Lewis Hamilton: Racer or reckless?

As this is the same topic boga, I've merged it with this one.

As for being in WDC contention, I think although it was mathematically possible, it would have required all of those in front of him to DNF at all races, including Monza.
As Rubens and Jenson were in front of him at Monza then unless he got past them and they both crashed out then he was still out of contention.

I'm sure McLaren are probably slightly annoyed at the loss of constructor points but then they know what sort of racer he is ;)
 
Basically, Hamilton reckoned there wasn't enough at stake for him to gamble and all credit to him. This is the racing that would make F1 more exciting.

Maybe to be a racer you must be slightly reckless, but I'd rather see racing drivers rather than mathematicians on circuits to be honest.
 
A VERY PUBLIC, VERY POLITE REQUEST.

Dear all.

This site was created for 606 users fed up with the same rhetoric and vitriol infecting every topic. Clip The Apex has been active for over 18 months and has so far managed to avoid going down the same path. We self police ourselves pretty well and as a moderator I have had a pretty easy time of it so far.

The time has now come however to remind everyone of the Rules & Guidelines and request once and for all that these are respected. We can and will remove users from the site if these rules are ignored.

This forum should be about active and interesting debate into all forms of motorsport. At no stage do we discourage heated debate on any and all topics however we must except there are lines and limits and that we are responsible for our own actions. As we have discovered in the past, this is an open forum and can be read by anyone. Like all forms of media we are bound by the same laws of copyright and libel.

Now lets hope that we see a great qually session this afternoon and a fantastic race tomorrow.

C_A_T
Site Moderator.
 
Seconded cat, although with the post of Moderator comes Great Responsibility. Or something like that. Anyway, I aim to make your job easy!

So, a statistical Hamilton review:

48 Grand Prix[/FONT]

[FONT=arial]10 wins[/FONT]

[FONT=arial]15 poles not including SIN09[/FONT]

[FONT=arial]24 podiums (10/8/6)[/FONT]

[FONT=arial]4 retirements and 10 non-scoring finishes[/FONT]

 

[FONT=arial]2nd in 2007, 1st in 2008, 7th in 2009 after 13 races[/FONT]

 

[FONT=arial]Only 3 fastest laps![/FONT]

 

[FONT=arial]2 hat-tricks of pole, fastest lap and win: Japan 2007 and China 2008[/FONT]

[FONT=arial]Average position on grid of 5.1 in 49 races (incl. SIN09)[/FONT]

[FONT=arial]Unlapped in 77.08% of races (a record for more than 10 GP)
All stats courtesy of http://www.statsf1.com
 
When compared across all sports there are very few debuts that can compete with Hamiltons first season in F1.

Yes he had the tools to do the job but there are many drivers presented with the same chances and they don't take them or maybe don't perform to the level that was expected.

The only debut I can think of that compares in any way is that of a young Boris Becker reaching the Wimbledon mens final on his debut.
 
It depends on the circumstances KekeTheKing. I'm sure the point I was making there was, for example, Keke Rosberg in 1982 driving round to collect a 5th place in Las Vegas when there was nothing wrong with the car, simply he wanted the points. Nelson PIquet was the ultimate "bring it home, snaffle the points" driver and he won 3 World Championships so fair play to him but there aren't too many races I can think of where you think Wow! Piquet drove his socks off today.

If you compare this to Lewis Hamilton in Valencia he'd raced but as the tyres had hit "the cliff" discretion should have been the better part of valour.
 
Lewis Hamilton is a racer. I wouldn't call him reckless, he just occasionally makes a wrong decision. Easy to do in a split second, and I'm sure every driver has made errors of judgement in the blink of an eye. Schumacher did in Barcelona (although I'm still struggling to see how that was worse than Maldonado T-boning Hamilton). Lewis is super aggressive (copyright Martin Brundle), and on half decent tyres he should have fought with Maldonado. The problem was his tyres were SO bad, aggressively defending his position was always likely to end in contact. No-one can say Maldonado wasn't 100% to blame for the contact, but Lewis could have read the situation a little better, considering what was underneath him. I suppose the fighting spirit that makes him such a good racer also means this will happen from time to time.
 
The very title of this thread invites extreme comments especially when the driver in question is Lewis Hamilton. Of course your right FB Hamilton is exciting to watch and the sport needs drivers like him, but the ultimate aim is to win titles and to achieve that a driver does need to know when to collect and when to attack. That is probably the biggest difference between Hamilton and Alonso and could well be the difference between Lewis still having one title at the end of the season and Alonso capturing his third, unless of course Vettel sneaks past both of them. :)
 
I should have added to my above comment, had Hamilton modified his style just a little and not allowed so many outside distractions to creep into his life he probably would have beaten both Alonso and Vettel to capturing three titles. Being an Alonso fan it hurts a little to say that.
 
My view from this thread has changed slightly. These new Pirelli tyres have really brought the "racer" in all of them, haven't they? Look at all of Alonso's overtakes from Valencia!
 
He still can Kewee. As someone else mentioned in another thread if Alonso wins another title it will be the greatest numbers of seasons a driver has driven between WDC's.
 
FB......Quite true FB, but regarding Alonso and the time between titles, he was the youngest ever champion at the time of his first and I doubt there would be many that wouldn't agree he's driving better now than at any time in his career, in fact there are some past champions who have suggested he's yet to peak. I think Alonso still has more titles in him, possibly two or three. He's certainly still hungry enough and has indicated he may want to extend his contract with Ferrari.
 
No doubting that Kewee but Ferrari have to give him a more consistently competitive car. Anyway, back on topic, Lewis has his reckless moments but they all drivers do, usually on the run down to the first corner:

 

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