Although the greatest start to a rookie driver’s career in Formula One history ended at the European Grand Prix, it was little surprise that Lewis Hamilton’s string of nine podium finishes in a row ended through no fault of his own. Ron Dennis and his McLaren Mercedes team have dedicated a decade to creating a driver as perfectly tuned and adapted to every element of the sport as their car is to the track.

The McLaren team seems to have succeeded so well that it was the car that cracked before its driver did. Hamilton started the race 10th on the grid, the furthest back in his short career, after his car broke during qualifying on Saturday. That coloured the rest of his efforts in a wild race where even the pole sitter lost everything on the first lap. Hamilton finished ninth, failing to score points for the first time this season, but he remains atop the driver standings. The rivals who are chasing him will continue to ask the question circulating through the paddock this season: does Hamilton’s instant success show that it is possible to manufacture a driver the way a team constructs a car?

Although most Formula One teams have driver development programmes, none has produced a success like Hamilton, nor been as intense and personal as the British driver’s programme.

Hamilton had physical trainers, mental trainers, Formula One race simulation equipment for all the Formula One tracks and an open door at McLaren for years. “It’s having the opportunity,” said Nigel Mansell, who won the drivers’ title in 1992. Frank Williams, the owner and director of the Williams team, where Mansell won his title, said it also has to do with the experience of today’s newcomers.

“What it appears to be, apart from amazing talents like Ayrton Senna or Michael Schumacher, is 250 to 450 races before they get to Formula One,” said Williams.

Adrian Sutil a rookie German driver at the Spyker team, who drove as teammate to Hamilton in Formula 3, performed as a child concert pianist before discovering racing at 14. “The focus and professional working method is the same as I do now in racing,” Sutil said. “I like to do everything to perfection and I don’t give up until everything is absolutely on the limit and perfect. I also did that on the piano. That’s what you need to do to be a champion in Formula One as well.”

Although he thinks it possible to manufacture a driver to a point, he said the results performing under pressure separate the champion from the rest. And that cannot be trained.

Hamilton showed such a quality when in the last lap of the session he scored pole position at the British Grand Prix earlier this month. His teammate, Fernando Alonso, showed it when he passed Felipe Massa with five laps remaining in the race on Sunday, and thereby won the race. But the Sutil case also shows the unpredictability of a child focusing on one activity up to adulthood. And in the end, the “manufactured” driver still has to reach the best team.

“What you can’t determine is that Lewis could have been in the Honda now, or he could have been in the Renault, or he could have been in another car,” Mansell said.

As part of that, a driver must also know how to seize the opportunities, as Hamilton said he has.

“I remember Ron said, ‘You have the opportunity, but I want you to be the fittest guy out there,’” said Hamilton. “So I had to make sure, even in my own self-confidence and self-belief, I wanted to be the fittest out there.