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"

 

[Cookinflatsix]

I said it a while ago (and was ridiculed for it), but Hamilton will retire leaving himself and his fans feeling unfulfilled.

It's always going to be a case of wrong place, wrong time and what if...

I suspect you are right there.

He will leave for a series where he gets a fair chance and feels comfortable. Kimi left because of the crap

 

[FB]

When a driver is as aggressive on the track as Lewis Hamilton he's always likely to get the blame for any incident simply because of his history. It's a bit like Peter Crouch always being called for fouling other players even when he's not responsible. It's often not fair but it's a result of how they have behaved in previous events.

 

[Sarinaide]

I won't go so far as to say he would retire because of this and that, by and large while I have not believed that Lewis is a victim per se, after this weekend I feel a bit sorry for the bloke, Maldonado was completely out of line and Kobiyashi was just being average again and did something rather unnecessary, personally I hate Sauber strategy and I have rather vociferous dislike of Kobiyashi.

 

[FB]

Kimi left because of the crap

Kimi left because no one was prepared to may the massive salary he felt he deserved. Maybe this is for another thread though.

 

[Brogan]

When a driver is as aggressive on the track as Lewis Hamilton he's always likely to get the blame for any incident simply because of his history. It's a bit like Peter Crouch always being called for fouling other players even when he's not responsible. It's often not fair but it's a result of how they have behaved in previous events.

Unfortunately Lewis was labelled as reckless in his first season, with no good reason in my opinion.

I did a thread on it and explained here why he was being unfairly labelled and blamed for not finishing or crashing, etc: http://cliptheapex.com/threads/lewis-hamilton-racer-or-reckless.780/#post-9672

 

[FB]

I'm not disagreeing with you Bro, give a dog a bad name and all that. Perhaps it's still a hangover from 2007 given that he rocked the boat so much in his first season? I remember and article form David Coulthard on the BBC website when McLaren made their announcement about Hamilton that he wasn't ready, too inexperienced, blah, blah, blah, so it stated before he even lined up for his first race.

Having a go at Lewis was also an opportunity for the FIA to pick a fight with Ron Dennis in '07 as well, lest we forget

 

[KekeTheKing]

There should be a completely useless stat in every thread, so here it is.

Lewis has 3 straight retirements in the 12th Round of the Championship.

I've always hated the number twelve.

 

[siffert_fan]

I think part of Hamilton's problem is that he has NO patience. When you are coming up on a driver to whom mirrors are mere decoration, and your car is better in all aspects of performance: acceleration, braking and handling, you shouldn't attempt to pass until you can do so and have a clear margin. Doing otherwise invites disaster and is not a matter of "luck".

 

[Slyboogy]

Kimi left because no one was prepared to may the massive salary he felt he deserved. Maybe this is for another thread though.

Really? That wasn't the case it was more to do with PR, but like you said it's for another thread.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

It's a bit like Peter Crouch always being called for fouling other players even when he's not responsible. It's often not fair but it's a result of how they have behaved in previous events.

Being aggresive is not against the rules is it? Commiting fouls are though, a dirty player like Barton might find that his reputation precedes him, but that doent justifying discriminating against a driver who is guilty of being a fast racing driver

I think part of Hamilton's problem is that he has NO patience. When you are coming up on a driver to whom mirrors are mere decoration, and your car is better in all aspects of performance: acceleration, braking and handling, you shouldn't attempt to pass until you can do so and have a clear margin. Doing otherwise invites disaster and is not a matter of "luck".

Hahaha, priceless

And where should he have overtaken? only on extra long straights? only on the start finish line?

He completed the overtake I seem to recall

or is it now the case that he is rash because he overtakes a car that could actually reovertake him?

Kimi left because no one was prepared to may the massive salary he felt he deserved. Maybe this is for another thread though.

Well Kimi himself said he was going rallying because it was still fun for him, i.e. F1 wasn't anymore because of the crap, but maybe he was lying

 

[Slyboogy]

In stiffert_fans defence I think he was more notably talking about his drive in Canada and previous ones where he has rushed. I very much doubt he was talking about the incident today, if he was, then I will eat my words.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Ah ok, then the sentence makes more sense to me also if that is indeed the case

Even then in his defence should be made clear that with his car mostly slower than race leaders he has had no choice but to overtake as early as possible to avoid getting stuck and losing time to a faster race leader
He could ofcourse take the Button approach and hang back waiting for those in front to drop out etc but thats clearly not the type of race driver he is

 

[Fenderman]

... and of course there is never a guarantee that others ahead will drop out ...

 

[Slyboogy]

Even then in his defence should be made clear that with his car mostly slower than others he has had no choice but to overtake as early as possible to avoid getting stuck and losing time to a faster race leader

That to me makes doesn't make much sense, I assume you mean "faster than others"...then again I have assumed wrong a fair few times.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Slower than the race leaders, his true competition

 

[siffert_fan]

CFS--which is better, "losing time to a faster race leader" or being eliminated from the race because of contact? And yes, I was referring to Canada, not today.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

siffert

It would depend what type of driver you are

Some, like Senna preferred to win races, and so would take the increased risk of a DNF instead of a guaranteed lower place finish

Others sit back and conserve their equipment and wait for the ones ahead to drop off

It is proven though that Lewis' approach brings him much success

Last season, even with 2 extra DNFs he beat Button in the same car

You should maybe look at the stats of DNFs and crashes etc amongst the top drivers, Lewis is not statistically 'rash' and hanging back and finishing has to be weighed up against the points he has gained by going for things as he sees fit

Its easy for us to find ways of criticising his style, but I suspect he knows advantages of weighing up the odds whenever he attempts an overtake, chap has being racing 20 years or so and is a WC, and has beaten a current WC TWICE in the same car.

Lets not decide that he is impatient(or insert any other critisicm here) and that by 'fixing' this he will become 'better'

 

[KekeTheKing]

Hopefully Hammy's hat in hand apologies go over well in the paddock. Because they sure as hell don't make me feel any better. Very sad day indeed when a driver feels he needs to get out in front of the inevitable backlash from the F1 punditry, rightly or wrongly.

If Lewis had tangled with one of the leaders in that manner, then he should well be ashamed. However, he wasn't really racing Kobash. If you've got a pit-stop in hand at that early stage of the race, then you're not actually in the same race.

But as the saying goes, "If there's one thing you don't do on a race track it's to interfere with someone's march to P12."

 

[Brogan]

I suspect his spirit is somewhat broken at this point.

Inevitable really based on the double standards which seem to exist within the paddock as far as he is concerned.

 

[Sarinaide]

Is it just me or did that Skysports News article seem very.........strange.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,,12479_7135568,00.html

It was like crying over spilt milk, if you race cars long enough these things happen. What is really strange about this is that Hamilton is normally a bubbly character and this seems very dejected for want of a better word.

[edit]

I don't see any wrong this race, and that incident was just one of those things, I would certainly not expect an apology. I say this as truthfully as it can be and with all due respect to Hamilton and his fans, but Hamilton has done far worse and gotten away with it, it seems like a few gentlemen are head hunting.