Lewis Hamilton..what a bellend

[old_coyote_pedaller]

What punishment did he get for the move on the Williams??

20 seconds.

Hamilton is a supremely talented driver but a spoilt child of an adult.

Groomed from an early age by McLaren he seems to be unable to think for himself, goes along with whatever he is told by his team.
Any driver with half a brain would have gone out in Q3 at Monaco to put in a banker lap in case of yellow or a red flag spoiling his quick lap. It's Monaco FFS. There are other instances of this type of non-thinking adherence to what the team has decided. Remember Liargate when his lie to get a driver penalised but was easily proved to be a lie?

On Sunday he blamed both of the other drivers for what happened, but he drove into them. He wasn't even level with them, only half way.
Both the other drivers lost points scoring finishes because Hamilton hit them. The punishment for hitting Massa was a drive-through but the post race 20 second penalty for punting off Maldonado is meaningless. He should have been DQ'd as a penalty for it to have any effect.

The start of Massa's crash in tunnel wasn't shown but I suspect Hamilton had another go at him when they entered Portier just before the tunnel, when Massa would have been off the racing line going into corner before Portier so his entry for Portier would have been compromised. Forced on to the marbles in tunnel a crash was inevitable.

Hamilton's claim that Maldonado turned in early at St. Devote is a childish excuse. What did Hamilton expect him to do, not defend his position?

I think he is getting himself into a position where the other drivers on the grid are going to go out of their way to make it hard for him.
Expressing opinions like this, "And I went up the inside of Maldonado and you can see on the screen he turned in a good car length too early to stop me from overtaking him and crashed into me. This stuff's ridiculous. These drivers are absolutely fricking ridiculous, it's stupid.", isn't likely gain him any friends amongst these "ridiculous" drivers.

 

[tintin40]

Agree. That crash really hurt Williams. As no points so far. Would have been 10 in total.

 

[Neil]

Personally, I think he's extremely talented at getting about as much speed out of the car as possible.

I think the problem sometimes arises, now - especially if exacerbated by not qualifying that well (I know, sounds incongruous with what I wrote above - but in quali, not all things are equal...) - in driving 10/10ths not necessarily being the fastest way of doing the race distance.

I get he's racey - no bad quality for an F1 driver - I get he likes to push and drive fast - again no bad quality for an F1 driver - but either because of position, or luck, or qualie performance, often has to - at least try - overcompensate, and in doing so, can frequently take the life out of his tyres far before ideal - then compromising his race performance and strategy.

I'm not going to do the whole, cliched, "Jenson knows how to take care of his tyres..." line - but one thing I was surprised at - I expected Hamilton to totally dominate Button at McLaren. And in fairness, he often has the edge on speed.

But their race-y battles on track, and oscillating fortunes between various races, have surprised me in that Button isn't being entirely or comprehensively beaten by Hamilton, just mostly edged by Hamilton's raw speed, aggression, and ability take the fight to racers.

But like Mansell said about Schumacher, quite some years ago - he knows how to drive fast, what he needs to learn is how to drive slow (meaning he needs to learn to drive at the pace that will most serve him over a race distance.

As to his comment - I think he was clearly rattled and angry - and as such interviewed when he wasn't really well prepared. I think his outburst was somewhat impetuous and it did strike of that childish say something clearly ridiculous in extreme, almost tantrum-like, then when he realised what he was saying he played his Ali-G-joke card.

You could almost hear his team cringe as he said it. Bosses and sponsors won't like it, and Lewis should well remember - in F1, drivers cars and teams, can often be incidental - it's all about the money, stupid.

Oh and the comment, earlier in the weekend, about qualifying strategy, was just bad form - almost to the degree of self-aggrandising at the expense of his team, simply because he had the benefit of hindsight. He said himself, he didn't challenge the decision, he only decided to criticise after the fact, because he's got the hump 'cos the weekend isn't going to plan.

He needs to learn the lesson of Alonso before him (when he was at McLaren) that just being fast and talented is not enough, for being gobby and overly vocal.

