and head to another team where his chances of winning the title again would increase?
It is a tough choice but one he must get right - or he may go down in the history books as the best driver of his generation who only won one title.
Lewis must assess whether the McLaren team are going to provide him with a faster car, and better back-up in the pits - or whether another team would improve his chances.
His big problem is to judge whether there is another tean who could do that - and whether they would have a space for him.
Surely he must be putting out feelers to assess the mood within the other garages?
This is where his old dad would have been of great assistance. Is it merely coincidence that his career has nosedived since he told Anthony that he no longer required his services before the start of the 2010 season?
I hope Lewis does win on Sunday in Germany - and, for his sake, that he makes the right decision about whether to stick or twist at the end of the season. His career and place in the history books depends entirely upon the latter.
FRANK WORRALL
FRANK'S biography of Lewis Hamilton is available for the reduced price of £7.99 at...
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lewis-Hamilton-Champion-World-Biography/dp/1844545814/ref=sr_1_11_title_0_main?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1342617988&sr=1-11
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