This weekend's race at Silverstone will serve to concentrate the minds of British fans on the fortunes of the two drivers for who this is the ‘home’ race - David Coulthard and Jenson Button. As one of the oldest drivers in the paddock, Coulthard knows that he is coming to the end of his distinguished Formula One career, while Jenson Button is still battling to make his mark at Honda and prove that he has what it takes to win a race.

　　本周末的银石比赛中，英国的车迷们将会更加关注两名主场作战的车手，大卫－库塔和简森－巴顿。作为围场中最年长的车手之一，库塔知道自己的辉煌的一级方程式生涯即将走到尽头，而简森－巴顿却仍然为自己在本田的荣誉而战，并证明他具备了赢得比赛冠军的实力。

　　But what about the next generation of British talent? Who can we expect to see making the transition to Formula One racing in the near future? Of the current crop of hopefuls, the name that seems to be springing to most lips as Britain's next big thing is that of Lewis Hamilton.

　　不过下一代英国天才的情况怎样了呢？在不远的将来，我们可以期望谁来加入一级方程式的比赛呢？当然在目前众多的希望之星中，能够被大多数人看成是英国下一代伟大车手的名字就是刘易斯－汉密尔顿。

　　Hamilton is no stranger to hype, but he's also proving to be a major talent, and someone who appears ideally set to make the final step up the motorsport ladder to Formula One racing. A brilliant performance in the recent GP2 race at Monaco will have done his chances of moving up to the big league no harm - he turned pole into a dominant victory in his ART, crossing the line no fewer than 8.4 seconds ahead of his nearest rival.

　　汉密尔顿对大家来说并不陌生，不过他同时也在证明自己是一个伟大的天才和一个似乎注定要登上通往一级方程式的f1.sports.sohu.com/' target=_blank>赛车阶梯上最后一级台阶的人。最近在摩纳哥GP2比赛中的卓越表现将更加确保了他登陆这项最盛大赛事的几率：他将杆位的优势化成了一次完美的胜利，以领先第二名不少于8.4秒的成绩冲过了终点线。

　　Not that stunning onlookers is a anything new for the 21-year old, it's something he's been doing since becoming the youngest ever winner of the British cadet class kart championship, aged just 10. His performance in karts was sufficiently assured to attract the interest of McLaren, who signed him up as a ‘driver of the future’ as long ago as 1998, and have been supporting him ever since.

　　对于这位21岁年轻人来说，让观众们目瞪口呆并不是一件新鲜事了，他自从在年仅10岁时成为英国最年轻卡丁赛车冠军后便一直在做这样的事情。他在卡丁赛事中的表现引起了迈凯轮的兴趣，于是他们早在1998年便将汉密尔顿签约成了一名‘未来车手’，并从此一直支持着他。

　　After graduating from karts, Hamilton made his mark in Formula Renault, finishing the 2002 British season in third place overall and taking three podium finishes from four starts in the EuroCup series the same year. The following season he came top in British Formula Renault - the feeder category that propelled Kimi Raikkonen into the big time. A move to the Formula 3 Euroseries followed, with Hamilton finishing 2005 as champion after pretty much whitewashing the opposition with nine victories from 12 races. He then graduated to GP2 for this season, where he currently lies second in the standings, just two points behind Nelson Piquet Jr.

　　从卡丁赛事中毕业以后，汉密尔顿开始参加雷诺方程式的比赛，并在2002英国赛季中获得了总成绩的第三名，并在同一年的欧洲杯系列赛中四次参赛就三次登上了领奖台。在随后的一个赛季中，他登上了英国雷诺方程式的最高领奖台，基米－雷克南也曾经从这项赛事走向了伟大的时代。接着汉密尔顿加入了三级方程式欧洲系列赛，并在2005年的12场比赛中拿到了9次胜利，以惊人的战绩击败对手拿到了总冠军。这个赛季他登陆了GP2的比赛，现在汉密尔顿在积分榜上位居第二名，仅比小尼尔森－皮奎特落后两分。

　　Hamilton's performances have won him so much attention that people in the paddock are now wondering if he could step straight into a full Formula One drive with McLaren next year. As GP2 graduate Nico Rosberg has already proved, the gap between the two series is by no means insurmountable for a talented young driver. Giving such a chance to a relative unknown would be a huge risk for a team leader as cautious as Ron Dennis to take, but with Raikkonen’s future unclear and Juan Pablo Montoya's contract showing little sign of being renewed, Hamilton could be the ideal 2007 team mate for Fernando Alonso.

　　汉密尔顿的表现为他赢得了太多的关注，以至于现在围场中的人们都认为他很可能明年将直接升级成为迈凯轮的一名全职一级方程式车手。因为GP2的毕业生尼科－罗斯伯格已经证明：对于一个天才的年轻车手来说，这两项赛事之间的差距并不是不克逾越的。对于像罗恩－丹尼斯这样一个需要谨慎从事的车队老板来说，将这样的机会给予一个相对来说还不出名的车手将是一个极大的冒险，不过由于雷克南的未来还很不确定，而且也没有太多迹象表明胡安－帕布洛－蒙托亚的合同可以续约，所以汉密尔顿很可能是费尔南多－阿隆索在2007年最理想的队友。

　　"We've mapped out his year, he's going to concentrate on GP2 and we're not going to get distracted from that," Dennis told news agency Reuters, after the Monaco Grand Prix. "As and when I feel it is appropriate, we'll give him the opportunity to test and really settle in to driving a Formula One car. Then, according to how that works out, we'll decide together the next best step."

　　摩纳哥大奖赛之后，丹尼斯在接受路透社的采访时表示：“我们今年已经计划好了，他将把精力放在GP2的比赛中，我们不会因此而分心。当我认为时机成熟的时候，我们会给他试车的机会，让他真正体验一回一级方程式赛车。接着，根据当时的情况，我们将一起确定下一个最好的步骤。”

　　But don't be surprised if, by next year's British Grand Prix, the crowds have a new local hero to cheer on.

　　不过，如果到明年的英国大奖赛上，观众们在为一个新的本土英雄而欢呼时，请不要感到惊讶。

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