History bestows on us perspective; it permits us to slice and dice events into neat and easily-labelled compartments. The history of grand prix racing is no exception, wafting gracefully from clearly-defined era to clearly-defined era.

But that perspective also irons out the kinks, the blemishes, the mucky reality that makes what seems starkly obvious in retrospect invisible in real time. "Progress isn't always a straight line or a smooth path," as former US president Barack Obama puts it.

No matter how great things seem to be for Lewis Hamilton right now, with pre-season testing setting him up as world championship favourite yet again, there will be a time when he must face down the forces of history. And it could happen this year.

About Edd Straw

Edd Straw is a former Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Autosport, who is now Motorsport Network’s Digital Content Manager.

Originally from Guernsey in the Channel Islands, he joined Autosport in 2002 having graduated from Warwick University. He went on to cover a wide range of categories from club motorsport to the World Touring Car Championship and Le Mans to Formula 3 before switching to F1 full-time at the 2008 French Grand Prix. He then became Autosport Magazine Editor in November 2014.

After becoming Editor-in-Chief of Autosport in June 2016, he took up his current wider Motorsport Network role in October the following year and continues to contribute as a writer, F1 correspondent and as host of The Autosport Podcast.

In his spare time, he was formerly a club racer whose abilities did not match his enthusiasm in a variety of categories ranging from Stock Hatch to the European Ferrari Challenge.