A question of luck

I talked a lot about luck during the broadcast on Sunday.

I talked a lot about luck during the broadcast on Sunday. Luck always has a role to play in big sporting events; the rub of the green, the ball hitting the crossbar, the engine failing three laps from the end.

When the hard work has been done and the results are what they are to that point, a final race will often come down to a question of luck and so it proved on Sunday, with the rain showers, Glock's gamble on dry tyres, which almost paid off and almost handed the title to Massa. Then the crucial piece of luck, the one which handed the title to Lewis, when it started raining heavily with less than 130 seconds to go to the end of Hamilton's season. Glock couldn't control his car on dry tyres in this narrow sliver of time and Hamilton caught and passed him. No rain, no title.

What I didn't get around to mentioning in the broadcast, because of all the thrills, was that the organisers at Interlagos had placed Hamilton and McLaren in garage number 13. [ more ]

As you know, with McLaren's non-status this year after disqualification from last year's constructors championship, they have floated around the pit lane, sometimes being at the bottom, sometimes the middle depending on circuit. But sticking them in garage 13 for the decisive race was quite a statement.

Lewis was a bit freaked out by the Brazilian TV pranksters, who hijacked him at a Johnnie Walker function before the weekend and handed him a black cat and a replica shirt from a Brazilian team, which always finishes runner up and never wins. He thought black cats mean good luck, but they mean the opposite in Brazil, apparently. His brother Nicholas was hit with one at the hotel later in the weekend. It got to them, they found it eery.

But they rode their luck. I know a lot of people don't like the Hamiltons because they find them pushy and resent the sense of 'entitlement' - being meticulously groomed by Ron Dennis, coming in and dominating the sport straight away, but they are not as manipulative as you think they are. They are finding their way, making mistakes and they are not as thick-skinned as you might imagine. Anthony kept saying on Sunday to the media, "We are decent people," the problem is that, without realising it, the public are all so media savvy now, look at you reading this blog for example. We rush to judgement, assuming that public figures have it all worked out. Some take enormous care over their public image, like Ricky Gervais for example (check out http://www.rickygervais.com/thissideofthetruth.php )

The Hamiltons are making it up as they go along, trust me. I wish they would get a bit more media savvy, it might stop them winding so many people up. You can only introduce yourself to people once.