Turin, Italy - Alone but for a bottle of wine, a master of motor racing will sit down on his sofa to watch Lewis Hamilton and Nico Rosberg’s final duel for the Formula One Drivers’ championship of the world.
In the Italian commune of Masera, 80 miles northeast of Turin, Dino Chiesa will be content whoever emerges victorious from the desert finale in Abu Dhabi a week today.
“Being on my own I can scream, cry, be happy,’ says Chiesa, a legend of the karting world, who offers a unique perspective having managed Hamilton and Rosberg as young karters in Team MBM, Mercedes-Benz McLaren, in 2000-2001.
“I don’t want to be with someone who is actively supporting either Lewis or Nico. I’ll be happy regardless of the result. I can even start the wine on the formation lap, and maybe have another bottle, champagne perhaps, after the race.”
Chiesa knows the two combatants by their old nicknames: Nico, being white and rich and from Monaco, was known as The Prince; Lewis, being darker, was called The Sheik. He talks about the boys-turned-men as personalities and performers.
FRIENDS AND RIVALS
They were 15 and 16 at the time and firm friends as well as karting rivals when they came under Chiesa’s aegis. And he believes that, despite the pair’s jousting, an essential bond remains between them.
“We built the team specifically for them both - a gentleman’s agreement with Ron Dennis, who was in charge of the McLaren young driver programme that Lewis was on, and Keke Rosberg, Nico’s dad, who was looking after his son’s career,” says Chiesa.
“Lewis and Nico were meant to be together for three years but they were so quick they stepped up to cars after two years. Nico went to BMW and Lewis to Renault.
“I remember them as young boys. Friendly boys. A karting team is small, just five or six of us including the drivers. It is a little family. The boys usually slept together.
“Karting at that age is professional to a degree but not the way it is in Formula One. There were funny moments too. One night I remember reception at the hotel we were staying ringing me up to say that the bedding was being thrown out of their room. It started with a pillow and ended up with a mattress.
HANDBRAKE TURN
“Even Anthony (Lewis’s father) and Keke got on well. There was a joke among the others that Anthony was not a very good driver, unlike the rest of them. He was always the one driving the rental car though. One time Keke pulled the handbrake as Anthony was driving. The car spun in the middle of the road and went into the water hole at the side.
“Nico was laughing in the back and saying, ‘My dad pulled the handbrake’. Keke was famous for not spending much money - very Scottish, as you say in Britain. One time in Canada, you had to pay $2 () to get on a bridge over a stream to take you to the car park. Keke did not want to pay it and instead drove the pick-up into the stream. This time Lewis was laughing.
“Lewis was more mature. Nico had to learn from him. I believe they are still friends. I remember the Australian Grand Prix in 2008. They had their first podium together in Formula One. Lewis called me early in the morning because of the time difference.
“He was so happy. He said it was like their go-karting days: he and Nico together on the podium. That’s why I believe there is still friendship there. It is impossible to be enemies after all that.”
DO THE MATHS
The numbers favour Hamilton going into the final race of the season at Abu Dhabi’s Yas Marina circuit. He leads the championship by 17 points but with the scores counting double at the final round that is not as commanding a lead as it might sound.
A victory would be the most direct way for Hamilton to win his second title. But if Rosberg won the race, Hamilton would need to come second. If Rosberg were second, Hamilton would need to come fifth. If Rosberg were third, Hamilton would need to come sixth. Given the sheer dominance of their Mercedes cars, any other permutation is surely no more than theoretical.
Many observers were surprised by Rosberg beating Hamilton to another landmark this season: he leads 10 poles to seven. Chiesa is not.
“I predicted before the season that this is how I thought it would go, with Nico having more poles and Lewis being faster in races,’ he says.
“Nico needs to build up to his limit, which is why qualifying suits him. Lewis can go to the limit immediately without build-up, and that helps when they race. He is more aggressive and better at knowing when to overtake. He makes it look easy. It is not so easy for Nico, who is more smooth, safe and consistent.”
OUT OF REACH
It is a statement on the lifestyle of his two former charges that Chiesa expects to speak only to Rosberg before next Sunday. That is because Hamilton is out of reach - the sport’s global superstar, a status that has won him Bernie Ecclestone’s support. He believes a Hamilton championship would do more to promote his billion-pound circus.
Chiesa says: ‘I’ll talk to Nico for sure. He is polite, calmer. When he is home, he is home. He has a wife. He is settled. Lewis is very busy. He has less time to spend with people — I don’t mean that in a bad way; it is normal when you become more of a VIP. I think he wants to spend time with his friends and girlfriend. I am not part of his family.
‘Lewis has changed his phone number many times and it isn’t always easy to get hold of him. But he has my number if he wants me.’
Chiesa, guiding the next track stars of the future after more than 30 years in the business, still has equal time for his Prince and his Sheik.
