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"

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

This might be an ancilliary thing but here goes:

It could be that we only get BBC and Anglo feeds but we hear nothing of Vettel except his complete focus on F1.

Hamilton, by contrast, seems to be involved in other activities, mainly to do with 'celebrity status' (Pussy Cat Doll, Rhianna, Rappers, black Sports heroes and the like.)

I could be entirely off mark...but Vettel seems to be only living and breathing Formula One whereas Hamilton has this side show going on...and, in the same vein, Vettel seems out to only impress in F1 circles whilst Hamilton seems to want to impress these other folk.

Am I wrong? Does it matter?

Like WTF! Why is Rhianna in the McLaren garage giving the guy a hug!!!???

Why are all these Hip-Hop, Rapper people and sports pros and Bling-Blingers surrounding him...WHY?

Who is Hamilton trying to impress? Are they diluting what should be his one and only focus during Grand Prix meetings?

Just asking...so don't kill me for it.

 

[RasputinLives]

Not that I'm the usual guy to jump to Lewis defence but I hardly see Rhianna being in the pitlane as being the main problem Lewis suffered in Canada.

Celebrities in the pitlane are nothing new. The Beckhams are big mates with Jenson and are often found in the garage at Silverstone as are Kylie and Danni Minouge at Albert Park. Sly Stallone was always found in the Williams garage throughout the late 90's.

Celebrity GF's are also nothing new. Name me a F1 driver and I can probably name you their super model girlfriend

We haven't seen Lewis snogging journalists during interviews and doing crazy frog impressions on the radio as we do Seb. We have seen them both on Top Gear and doing adverts though. Lewis's adverts though were due to his car sponsors not independent deals like say a head and shoulders advert for Seb and Jenson.

I think you may be looking at this through Vettel tinted specs. If anything Lewis gives the impression more he lives and breathes for F1 with passion we see in his interviews(until late).

I think you're clutching at straws. You may have answered the question as to why when asked to name the most well known F1 driver people say Lewis Hamilton but not as to why he gets incidents going against him.

Also Lewis hangs around with sport stars of all ethnicity.

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

I'm not 'clutching at straws'...i'm asking a question given that I don't get German TV and we get only snippets of stuff about F1 drivers over here.

That's what this forum is for...to ask questions.

I'm obviously wrong about it and I even said that I could be off the mark about the situation.

On the surface of things Vettel 'seems' more F1 focused and doesn't have all the celebrities hanging about him like Lewis does...but that's just on the surface.

Cheers.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Well it is known that Lewis has requested less Pr engagements from the team and its sponsors. Recently he avoided visiting India on a longhaul 1 day trip before a race weekend.

Maybe you should do a bit more research before jumping to conclusions that it must be celebrities personally chosen by Lewis causing distractions

Its not rocket science to look first to his contractual extra racing activities

BHut its Lewis, he must be guilty of hanging out with gangster rappers and celebrities who are particularly intrusive

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

By the way, I want to make it clear that I think Lewis is one of the very best drivers in F1 since Senna...he's brave...he's clean (i.e. he's not dirty on the race track when over-taking)...he's bloody quick...and he'll admit to his mistakes openly unlike some useless other drivers.

Most importantly, for me, Lewis is willing to take on anyone within the team and won't shy away from partnering another Ace - Number 1 vs Number 1 Mano-a-Mano...This in stark contrast to other WDCs, namely guys like Alonso and Schumacher.

Just wanted to make that clear.

Also, I'd like to make it perfectly clear that Maldonado ought to have been thrown out of the meeting on Saturday afternoon right after Q2...but for some strange reason he was allowed to contest the GP. I can only hang that hat on Mansell who has some insecurity about Lewis, possibly because his wins tally for an English/British F1 driver could be under threat by the young gun.

 

[Hamberg]

Ray don't fret, you explained before, you don't need to again, let people get their knickers in a twist. It's a provocative question but not antagonistic and certainly one that has been raised by pundits or the media. I think Rasputin answered with some good evidence with which you concur.

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

Sure. And thanks, Hamberg.

 

[Speshal]

Retirements (mechanical or otherwise) in their first 4.5 seasons (in no particular order)

Lewis Hamilton - 9
Michael Schumacher - 15
Rubens Barichello - 29
Sebastian Vettel - 14
Mark Webber - 21
Jenson Button - 18
Fernando Alonoso - 19
Felipe Massa - 15

I could go on and you could argue that all the other drivers (aside from Lewis) were in unreliable cars in their first few seasons and were learning their trade as it were which I think makes Lewis' 9 even more special in my opinion, to be starting your career in to a competitive car in your rookie season and not throw it at the scenery is quite impressive in my book.

cue Ray...

