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.....]

No just when damage could have been incurred...by contact

But there was NO EVIDENCE OF DAMAGE!

How difficult is it to understand this? The mechanics checked the car- and found nothing wrong with it! You were amongst those people criticising McLaren for changing the gearbox in china, so I can only conclude you are just trying to annoy people!

 

[Quintessentially]

You're flogging a dead a horse. You should've realised by now where to pick your battles.

 

[Lewywo4]

That's motor racing for you, hopefully he will bounce back as he has proven many times before.

I think that Lewis would happen to agree with you F1Yorkshire, because he told Sky Sports F1's Natalie Pinkham,
" I was hugely disappointed when I got out of the car, but that's....motor racing."

 

[F1ang-o]

But there was NO EVIDENCE OF DAMAGE!

How difficult is it to understand this? The mechanics checked the car- and found nothing wrong with it! You were amongst those people criticising McLaren for changing the gearbox in china, so I can only conclude you are just trying to annoy people!

You seem to have a better memory than me..
Please refresh....just where/how did I criticise McLaren for changing LH gearbox in China?

At this race I was reiterating Martin Brundle's comments....he said there could be damage...& he could not understand why Macca still had LH out on another lap...if they had brought him in...wouldn't have happened..

You're flogging a dead a horse.
Neigh...............there's life in the old nag yet

 

[Quintessentially]

 

[Bill Boddy]

McLaren did non-destructive testing on the suspension. They checked the car over thoroughly, there was no sign of damage anywhere apart from a few scuff marks. They are not incompetent, they are not conspiring against Hamilton.

Motor racing is about getting the maximum performance out of the car. Parts have to be made as light as possible, if they were made to be strong enough to put up with any occurrence that could possibly happen they would be far too heavy, which means far too slow. Compared with how cars lasted in the past enprmous strides have been made forward in terms of reliability, but the odd part still fails.

Incidentally, were it to have been shown that the failure was due to hitting a barrier who would be responsible for that barrier having been hit? Whitmarsh?

 

[F1ang-o]

 

[F1ang-o]

Apparently Mclaren were suprised he was able to get the car to the finish line in Malaysia, so it was inevitable that a gear box change was on the cards..
LH did a brilliant job today, considering he was out in a lot of traffic from his pit stops.....having to pass Maldanado................. & Massa

The Artist.....
This is post I made about Lewis' gearbox change in China....

 

[racecub]

Well today Ive flown back from Turkey, driven up the motorway, sat down to watch recording of race, been delighted at maldonados start line behaviour then...Bugger!! Bugger! bugger! bugger!(Excuse French but that says it all)How many races has Lewis had messed up through no fault of his own? Think I'll go to bed now

 

[sushifiesta]

Lews has said that he was cruising and just managing the gap to Vettel before he retired, so it would seem he had victory in the bag too.

 

[Porceliamone]

Hamilton would probably have won. According to him he was cruising. He had a catasrophic gear box failure. In F1, mechanical failure shit happens. The end.

Just be glad those who are so surprised about this weren't watching in the turbo days. You'd have a whole site dedicated to conspiracies then. Move on people; really.

 

[sushifiesta]

That statement from Hamilton is interesting as at the time Vettel was only 1-2 seconds behind and seemingly in contention for the win also. We can never know for sure what would have happened but there have been plenty of examples in the past where Lewis has said he didn't have the pace to win or was struggling with tyres or something so I tend to believe him.

Failures are rare in modern F1 and this one has probably cost Lewis a shot at the championship, so I'm not sure why you're angry that people are talking about it. There is nothing about conspiracy theories in my post, but perhaps you are talking about some of the others in the last page or two which are a bit OTT in my opinion also.

 

[F1ang-o]

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/12433/8104100/
Martin Whitmarsh said "Lewsi brushed the wall [in qualifying], but I think it was very light. I don't think that this was something that's come from that."

What I don't understand, was why Lewis did another lap [when he brushed the wall]............he already had pole...why was he not told to come in, conserve the tyres he would be starting the race on?

 

[Porceliamone]

That statement from Hamilton is interesting as at the time Vettel was only 1-2 seconds behind and seemingly in contention for the win also. We can never know for sure what would have happened but there have been plenty of examples in the past where Lewis has said he didn't have the pace to win or was struggling with tyres or something so I tend to believe him.

Failures are rare in modern F1 and this one has probably cost Lewis a shot at the championship, so I'm not sure why you're angry that people are talking about it. There is nothing about conspiracy theories in my post, but perhaps you are talking about some of the others in the last page or two which are a bit OTT in my opinion also.

I would have quoted you if I was aiming a comment directly at you. Mine was a general observation/comment.
Some of the other posts in here however draw me to conclude that some posters need to get a grip of their faculties. Madder than a box of frogs.

 

[Porceliamone]

http://www1.skysports.com/formula-1/news/12433/8104100/
Martin Whitmarsh said "Lewsi brushed the wall [in qualifying], but I think it was very light. I don't think that this was something that's come from that."

