Current Lewis Hamilton

A place to put all the posts from all the other threads primarily but love him or hate him, and even for the indifferent amongst us this is the place to discuss the marmite that is Lewis Hamilton, to learn a thing or two about his rise, talk about those controversial, genius or mad moments and something that i am bemused by, the recent articles that suggest something quite different to my perception of what's going on. Any experiences of meeting LH?

Brundle had to write a Lewis Hamilton article recently and in my tweets (which were probably ignored) I asked him to talk about LH the driver not LH the personality. It seems that you can't have one without the other.

So as a starter for ten, here is a fairly recent LH article. Posts should not be limited to this link but it can get some discussion going. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/formula_one/13755883.stm

The only banned topic as it is clearly ridiculous involves these four things "Glock" "2008" "Brazil" "conspiracy"

 

[The Artist.....]

racecub From what I've read elsewhere, LH was on a £75million 5 year contract with McLaren (i.e. £15million) per season, whilst JB signed a £10million a year contract...

http://www.therichest.org/celebnetworth/athletes/motor-racing/lewis-hamilton-net-worth/
http://www.therichest.org/celebnetworth/athletes/motor-racing/jenson-button-net-worth/

How reliable these sources are is not at all clear, and how much of the salary is made up by (contractual) sponsorship endorsements is also not clear, and how much their earning is boosted by private sponsorship (Head and Shoulders) deals...

 

[teabagyokel]

racecub - Well they've near as damn it scored the same amount of points since 2010. Admittedly, Button is 1 point up on his team-mate over their period together.

 

[downforce]

TBH I think If he did leave which I still doubt, Lotus would be the better option.

It would be interesting to see him in a williams/force-india/sauber for 2 years and then return to McLaren

 

[riskitall]

thats coz this season mclaren have messed things upfor lewis very often.
messing up pitstops,clutch settings and under fueling his car.
and regardless,lewis is a better driver than button,and is the more likely person to win another championship.

and lewis hamiltons management team have said the storys not true,and that lewis is more likely to sign another contract with mclaren.

 

[Jen]

Why is everything everyone's fault except the man himself?

 

[Brogan]

To be fair, this year Hamilton has made very few errors and all of the problems have been mainly down to the team and/or out of his control.

 

[downforce]

I agree.

Last year I was as harsh as anyone on Hamilton calling out his mistakes which were many and often.

This year it has been either the team messing it up for him, novices crashing into him or sheer bad luck that has held him back.

In fact I can't remember any mistakes of his this year of the top of my head.

 

[Brogan]

Indeed, two races out of three now he has retired due to a puncture (the only driver to get one from the carbon fibre on the track) and by being driven into.
If not for that, who knows where he would be in the table; arguably higher than he is currently.

 

[Lewywo4]

This might help F1ang-o.

http://en.espnf1.com/mclaren/motorsport/story/60439.html

 

[F1ang-o]

lewymp4
Thanks

 

[sushifiesta]

Brogan downforce May I refer you back to the unofficial Lewis Hamilton bad luck championship:

Australia - Lost 2nd place due to Safety Car.
China - Gearbox change.
Bahrain - 2 slow pit stops.
Spain - Low fuelled in qualifying.
Valencia - Maldonado crash
Germany - Puncture
Belgium - Grosjean crash

So that's seven out of twelve race in which Lewis has seriously affected by things out of his control. Three out of the seven issues are due to McLaren (either team errors or reliability issues) and the remaining four are either directly or indirectly caused by collisions that he was not to blame for. In the remaining five races, he won two (Canada, Hungary) and two have been affected by rain (Malaysia, Silverstone). This leaves only Monaco, where he finished 5th, and Monaco is far from a normal race itself.

The most costly issue is probably being low fuelled in Spain, considering how dominant he was in qualifying. He probably would have won that race, which is 21pts lost as well as an extra 3pts for Alonso. If you tally up everything, he's probably lost in the region of 60pts and probably would be leading the championship were it not for all the issues.

