Covering Britain's newest star
There can be little doubt what the sports story of the year so far has been - it concerns a chap called Lewis, and sadly it ain't me.
So how do we set about reflecting the fact that a 22-year-old from Hertfordshire (that's definitely not me - I do live in Herts but 22 is long gone) ?
Firstly it means my colleagues at Radio Five Live will be getting even more interest in their live race commentaries. It's good news for , who I understand achieved an audience of 5.2m for their coverage of Indianapolis on Sunday, where Hamilton won his second GP. But clearly a British sensation is also a huge boost to Five Live, whose coverage does not stop at the race coverage on weekends but also boasts a Friday night F1 show.
And for the website, Lewis Hamilton is pretty good business. On Sunday our received getting on for half a million page views and the got almost 400,000. While on Monday our got around the same figure. But for us the challenge lies in how we take this story forward. Our F1 coverage is always popular, so whilst the statistics above are impressive, there will generally be a lot of people looking at our site on a Sunday when a GP is taking place in a good UK time slot. What I would hope we can do is keep the F1 diehards happy while also reflecting the fact that a new audience is coming to us, hungry for Lewis Hamilton coverage.
And the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ is in a unique position to do this. Because of our unrivalled video and audio archive, we were able to show you footage of the man (or boy) at the age of seven, 12 and 13. Blue Peter actually trailed Hamilton's progress through his early years and how that has paid off, with the ³ÉÈË¿ìÊÖ website now able to show how Britain's latest superstar developed. You can .
In the next few weeks, taking us through the France GP and on to Silverstone on 8 July, we will be keeping you up-to-date with the , and also start to look at where he goes from here, how his life is going to be turned upside down as a new global brand, etc.
So more to come from us, and I'm also very keen that we make everything we do interactive. So let me know here what Hamilton coverage you would like, and don't forget 606 has a thriving community of F1 fans just waiting to discuss the new sensation.
Yours - not the most famous Lewis in Hertfordshire,
Lewis