When Michael Schumacher announced his retirement after winning the 2006 Italian Grand Prix at Monza, there was hardly a dry eye in the conference room—and in millions of living rooms across the globe. Most anxious were Formula One fans, who worried how their beloved sport would continue to excite after its most successful driver bowed out.

They need not have worried. 2007 has turned out to be one of the most exciting, tightly-contested seasons in recent memory. All without the Great Chinned One. The primary reason for all the interest this year is Lewis Hamilton.

If either Fernando Alonso or Kimi Raikkonen took the title via a walk in the park, it would still have made the sports page. But a rookie leading the World Championship race? Now that’s Page One material.

The story began with the very first Grand Prix this year, at Australia. Raikkonen won his first race for Ferrari, and Hamilton climbed onto the podium, getting third place on his first F1 race. This would be the first of nine podium finishes in a row, unprecedented from a rookie. With his second place in the Spanish Grand Prix, he surpassed Bruce McLaren to become the youngest person to lead the World Championship.

Alonso by this time is extremely flustered, particularly after Hamilton wins back-to-back races in Canada and the U.S.A. Stamping your authority on a team is the usual practice in F1, and nobody did this better than Schumacher. But no one expected a rookie to do it, least of all his world-champion teammate.

Arguably, Hamilton even brought the spygate scandal enveloping his team and Ferrari to a boil. It was he who refused to let his teammate pass him as planned in the Hungarian GP qualifying, leading to Alonso retaliating and getting  penalized to sixth place. After that race, Alonso ended up even further behind in the championship race.

The reigning world champion’s relationship with his team, particularly with principal Ron Dennis, began to collapse after that. Alonso threatened to blackmail Dennis with email evidence of the team’s illegal use of Ferrari data. He later apologized and withdrew his threat, but not before Ron Dennis had already called the FIA to offer the new evidence. The result was McLaren’s getting thrown out of the constructors’ championship and getting fined $100 million.

Was Hamilton’s move deliberate? Playing politics and psychological warfare are part of the arsenal of any World Championship contender, particularly on his most serious competitor—his teammate. He probably would not have endangered his team this way, particularly as he himself could have been disqualified. Publicly, he has remained a team player throughout, traveling with them to Paris for the spygate hearings while Alonso stayed away.

So how can a rookie be so good? The quick answer is that Hamilton is not really a rookie. He has been driving competitively since he was eight years old. When he was ten, he reportedly approached Ron Dennis and told him, “I will drive for you one day…for McLaren.” McLaren subsequently took him under their wing, sponsoring him for their driver development program. He had the option of a McLaren Formula One drive when he was thirteen. After proving his way through lower formula, he finally entered the big league this year.

Thanks to the spy scandal, more people than ever are interested in the sport. Tire choices, qualifying, safety cars—everyone but the fans find these hard to understand. But $100 million? Everyone can imagine that.

Spying, rivalry, and the off-track antics–all of these would be just grist for the mill if the racing itself hasn’t been great. Hamilton has rarely put a wheel wrong on the track, despite his racing on unfamiliar tracks. He has proved every bit the match of, and perhaps the superior to, double world champion Alonso. In a Japanese grand prix drenched with torrential rain, he drove a confident and nearly perfect race.  

As the two competitors barrel into the final two races, Lewis leads by twelve points, but the title is still open. As long as they don’t take each other out on the track, the rivalry is a good one for the McLaren team and for the sport. Already, Hamilton has staked his claim on the team, declaring that he would rather see Alonso at another team. Perhaps he is not as nice a guy as he seems—and that will make him even more interesting.

Alonso seems to be on the losing end of the Hamilton presence, but Formula One fans have never had it better.

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