 

[Lewywo4]

lewymp4
Thanks

 

[Mephistopheles]

I don't know if this has any bearing on contract negotiations but when I go into Santander banks all the advertisements seem to be with Jenson as the front man and Lewis is nowhere to be seen, whereas before it was the pair of them together.

It may not mean anything but it does seem strange to me it is well known that Lewis wants a contract that says he does less promotional work but unfortunately for him that is what pays his wages..

It is just an observation, so don't bite my head off....

 

[Mephistopheles]

sushifiesta are you suggesting that other drivers have not been affected by team errors and other things out of their control? Because if you are then that would be a very narrow view to have. every driver that has ever raced has had these problems.

 

[ZakspeedYakspeed]

Quintessentially

Out of his choice of tools in the McLaren shed... agree... the 2009 was probably the worst... but when I talk sh#tbox... I am talking a Toro Rosso... or an early Force India... or the RB2... he has never had a car that putting it into Q3 would be a herculean effort ... or running flawlessly for a 12th place would be considered a good weekend...

 

[The Artist.....]

Being honest.... Mclaren sponsorship or not... Nothing on god's clean earth would get me into a branch of Santander!

 

[racecub]

racecub From what I've read elsewhere, LH was on a £75million 5 year contract with McLaren (i.e. £15million) per season, whilst JB signed a £10million a year contract...

http://www.therichest.org/celebnetworth/athletes/motor-racing/lewis-hamilton-net-worth/
http://www.therichest.org/celebnetworth/athletes/motor-racing/jenson-button-net-worth/

How reliable these sources are is not at all clear, and how much of the salary is made up by (contractual) sponsorship endorsements is also not clear, and how much their earning is boosted by private sponsorship (Head and Shoulders) deals...

This is the article i'd seen, which puts them on the same salary, but as you say, this also may not be reliable. I can remember thinking at the time, when there was talk of cutting Hamilton's salary...'but you've just signed jenson on that amount??' Perhaps Im missing something
http://www.crash.net/f1/news/180405/1/f1_2012_driver_salaries_revealed_-_but_who_earns_most.html

 

[cider_and_toast]

Let's be honest, Hamilton is looked after by a management company that deals with celebs regardless of their background. In this god awful era of agents and management if a driver was only focused on F1 then surely he would have an F1 focused management team. Hamilton is managed by the same guy who gave the world the spice girls! He is a world champion and a bankable comodity for who ever he races and that would be Simon Fullers first and formost thought. If he ends up at McLaren or Merc next year, you can bet your left foot that money will be a key factor. On the one hand Hamilton may have a better chance at McLaren next year so he has the opportunity to hold for a better deal at McLaren knowing that they need him more than he needs them, on the other hand, Merc would be prepared to break the bank to re-launch what has so far been a less than brilliant return to F1. Either way Hamilton (moved abroad because he couldn't go out for a pizza and not for tax reasons) is quids in. Its much like football, where we like to believe our favourite player is loyal to the team, money is the key motivator in any deal and we shouldn.t kid ourselves that its anything else.

 

[racecub]

Fuller looks after the business side yes, but Lewis has Hakinen's old manager on board to advise about racing issues. Money is not the only factor involved for lewis. Braun has built a team round Schumacher at Benneton and Ferrari, both successfully. If he signs hamilton for the long term with a guarantee that mercedes will stay in F1 for at least as long as he's signed, that could be very juicy. They make their own engines, useful. Lewis has already said that a big consideration for him is how capable the team will be to adapt to the new 2014 regs. Loyalty works both ways and I think Mclaren have not been particularly loyal to Lewis over the last couple of years. A team making him feel welcome and valued would be a big draw. Dont forget when talking loyaly Hamilton would already be gone if he wasnt banging in the results.

 

[F1ang-o]

Simon Fuller (not my type) also manages Andy Murray...IMO a great athlete/sportman....