 

[thesneaker]

I know Lewis's hero is Senna, and those 2 moves he pulled were "Senna" moves, he used to stick his car into the ever decreasing gap and it was upto you if you got out the way, 25 years ago you got away with it, not now.

Theres a race with Senna for Mclaren and Mansell for Ferrari, where Senna pulls this move twice crashing into people, can't find it on youtube though?

Lewis is one of the best drivers i have seen in my lifetime, but its getting increasingly harder to support him with interviews like on sunday, he had a real bad weekend starting from Q3, in a race were he could have easily been on the podium.

 

[highlandsflyer]

Brilliant driver,but wouldnt anyone be if they were looked after by McClaren since the age of 4 iirc?

If it was as simple as that all the teams would be farming young drivers.

i was just waiting for him to play the race card

Were you? Were you really?

So much so that you totally overlook the fact this is not what he was doing at all? :roll:

 

[FMJ]

If it was as simple as that all the teams would be farming young drivers.

Hamilton was under a personal services contract with (and had his karting financed by) Ron Dennis since the age of 10. Looks like it did wonders for his personality. :roll:

 

[highlandsflyer]

I don't think we can conclude that 'anyone' would become a world class driver given that attention.

Certainly the hothouse treatment tends to make for young adults with peculiar character traits, as seen in other sports such as tennis.

The drive to succeed versus the desire to rebel, added up with the weight of expectation few teenagers have to contend with.

I am not saying he has had it hard, but it is not a life I would have wanted.

Let us hope he settles down and gets on with the thing he is best at.

 

[FMJ]

Certainly the hothouse treatment tends to make for young adults with peculiar character traits, as seen in other sports such as tennis.

The drive to succeed versus the desire to rebel, added up with the weight of expectation few teenagers have to contend with.

Please explain how Jenson turned out to be such a nice guy, then.

(hint: Look no further than his father).

 

[Neil]

Certainly the hothouse treatment tends to make for young adults with peculiar character traits, as seen in other sports such as tennis.

The drive to succeed versus the desire to rebel, added up with the weight of expectation few teenagers have to contend with.

Please explain how Jenson turned out to be such a nice guy, then.

(hint: Look no further than his father).

During Button's early F1 career, I always found him a bit irritating - he seemed more interested in being famous or a celeb - either that or the lifestyle of one.

Personally, I think the lean years for him, driving for a good few years, effectively tied in to teams mostly struggling for performance were quite formative.

Nowadays, I find him an almost ideal balance, he seems very focussed on his fitness, his performance seems to be a consistent, high level, and seems to fit in well with the teams he's driven for.

I think both Button and Hamilton have had fathers who've put their kids first, and made sacrifices for them in order for them to get where they are now. I think Hamilton still needs some maturing years, though, and seems to often let his ego overshadow a lot - in terms of his dealings with the team, and in relation to other drivers.

That aspect of Hamilton seems odd, really, for a guy who would have been immersed in team McLaren for quite some years. I just think he's got a little ahead of himself - has his ego writing cheques for his arrogance, before he's put in the years of performance.

I think he does need to learn that the team and indeed the sport is bigger than individuals, no matter how talented they are.

Brundle made a point about him that it's always somebody else's fault. Now that is far from being unique to Hamilton. Brundle has also said in the past - I think in context of suggestion that Hamilton isn't particular popular among other drivers - that he's disliked because he's quick - and in addition to that, was pretty much out of the box - but also hasn't had to work his way through smaller / less performing teams.

I also get the "James Hunt" argument about Hamilton. But that was a different time, and a very different individual who wouldn't have the same demands of the people around him, either.

 

[giant-one]

Just found these tweets from Lewis.


@LewisHamilton
Lewis Hamilton
2 Massa & Maldonado, with the greatest respect I apologise if I offended u. Both of u r fantastic drivers who I regard highly.


@LewisHamilton
Lewis Hamilton
Hey guys. I wanted to apologise 4 last weekends performance & also my comments after, I never meant to offend no1.