What is it that makes Lewis Hamilton Formula 1's most polarising driver?

If Lewis Hamilton was a flavour, it would be Liquorice. Not because of his skin tone, but because when wading into a discussion about who you back on and off the track, there is no Formula 1 driver more polarising. You either love him, or can’t abide him. There are no undecided parties.

I think we can leave the actual racing to one side, anyone performing at Formula 1's level is without a doubt a superb athlete, but with Hamilton surpassing Michael Schumacher’s previous record of 91 Grand Prix victories to reach 100 first place titles in 2020, he’s unmatched in driving ability.

I don’t think the Hamilton approval dichotomy comes from the normal perverse anticipation that occurs when waiting for a champion’s star to wane, as Hamilton’s inevitably will.

I think Hamilton causes such a visceral response in his fans and critics because he is the embodiment of a modern masculinity that boggles the minds of Formula 1's establishment.

Hamilton is also the quintessential Renaissance man. He’s black, and has definitively conquered an aggressively white, hyper-masculine arena. He grew up on a council estate, he loves clothes and is considering becoming a designer when he retires from Formula One. He dresses in bejewelled high-tops and lace dress shirts.

For me, Hamilton is of the new guard; a man more interested in teaching men about boundaries than policing displays of femininity. And he wins, all the time with a type of single-minded focus that is unquestioningly male.

I love thinking about how irritating it must be for Christian Horner, the team principal of Red Bull Racing, to see Hamilton at the Met Gala in lace and pearls. He is incomprehensible to a sport built on old money and traditions. How the best of them is also the most un-like them.

I hope the ease with which he manages his masculinity affords him more freedom in his own life, and I am sure it does. Mostly, I am grateful for the effect he is having on the millions of men who follow his every move on social media, and watch his every race. May they see that being the ultimate man, the manliest, racing-car driver version of a man, is also a man in a skirt.