What I don't understand, was why Lewis did another lap [when he brushed the wall]............he already had pole...why was he not told to come in, conserve the tyres he would be starting the race on?

Because Vettel was out on another lap? It's called contingency... *facepalm*.

 

[The Artist.....]

F1ang-o
You would not be saying that if he had been knocked off pole by Vettel, and he had been called into the pits... You never know for sure if you have pole until you have it! You talk about playing percentages - yet seem completely incapable of seeing that Hamilton staying out was a case of playing it safe!

 

[racecub]

Well I'll just add`my twopennoth as Ive now had time to read through some of the posts.

. They are not incompetent, they are not conspiring against Hamilton.

Incidentally, were it to have been shown that the failure was due to hitting a barrier who would be responsible for that barrier having been hit? Whitmarsh?

There have been many instances of incompetence at Mclaren this season
Of course they are not conspiring against Hamilton, no-one has suggested such a thing, certainly no Hamilton supporter as far as I know.
And of course Whitmarsh isnt responsible for the gearbox failure whether as a result of hitting the barrier(which it wasnt) or otherwise. As lewis says 'these things happen in racing.'

Id say we're all pretty agreed on that so far, but now lets look at the bigger picture to see why some Hamilton fans might feel agrieved? upset? diadppointed? angry? emotional? Lewis has had TWO gearbos failures. Lewis has been taken out by BOTH crash kids. Lewis has been underfuelled, dropped off the jack, had race ruining pitstops, poor strategies and damn bad luck. Whitmarsh's fault? No, not most of it, but some responsibility for the incompetence has to go his way. Despite all those things I listed, Lewis was in with a good shout at the championship until he retired. That was probably the death knoll. So Hamilton fans will have been feeling a bit upset generally at the end of that race.
My last point. Why the angst directed towards Whitmarsh? We've established he isnt trying to hamper hamilton and is not responsible for much of his 'misfortune'. But what is crystal clear is that he would much prefer Button to be the driver in with a shout at the championship. He isnt stupid enough to hamper Lewis to this end but his feelings by his body language, expressions and facial gestures are clear. If they are clear to the viewing public what must it be like in the team?

That I think is why some Hamilton fans have difficulty with Whitmarsh and in the light of Lewis' latest catastrophe cant help expressing it.

 

[The Artist.....]

racecub
This is not directed at you, but rather the person who originally said it:

Who wants to say anything....& be hunted down.?....very sad MW wants to be proved that he was right to get Button..so what is the point\ of me saying otherwise........... have no gang to back me up ....

If that doesn't suggest that some people believe there is a conspiracy at McLaren against Hamilton, then I don't know what does.... However, this user will deny that this is a suggestion of conspiracy....

 

[F1ang-o]

F1ang-o
You would not be saying that if he had been knocked off pole by Vettel, and he had been called into the pits... You never know for sure if you have pole until you have it! You talk about playing percentages - yet seem completely incapable of seeing that Hamilton staying out was a case of playing it safe!

It was said on Sky....by MB? can't understand why they didn't bring LH in.

In the final stages of Q3..Vettel was following LH....Lewis topped the time sheet
Vettel came thru & did not better it..he did not have time for another try.
LH did have time... was a bit slower on his next flying lap & then brushed the wall at the final corner.
Why didn't McLaren....change this FAST lap to an IN lap...when they saw SV had not bettered LH time.
Conserve tyres for race?

I haven't mentioned a conspiracy...
Looks like another McLaren cock-up though.

 

[canis]

In the final stages of Q3..Vettel was following LH....Lewis topped the time sheet
Vettel came thru & did not better it..he did not have time for another try.
LH did have time... was a bit slower on his next flying lap & then brushed the wall at the final corner

I think you need to go back and watch Q3 again.

First Run LH was ahead of SV and set the pole winning lap.

Second run LH waited for SV to go out, if SV hadn't gone out then LH would hav stayed in the garage as well. SV went out and so LH went out behind him. They both only did 1 timed lap on that run, SV passing the line just ahead of LH after the flag had dropped. The tyres LH was on were not the tyres he started the race on as he had used a different set for his first run which set the fastest time.

LH clipped the wall during his final times lap which was before SV had crossed the line, this is why his single timed lap on his second run was slower than his single timed lap on his first run. McLaren didn't leave him out for a second timed lap as he had already taken the flag, and SV wasn't behind him as he crossed the line just ahead of him.

If you are going to pick faults in the overall strategy then maybe use the facts? McLaren did the right thing in having Lewis out for a second run, they had to cover the possibility that SV would put together another good lap and that is what they did. If Lewis had sat in the garage then everyone would be complaining about why they didn't cover off the redbull.

Oh, and as for where he will be this season, watch the Sky race build up and the Lewis interview, he said (I will paraphrase this) "My guys, managers, lawyers, PR and everyone are working very hard with Martin and all the other peole in the team to get the deal done". Seems to me that he is thinking about McLaren being his future. Oh, and from an unknown source, which I know is not going to be the most reliable, Lewis has agreed a deal and it should be in the public domain in the next week or two, the source though failed to mention who the deal was with...