Outside Line: Hamilton the World's Best? It's a No-Brainer

It's that time of year again. That time where Laureus rolls out its nominees for Sportsman of the Year (SOTY) and I get worked up far more than I should about it. Especially with Lewis Hamilton nominated, this year is no exception.

You see, the thing about me is that beyond F1, I am a sports

dork. F1 is my favourite to watch, but I also follow (in no particular order) tennis, basketball, American football, actual football, cricket, boxing, and baseball, as well as things like the Olympics when they're on, major golf tournaments, and international Rugby when the Wallabies don't suck (so not currently).

I'm always watching something, and I feel it's important to have an award like this – not because you and I need telling who the best in the world was, but because in 100 years when we're all gone, some kid is going to want to know, and they're sure as hell not going to watch hundreds of hours of old sport when they can just skim over a Wikipedia article.

So with that in mind, I think the Laureus SOTY has legitimate importance, and with my unique qualification of having far too much time on my hands, I think I'm in a legitimate position to say that in 2018, no one was better at their sport than Lewis Hamilton. He should win, but Laureus' recent track record doesn't make me hopeful.

Why? Because by my estimation, Laureus have got the award wrong on five of the last six occasions. I don't know if the voting panel radically changed over that time, or they just started picking names out of a hat, but here's a quick look at the most recent winners:

(Keep in mind the award is given for the previous year, namely the 2018 season.)

2013 – Usain Bolt. Three gold medals at the Olympics is always nice, but he was also beaten by Yohan Blake in both the 100m and 200m at the Jamaican Championships. Both Lionel Messi, with a record 91 goals for Barcelona, and Bradley Wiggins with four tour victories (including the Tour de France) and an Olympic time trial gold were better candidates.

2014 – Sebastian Vettel. A great season to be sure, but eleven of his thirteen wins came after Pirelli made significant changes to the tyre compounds, reverting them to specifications that largely favoured Red Bull. LeBron James, who led the Miami Heat on a 27-game winning streak, won the MVP, the NBA championship and set new benchmarks for scoring efficiency was a far worthier choice.

2015 – Novak Djokovic. Won one major at Wimbledon and finished year-end number one. Marc Marquez with 12 MotoGP victories, Hamilton with 11 wins, Cristiano Ronaldo winning the Champions League with Real Madrid, and Lionel Messi almost single-handedly dragging Argentina to the world cup final were all better picks.

2016 – Djokovic again. This time fair, as he won three of the four majors, and set a new ATP record for rankings points.

2017 – Bolt again. Went three-for-three in Olympic events, but Djokovic (funnily enough), who became the first man since Rod Laver to hold all four majors simultaneously and re-broke his points record, and LeBron James, who pulled off one of the all-time great comebacks to lead the Cleveland Cavaliers to the NBA title had stronger cases.

2018 – Roger Federer. Speaking as a die-hard Federer fan, he did not deserve this award. Statistically speaking, he wasn't even the best in his own sport! Rafael Nadal captured the same amount of majors (two) and finished year-end number one. That said, Cristiano Ronaldo – who lead Real to five titles – trumped both of them.

Who knows, maybe they get it right this year, but I seriously doubt it. For reference, the other nominees are Djokovic, marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge, LeBron, Kylian Mbappe and Luka Modric. All great sportsmen? Sure. All very successful in 2018? Absolutely, but compared to Hamilton? No chance.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again here: Hamilton's 2018 was one of the greatest individual seasons in F1 history. Over the whole of the season, his Mercedes W09 was either matched or bettered by Sebastian Vettel and Ferrari more often than not, and yet he ended up 88 points clear of Vettel in the driver's championship, and brought the Silver Arrows 84 points clear of the Scuderia in the constructor's.

Even with Ferrari's instances of self-sabotage, he simply had no right to dominate on the level he did, but time and again, he pulled great drives out of his backside.

Both in terms of year-long success and "something to tell the grandkids" instances of brilliance, the other nominees can't compete. Djokovic was a shell of himself for the first half of 2018, Kipchoge smashed the world record, but only ran twice, LeBron didn't win anything, Mbappe was a key cog – but a cog nonetheless – for France, and Modric has failed to spark Real in Cristiano Ronaldo's absence, with the team sitting fourth in La Liga and with as many losses already as they had all last season.

Unfortunately, I doubt the Laureus SOTY voters will see it quite the same way. If I had to bet, I would place my money on Djokovic, who was admittedly very impressive in winning Wimbledon and the US Open, and as I've pointed out, they've already given it to him for less.

Hopefully, I'm wrong, and it’s not like Laureus hasn't shown F1 respect in the past – besides Vettel, Michael Schumacher also won it twice in 2002 and 2004 – but I'm not confident. There is not a doubt in my mind Hamilton deserves it, and I just hope that either win or lose, future generations of non­

Phew! End of rant. I need to lie down.

https://www.grandprix247.com/2019/01/17/hamilton-nominated-for-laureus-sportsman-of-the-year/