But, to be scrupulously fair, I do think that Hamilton actually has a gold-plated excuse for this one - a prior engagement that he’s required to respect and which leaves him unavailable for the entire race event.

It wouldn’t be very civil to blow out all the people that had bought tickets to see him appear at the BBC event or who were planning to phone up and vote for him either. Sports Personality did, after all, sell out quite a bit quicker than RoC had any hope of doing.

I just hope that this appearance goes some way towards persuading McLaren that the world won’t end if he competes properly next year.

(Also, Hamilton-bashing or no, it’s good to see you haven’t drunk the viral video Kool-Aid… :- ) )

The Race of Champions at Wembley, with a British WDC should really be THE champion, i.e. Schumacher, versus OUR champion i.e. Lewis. That is what everyone really wants to know isn’t it? Is he as good?

Pffffft.

Yes, Chris Hoy will be making his way up to the SPOTY show - do you expect him to wait at Wembley to take on the rest of the drivers, just him and his bike? The Race of Champions is for professional racing drivers as far as I can tell and the last time I checked that was what Hamilton did for a job, and Chris Hoy didn’t.

I really like writing about Lewis Hamilton as it always provokes such well thought out arguments and discussions.

It also prompts people with very ambiguous names to post for the first time - A Parker and now B Cave have popped up recently. Why do people who disagree with the faithful Hamilton followers have to be either racist or a moron, or indeed both? Is supporting him such a no-brainer that anyone with one iota of sense would do so? I think not.

As I’ve said before, I couldn’t care less whether Lewis was black, white, pink or purple with yellow spots - it’s his attitude I don’t particularly like nor some of his on-track driving.

But anyway, as I said at the very start of the post - I’ve kinda given up saying anything too negative about him, so I’m not going to get dragged back in already!

Had it been the other way round, would Hamilton have handled it so well? I’d like to think so, but part of me isn’t sure.

I am a DC fan, and have been since he came into the sport. Initially I followed his fortunes not because he was British as such, but because he was from my neck of the woods - when you are a young teen, that makes a big difference. As the years rolled by and I learned more about him as a person rather than just on the track, I got to like him more. Of course, his morals etc which I see as plus-points actually went against Coulthard the racing driver as it essentially hindered him in his quest for a world title.

I’ve got more about DC coming up in another post, but I take it he hasn’t impressed you during his career?

In my eyes, neither was convincing enough to be a clearcut champion this year - fingers crossed they get their acts together for next season so someone actually wins the title rather than receiving it almost be default.