So much has been achieved by Lewis Hamilton is such a short time. By almost winning a championship in his rookie year, people are already backing him to win the championship this year.

Is it perhaps a case of too much too soon? Is he worthy of such expectations or will he let them down? To arrive at the answers to these questions, we need to analise Lewis Hamilton as a driver.

Strengths:

1. Unfazed by the competition: It would have been easy to get overawed by the situation when you are rubbing shoulders with the likes of Fernando Alonso and Kimi Raikkonen, but Hamilton would have none of that. With a firm head on his shoulders he has risen to the occasion every time.
2. No background noise: With a multi-million dollar deal with McLaren that is likely to go on for the next few years, Hamilton has a secure future. With strong family support and mentor and manager Ron Dennis always around; everything else is taken care of and all he has to focus on is driving.
3. Complete driver: Hamilton is an all-round driver. An excellent qualifier, he showed in the recent Turkish Grand Prix that he can quickly adapt his driving skills to suit the strategy. Overtaking moves have always been his forte and Ferrari’s Felipe Massa would vouch for that. With the exuberance and fearlessness of youth on his side; there is only one direction Hamilton’s driving graph can go – upwards!
4. Ron Dennis: With the huge amount of experience the McLaren Mercedes team principal has of various racing scenarios, Hamilton can be assured of sound advice.

Weaknesses:

1. Wet weather driving: While Hamilton has performed extremely well in dry races, the three wet weather races exposed him last year. Nurburgring saw him go off only to be helped back on the track by a crane; but he couldn’t make full use of the opportunity and finished poorly. One big mistake in a wet race in China snatched the championship away from Hamilton and handed it to Kimi. Hamilton. He would do himself well by improving his wet weather driving.
2. Bogged down by setbacks: Hamilton has been a great performer, but even great drivers have a bad day once in a while. The issue with Hamilton is that he perhaps lets these setbacks affect him too much. Once he is pushed down the order, like he was in the Brazilian Grand Prix of 2007, he tries too hard to claw his way back. He must realize that not every corner of every lap is an overtaking opportunity. Even at the Bahrain Grand Prix of 2008, he took nearly six laps to go past Force India’s Giancarlo Fisichella when all he had to do was to play the patient game and swoop at the right time.