Imagine you're sitting in a black rocket. Its 5.7m long but only 95cm high. It weighs 740kg or about the same as the Mercedes Smart Car. Here's the difference.
On a good day the Smart puts out 40kw, can go 0 to 100km in 19.8 seconds and with heavy wind assist is said to be able to reach 135km/h downhill. Your black F1 rocket has a 745kw engine behind your plastic seat. Provided you weigh no more than 75kg, your carbon fibre machine can hit 336km/h and accelerate from 0 to 100km/h in 2.6 seconds.
On the steering wheel are 25 controls, with up to 10 settings within many of those controls. On the wheel is a screen where the driver can scroll through 100 pages of information or watch himself live on Foxtel Go while making 50 gear shifts, changing his settings seven or eight times and talking to his crew. That's all on one lap. And a normal race is 78 laps.
While drivers can show most triathletes up, their biggest fitness problem is their necks. Your head normally weighs 4.5kg. Put on your helmet and other stuff and that becomes 8kg. So, on a corner your body is hit with a G Force of six. That means your body being slammed with a force of six times your weight. Because your head is now super heavy, your neck has to hold 40kg.
While Hamo's pay slip shows he gets about $50m a year (no overtime or super), Seb Vettel slips $36m into his sky rocket each Xmas, and Dano $28m, many of the drivers are paying to race, bringing money from Dad and Mum, a friendly local dictator or company. To have a chance of getting your child from karts to near the F1 track will cost you about $20m. Talent is important, but money is more important.
British Racing Drivers' Club vice-president Derek Warwick told the Guardian earlier this year that the increasing costs of racing meant Britain may never produce a driver from an underprivileged background such as Lewis Hamilton again.
Hamo grew up on a council housing estate in Stevenage. The son of a black father, Anthony, and a white mother, Carmen, who separated when he was two, he did it tough. "I have spoken so little about my personal experiences because I was taught to keep it in, don't show weakness, kill them with love and beat them on the track. But when it was away from the track, I was bullied, beaten and the only way I could fight this was to learn to defend myself, so I went to karate."
Last Sunday's Turkish GP showed why he is the greatest. He started sixth on the slippery grid. Within a lap some of the best drivers started spinning. On basically bald tyres, the boy from Stevenage ended up 22 seconds in front. Not only was it his 10th win of the season, his 94th win of his F1 career, but he equalled Michael Schumacher's seventh driver's title.