 

[Cookinflatsix]

And before anyone says it was all the car, he has beaten all teammates including 2 reigning WCs

 

[RasputinLives]

......so far.....

 

[Cookinflatsix]

......so far.....

I will bet you a hundred pounds that Lewis beats Jenson

Same 'house' arrangement as last bet

 

[Sarinaide]

As Chris Berman (NFL and ESPN presenter) would say "That is why the play the games".

I change it to "That is why they drive the races". Button is looking good for upsetting the status quo.

 

[RasputinLives]

I will bet you a hundred pounds that Lewis beats Jenson

Same 'house' arrangement as last bet

lol - I think Button is doing well but not £100's well!

 

[Sarinaide]

This year something seems missing...and it's not just down to Vettel have a 'dream' year (which, as you rightly say, he's having).

Any decent driver in that car would be having a dream season, and why not when the car is on rails. I have another theory;

Jenson Button has up'ed his game and is putting pressure on McLaren and Hamilton, no longer can they be seen as a exclussively Hamilton focused team. As good as Vettel and the RB7 is, some credit must go to the way that Button has refused to play team donkey.

 

[Hamberg]

Any decent driver in that car would be having a dream season, and why not when the car is on rails. I have another theory;

Jenson Button has up'ed his game and is putting pressure on McLaren and Hamilton, no longer can they be seen as a exclussively Hamilton focused team. As good as Vettel and the RB7 is, some credit must go to the way that Button has refused to play team donkey.

1. When exactly has Jenson Button ever played team donkey?
2. What exactly has he done to 'up his game' and put pressure on the team?

 

[Sarinaide]

1. When exactly has Jenson Button ever played team donkey?
2. What exactly has he done to 'up his game' and put pressure on the team?

I don't need to get into the in's and out's of McLaren, but needless to say, McLaren is a Hamilton bound team.

Bar the two mechanical retirements, would you not say that Jenson is having a pretty good season, and would appear to be in good form? Jenson is showing the McLaren hierarchy that he is very capable of getting good race results and that is shown in the fact that he is again ahead of Lewis on the drivers table, despite the wheel nuts and broken suspension, despite the botched Q2 team call.

 

[Hamberg]

Sarinaide, your first point is total BS and the fact that you don't need to get into the ins and outs just shows that your point is lacking any evidence. Please don't confuse McLaren with Ferrari, they don't need donkey's to help push their favourite driver forward.

I think he's having a decent season yes - but Canada and Belgium were both as a result of his team mates rather unfortunate (and blameless) exits from the race. On the contrary when Hamilton has good results Jenson hasn't been involved or bumped him up places/given him safety cars to play with. Also his relatively poor qualifying in comparison has enable to the team to take gambles (in a season of unknowns) which has sometimes worked in his favour.

I think he did a great job on Sunday coming through the field like that and pulled off some very good moves. But Hamilton has suffered from team errors this season. By the way it didn't exactly sound like it was the teams error to me in Q2. I don't think anybody here realistically expects Jenson to stay ahead of Hamilton.

Your point however was that he'd up'd his game and put pressure on the team - you'v not explained this point. Put pressure on the team how, to do what? And how has this exactly effected Hamilton?

 

[Sarinaide]

Lets just be mum on the first point as there are people that have experienced and seen first hand what it was like in that paddock, and they were all foreigners.

Anyways, on the pressure part, I refuse to accept the notion that Button is on one big rollercoaster of luck, I also refuse to accept that just because of scenario X, the team gamble on the setup Y, all that matters is the results, both have had 2 DNF's for totally differing reasons and yet despite this Button is leading the inter team battle. The simple fact that Button is mixing it up with Hamilton, has to some extent taken the focus off Vettel and made Hamilton concentrate more on the inter-team battle.

I know that Button is largely unfancied in the world of F1, but he is by no means a slouch, he is capable of winning races and while to some will seem anti productive for the fans, but it is actually really healthy to have two drivers very capable of winning the WDC.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

The simple fact that Button is mixing it up with Hamilton, has to some extent taken the focus off Vettel and made Hamilton concentrate more on the inter-team battle.

Sari, you didnt recently get made redundant from the News of The World did you?

You been hacking someones phones?

 

[Sarinaide]

No, I think they are doing well and good on there own.....and it is deadline day so more than a little pre-occupied.

Suffice to say, you have to be top dog in your team first, before you can be top dog in the pack. If Hamilton was not concerned about Button, he would be pasting him good and proper.