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"

 

[FB]

British media building people up only to try and knock 'em down again - and Lewis has had a pretty good dose of that. Some justified but most thoroughly undeserved.

 

[Josh]

Brogan Kind of like the British media vs. Alonso? Every media outlet is biased towards drivers from their own country, get over it.

 

[EvilWhippet]

I've seen in several sports, the most loved stars tend to be the most hated. Maybe it's because I'm British so I see things with a slant, but Hamilton does seem to make headlines much easier than anybody else. His highs are praised to the rooftops and his lows go scrutinised more than any other driver. Even none incidents like spinning the wheels of his Mercedes on the way out of the paddock in Australia got massive attention. He came into F1 and started breaking records race by race when he was meant to be getting schooled by his illustrious reigning double world champion teammate. He has an exciting racing style, great overtaker. So it's easy to see why he attracts a lot of attention. He gets more love and more hate than most drivers.

If Di Resta span the wheels on his road car would anyone care? Nope. Less love and less hate. So whenever Hamilton appears to be the victim of vitriol more than any other driver I write it off as being just part of being one of the stars of the show.

Until Valencia 2012. Something about the way the (English) guy sat behind me in the spectator stand said "Yes. Yes. Fucking YES. FUCKING YES." when Hamilton was shunted off by Maldonado simply wasn't about seeing a racing driver he disliked getting some bad luck, it was personal and spiteful. He was seeing a person he disliked get shunted off. Now I don't know, but I doubt this guy has ever had any kind of altercation with Hamilton in person, but he had some reason to dislike him beyond being a racing driver...

 

[Brogan]

Brogan Kind of like the British media vs. Alonso? Every media outlet is biased towards drivers from their own country, get over it.

Again you are clearly missing the point, probably deliberately.
Media from one country against a particular driver is understandable.
All other media from other countries isn't.

How about you "get over it"?

 

[Porceliamone]

Maybe Lewis Hamilton is a complete arse, has a repellant personality and no-one in the F1 paddock really likes him much? It's just as possible as every other suggestion I guess?

 

[The Pits]

To use a football analogy.

I had a friend years ago, who supported Arsenal. He worked with me in Finchley, but lived in Barnet. At one point, he was walking through his town, wearing his Arsenal scarf, and got beaten up, with terms like Arsenal Scum being used.

the rivalries between certain clubs spills over in to violence quite regularly, yet these supporters (?) only know one thing about the people they attack.

My view, such as it is, is the appeal of a particular sportsman or woman to a particular (however general or specific) will determine the level of both praise and detraction that they get. Some will automatically be against someone simply because of those who support them, shallow, yes, but I believe this to be true.

Lewis, to those who did not follow him closely, fairly burst on to the scene in 2007, and appealed to many who were previously not interested in motor sport. Unfortunately, I believe that a high profile will attract both ends of the spectrum, and the more high profile something is, the more likely to attract extremes.

So, whilst there are undoubtedly people who hate/dislike Lewis because of racism, there are those who just dislike him, maybe even hate, for no reason other than that he is Lewis Hamilton. The same was as some people hate a person who wears an Arsenal scarf, just because they support Arsenal (not a dig at all against any specific club, simply an example that I have a real personal experience with)

Ask people, they will mostly have a reason, usually a justification of their feelings rather than a reason for them.

So yes, Lewis does have his share of detractors, however, conversely, he also has a large army of absolute die hard supporters at the other extreme, as stated above, I believe this to be a natural (Normally distributed) phenomenon.

Despite being "Marmite" There are also those who are ambivalent, or slightly meh either way.

I would also suggest that the support for any sportsman/woman would follow a similar pattern, but most likely only the really top 99.9% will have the extremes. David Beckham, Maradona, Tiger Woods all spring to mind.

 

[mnmracer]

First of, the article starts with "The article by Mark Hughes (who is normally one of the more sensible ITV-F1 people) starts as it means to go on, by taking a true event and completely twisting it out of shape:"

All it says, and it doesn't read like the most unbiased article, is 'from the non-British sector'.
How big is that non-British sector? How many of the non-British sector? With an article clearly set out to make it look bad, those are very important questions to be asking before proclaiming about "All other media from other countries".

It also ignores the most important part:

Well, it was more a cheer of… Unbelievable scenes. We can’t imagine what we’re watching.

 

[F1ang-o]

The grilling he got about Oz 2009 was extraordinary considering every driver on the grid will have lied at some point, whether or not they get caught doing it.

McLaren were at fault, Lewis was interviewed straight after the race & told the truth, (a vid of this has been on here in an earlier post. I think Lewywo4 provided it). LH went back to the team garage, then Mclaren's Dave Ryan & LH went to the stewards to try & get the (well earned from back of grid to 3rd) podium position back. LH said ...that the he just kept saying to the stewards, that he did what the team told him to do.
Dave Ryan was sacked...but the voice on the pit radio...telling Lewis to let Trulli through...don't know who that was.
McLaren's actions cost a podium & then p4......& LH getting the blame...& a very public humiliating interview.

LH at Merc...seems so happy

 

[F1ang-o]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21738451

He just seems a different bloke........

 

[Josh]

Again you are clearly missing the point, probably deliberately.
Media from one country against a particular driver is understandable.
All other media from other countries isn't.

How about you "get over it"?

Sorry Bro, it came out a little harsher than I intended it to and I did sort of miss your point, although not deliberately, just a brainfart. Apologies

 

[Brogan]

No worries.

I've learnt over the years that threads on Hamilton can get a little heated

 

[Josh]

True, but I should've known better. Ah well glad that it's cleared up

 

[Lewywo4]

Lewis, to those who did not follow him closely, fairly burst on to the scene in 2007, and appealed to many who were previously not interested in motor sport. Unfortunately, I believe that a high profile will attract both ends of the spectrum, and the more high profile something is, the more likely to attract extremes.

So, whilst there are undoubtedly people who hate/dislike Lewis because of racism, there are those who just dislike him, maybe even hate, for no reason other than that he is Lewis Hamilton.

Ask people, they will mostly have a reason, usually a justification of their feelings rather than a reason for them.

So yes, Lewis does have his share of detractors, however, conversely, he also has a large army of absolute die hard supporters at the other extreme, as stated above, I believe this to be a natural (Normally distributed) phenomenon..

 

[Mephistopheles]

I was looking at it from a fans perspective and my own in particular I do not remember the incident of a media centre cheering but obviously if it was based on racism then something should have been done about it at the time....

 

[ExtremeNinja]

We all know, whether we accept it or not, that Lewis is one of the best racists ever to grace F1.

 

[McZiderRed]

Ha ha, I see what you did there!

 

[Jos the Boss]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21769197

 

[downforce]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/21769197

Yeah I don't like the sound of that. That sounds like he will be wasting vital preperation time at every race of the year and for what?

Between that his dog and his pussycat his mind might get drawn away from where it needs to be.

 

[Jos the Boss]

All he does is talk, someone writes it up for him

 

[teabagyokel]

Mark Webber has done a BBC column for a couple of years. I doubt this is relevant; he does media anyway.

I think this may be significant if only as a symptom of him having more freedom as a Mercedes driver than as a McLaren biomaton.