Just what has happened to Formula One?

All of a sudden, the erstwhile Sunday snooze-athon has come over all sexy thanks to the efforts of one man. Lewis Hamilton has single-handedly added some much needed va va voom to a sport which was in danger of disappearing up its own exhaust pipe.

But it is not just the masses who are becoming increasingly curious about Hamilton, who, in the space of a month, has burned his way into the public conscience by becoming the first rookie in history to record three podium finishes in his first three races and the first black driver in F1.

Last week, Jackie Stewart predicted that the McLaren driver would become the first debutant to win the drivers' championship and the Scot, who won two drivers' titles, is not alone.

Martin Whitmarsh, McLaren's chief executive, believes Hamilton can have the same galvanising impact on F1 as his boyhood idol Ayrton Senna.

"There is no reason why he could not be the greatest driver ever," said Whitmarsh last week. "I think it's pretty clear that Lewis ticks all the necessary boxes."

Whitmarsh is just one of a number of important voices who believe it is a matter of when, not if, Hamilton wins the drivers' crown and indeed the 22-year-old Englishman has made such an impression that he is currently the fourth most searched for sports person on AOL's internet Hot Search - one spot above the Manchester United winger, Cristiano Ronaldo.

To the unenlightened, Hamilton is F1's bright young thing - a driver who has been groomed by Ron Dennis since childhood to dominate the motor racing landscape for the next decade. It's a case of so far, so good for Dennis, the McLaren team owner, as Hamilton sits joint top of the drivers' championship after three races, a berth he shares with former champion, Kimi Raikkonen, and the current one, Fernando Alonso.

He showed remarkable elan and composure in his first bend at Australia during a race which he subsequently finished third in. Second-placed finishes at Malaysia and Bahrain last week have confirmed that was no fluke and in a sport which has only just started to regain some of its credibility following the fiasco which saw just six cars take part in the 2005 US Grand Prix due to safety concerns, he is a breath of fresh air.

Charismatic and good looking he is a marketing man's dream and, if the experts are to be believed, a driver capable of shedding motor sports dreary image on his own.

That Hamilton is a pioneer has not gone unnoticed either. Formula One has for too long been dominated by white European and South American drivers and while Hamilton admits he has not been the victim of racism since turning professional he says that was not always the case.

"When I'm at a race now I don't think, Oh man, I'm the only black guy here'. I noticed it more in karting. Because some of the kids were immature, the odd racist thing would pop up. But I channelled my aggression - that's one of my strengths. I was also taught that the best way to beat them is out on the track."

Those words which appear on a dedicated Hamilton website echo those of another black sporting icon, Tiger Woods, who railed against the conservative attitudes at golf clubs all over America as he was making his name as an amateur.

If Hamilton is to make the same kind of impact that Woods has in golf, he must do it quickly. F1 is notoriously intolerant with its superkids as Jenson Button, Juan Pablo Montoya and Jacques Villeneuve will testify. While the latter two both won drivers championships, they never really set the sport alight and Button had to wait until last year's Hungarian Grand Prix before recording his first win - six and a half years after entering the big league.

Button's example should serve as a salutary lesson to Hamilton. That first win needs to come quickly or he may just become another one of F1's nearly men.