FINAL TWIST
As Hamilton and Rosberg battle for the title in Abu Dhabi this weekend get ready for a final twist.
The history of Formula One is littered with dramatic last-day title shootouts in which legends such as Lauda, Hunt and Schumacher have put everything on the line... and all without the need to award double points. Ahead of Sunday’s showdown we look at F1’s most thrilling finales.
1950 — Monza, Italy
The first Formula One season came down to a fight between the three Fs of Alfa Romeo: Nino Farina, Juan Manuel Fangio and Luigi Fagioli. Farina, with his straight-arm driving style, led but was being harried by Fangio until his gearbox broke. Fangio rejoined the race in his team-mate Piero Taruffi’s car but was hampered by further gremlins. With Fagiolo way back in third, Farina, a qualified doctor and cavalry officer, won to become Formula One’s first champion.
1959 — Sebring, USA
Jack Brabham led the table coming into the final race but Stirling Moss, also in a Cooper T51, was just 5.5 points behind after winning the previous two Grands Prix. Ferrari’s Tony Brooks was also in contention. Moss, who had taken pole, retired with a broken gearbox. Brooks was bumped on the first lap and took a long pit stop. It was all clear for Brabham to win the race and the title. But he ran out of fuel. He got out and pushed the car over the line for fourth. It was enough for the championship, too.
1964 — Mexico City
John Surtees became the only man to win a world championship on two and four wheels. His rivals were Graham Hill, who headed the standings, and Jim Clark, who needed to win the race. Hill was running third, enough for the title, but he collided with Lorenzo Bandini and his hopes were dashed. Clark, who started on pole, was driving brilliantly at the front only for his Lotus to start leaking oil, eventually forcing him to stop. Bandini let his Ferrari team-mate Surtees through for second — and history.
1976 — Fuji, Japan
“By all the laws of humanity,” wrote James Hunt on the front page of the following day’s Daily Mail, “I should not be motor racing champion of the world.” It had been an insane climax to an insane season. Ferrari’s Niki Lauda had almost burned to death at the Nurburgring, allowing Hunt to narrow the gap during the Austrian’s recuperation. It came down to Fuji. The weather was so bad that Lauda retired after one lap. Hunt carried on, took third and the title.
1984 — Estoril, Portugal
The closest championship ever in numerical terms, Niki Lauda beating McLaren team-mate Alain Prost by half a point. Prost won the race, equalling Jim Clark’s record of seven wins in a season (although when the championship started in 1950 there were just six Grands Prix in Europe as well as the Indianapolis race). But Lauda, helped by Nigel Mansell spinning off, came second and that was enough for his third and final title.
1986 — Adelaide, Australia
All seemed under control for Nigel Mansell — he was in third place, enough to beat his title rivals Nelson Piquet and Alain Prost. But on lap 64 at Dequetteville Terrace his tyre blew violently. “Look at that,” exclaimed Murray Walker on the BBC. Mansell somehow kept his Williams out of the wall but his race was over. Prost became world champion but Mansell consoled himself with becoming ‘People’s Champion’ and BBC Sports Personality of the Year.
1994 — Adelaide
A bitter day that, rightly or wrongly, shaped the reputation of Michael Schumacher as a dirty fighter. The German, who started the race one point ahead of Damon Hill, hit the wall in his Benetton. This allowed Hill to get alongside Schumacher, who then turned his car in on the British favourite. Both men were out of the race, making Schumacher champion.
1997 — Jerez, Spain
Schumacher was again cast as villain. He turned in on Jacques Villeneuve at Dry Sack corner, but this time it did not work for him. Schumacher ended up beached in the gravel, Villeneuve survived and took third and the title. Schumacher was disqualified from the championship and admitted he regretted the incident — a rare mea culpa.
2008 — Sao Paulo, Brazil
Perhaps the most dramatic final day of all. In spitting rain, Felipe Massa of Ferrari crossed the line first. Lewis Hamilton needed to finish fifth or better to win the title but the Briton was in sixth as Massa won. But in the next few seconds, Hamilton passed Toyota’s Timo Glock, who was struggling on slick tyres on the wet track. News of Hamilton’s late surge was relayed to the Massa family, who were already celebrating in the Ferrari garage. Their faces fell. Hamilton won the title and Massa, in front of his home support, conducted himself graciously in numbing defeat.
2012 — Sao Paulo
Poor Fernando Alonso, who lost out on the title on the final day of the season for the third time. The hero of the day was Sebastian Vettel. The left side of his Red Bull was severely bruised in a collision with Bruno Senna on the fourth corner of the race. Ferrari’s Alonso, trailing by 13 points at the start, finished second. Vettel, in a superior car, fought back doggedly to sixth. It was enough for his third title at the young age of 25.
Daily Mail