Lewis Hamilton. Not a bad bloke

As far as mainstream sports go, for me Formula 1 ranks right down towards the bottom.

I love sport, I love the competition, the battle to be the best, be it in a one-off competition or supreme effort over the course of a season. But my favourite sports are ones that represent a balance of fairness.

Football is great, I love it on the international level but not so much on a club level. Can any club really celebrate winning trophy after trophy simply because they have the biggest budget? Many do, but for me personally no. There are many other sports that celebrates winners based on little more than financial clout. It's still sport, but not as interesting.

Which is why Formula 1 ranks so low personally for me. When you add something external into a sport (such as a horse or a car) You dilute it's fairness. 

As much as I enjoyed British cycling's domination on the track every time the Olympics roll round. It's always tempered with the knowledge that our Brits were also on what was probably the best bike. But watching Jason Kenny winning Gold in the Keiran at the 2021 Olympics was one of the standout performances of the year. 

He wasn't on the best bike (the world had long since caught up) neither was he the best sprinter in the field. Yet he won comfortably. It was quite simply a brilliant, quick thinking analysis of a situation and he gripped it with both hands. As usual with Jason Kenny like modesty he still had his doubts that it would work, but work it did. It was breath-taking and something all sports fans can only sit back and admire.

But Formula 1 never throws up these kinds of moments. It's too open to monumental strokes of luck. Had someone not crashed out in the dying moments of this years championship then Lewis would be celebrating his 8th win. Then race organisers were faced with an impossible decision, lets not discuss the rules of F1 (regarding F1 rules, I am a complete novice) but a decision made in the heat of the moment that would either hand Lewis his 8th win, or hand Max his first. Did they get it wrong or right, I don't really care that much.

It was the crash that made the race. F1 is just too random. Not forgetting the fact that the machine you use already represents a massive advantage, what happens within the race itself can easily nullify the brilliance of any individual achievement.

Now I don't hold much of a personal opinion on Lewis himself. He represents my country, he's an excellent driver, one of the best who has ever lived without doubt. I really hope he does go on to win his 8th title and stand above every other driver before him, because his virtue signalling aside, he's not a bad bloke at all.

When he takes a knee for BLM, I don't particularly care. He clearly doesn't understand the Marxist undertones of that movement. When he encourages more black representation in his sport and other area's such as schooling, I don't really care about that either, because I know his opinion is made in good faith. I don't expect him to go deep deep undercover and find out why today's society has the discrepancies it has, he is after all a sportsman and not an expert on socioeconomics.

I hope that one day, when he decides to retire, maybe just after clinching his 10th title win, he'll look back on his life with pride (as he should) but he'll also look back on what (and who) people hold him up as.

White and black Brits alike will hail him as the greatest of all time, as will I (even though it's not my sport)

And, as he already seems to be acutely aware. There are certain people with white skin (thankfully a miniscule amount) that will still look at him as "not one of us" that is their choice and I remain happy in the knowledge that this is a dying breed.

But will he also be aware that there is also (thankfully small) but very vocal number of black people that espouse racist views that are in every way just as disgusting as their white counterparts. 

Omid Scobie (who is basically a racist) recently tweeted news of Hamilton's Knighthood. The replies are typical of what our society faces today.

It's called tradition. And, you know, it's easier to touch someone's shoulders with a sword if they're kneeling!

One of the earliest cases of health and safety you might say?

Absolutely, but let's look for some racism!!!

Nope, still tradition

AMM here, is clearly an intelligent, rational human. Let's see how this goes down

Hehe indeed lilos. Refer to the future king as "egg". You rascal

You must be fucking blind then. It's been going on for years! But you know, Racism!!!

Yup, there really are stupid people like this on the planet. Cowering indeed!

A-haaaaaaa but you saw right through it didn't you?!?

You cunning fox you!

So Lewis Hamilton is confused and wandering aimlessly? Good job he has you standing with him

Yup, lets not get facts mixed up with your racist, myopic view. Coz, you know RACISM!!

Never mind eh.

I know right! EVERYTHING IS RACIST!! The only thing that isn't racist is black people!!

Ding ding! times up. That's enough idiocy for today. He was informed weeks ago. Lewis personally chose the date himself. But, you know RACISM!!!

Ok, I did cherry pick these comments. Thankfully, the majority were just pleased that a bloke got some recognition for his expertise and brilliance in his field. But it does highlight a big problem, one that will probably follow Lewis around for the rest of his life.

As much as white people can be racist and it's disgusting. There are also a large number of black people who hold a similar racist view towards white people.

And that's pretty disgusting too.

To be honest, I have a whole bunch of stuff related to this regarding Britain's chief race baiter shouty shola but I won't use it. To understand her colossal hatred of white people you really should look at her tweeting history. In fact! Her opinion should be taught in classrooms as a textbook example of how to incite a race war. I like to call shouty shola the stupidest woman in Britain

But maybe she does have a use after all?