by ANDREW BENSON

HE DID NOT win the world title, in the most heart-breaking of fashions, but Lewis Hamilton has changed the face of Formula One this year. In fact, it is fair to say he has become it.

For a driver in his first year in the sport, that is an incredible feat. But then there seems to be nothing about the 22-year-old English phenomenon that is not incredible.

As the former world champion Damon Hill has said, no-one has ever seen a rookie like Hamilton. And if that sounds like hyperbole, given the drivers who have come before Hamilton, it is not. It is a simple statement of fact.

First of all, there is the world championship. No driver in his first year had even come close before.

And although Hamilton did not win it, many will argue he deserved it more than anyone, even in a year when there were three worthy champions.

Part of that is obviously down to the fact that he has had the car to do it, but it is not just about the car.

There were two McLarens at each race this season, and the other one was being driven by Fernando Alonso, double world champion, the youngest champion ever, the man who unseated Michael Schumacher, and undoubtedly an all-time great.

Hamilton did not just beat Alonso; he got under his skin.

He is young, cool, strikingly good-looking, and the first driver of Afro-Caribbean origin in a traditionally very conservative sporting environment.

These attributes have taken Hamilton himself – and by extension F1 – into unfamiliar territory.

Hamilton's potential to cut through F1's traditional demographic into new areas was apparent by early summer, by which time he was already leading the championship.

Before the British Grand Prix in July, he was playing golf when he got a call on his mobile phone inviting him to a party with the rap mogul P Diddy.

"The weird thing was," Hamilton recalls, "when we got there there were all these celebrities – and yet I seemed to be the main attraction."

He has also become friends with the pop singer Beyonce, and another rap star, Pharrell Williams.

Despite his entry into the world of celebrity, Hamilton's appeal is that he is clearly not the son of privilege.

(BBC)