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"

 

[Mephistopheles]

I don't have a problem with tattoos as long as they are not on the face or hands I have a tattoo and would like some more but the price is prohibitive for me

 

[Bill Boddy]

Why do you want to disfigure your body? I thought that had finished with the ancient Britons.

 

[Lewywo4]

He had a head start on Vettel who has stayed well away from playing the star, Vettel's approach has bought him 3 World Titles. Yes he's had a great car, but he also has a very different approach to his career than Lewis and his results speak for themselves.

Hamilton's approach in his rookie year, didn't cost him the 2007 WDC, but instead it was pit wall incompetence. Passing mistakes on Lewis's part at Monza and Singapore ended his 2010 serious run at the WDC, but hardly his approach towards the entire season. Lewis's approach towards the 2012 season was met with praise from many quarters, especially when you consider that he had a reasonable chance of winning the WDC, if it wasn't for pit stop errors, mechanical failures, and especially 2 failures while comfortably leading those races. Let's not also forget being sent to the back of the field, after securing pole position, which may have cost him another possible win.

 

[Mephistopheles]

He's a very lovely boy....

 

[Kewee]

racecub......You clearly don't know my feelings regarding Vettel. I'm not a fan at all and have got myself into trouble with people on this site in the past for suggesting his victories have been attributable to his car rather than him, but he has matured into a very very good driver and deserves credit. I still don't consider him the best in the field which backs what I'm saying. His professionalism and ability to stay totally focused with zero distractions have played a major role in his achievements of three back to back titles. As I said on another posting you never see his beautiful partner at the track. He's possibly the most self centered driver on the grid, even more so than Alonso I would suggest. My comparison is not silly at all. Lewis needs to look very closely at how best to drive himself forward if he wants multiple titles and the most important first step he could take would be to remove as many distractions as possible.

 

[Speshal]

I find all this chat about roscoe at Monaco fucking hilarious - Lewis lives in Monaco, maybe the dog was at home when the race was on.

 

[Mephistopheles]

He takes Rosco to every race now and I honestly believe that Lewis is more interested in the attention he gets than focusing on being a racing driver..

In short he has allowed himself to be distracted by his fame and is not concentrating on his racing.....

Maybe he has realized that he is not this generations superstar racer, Vettel is, and so maybe he is just getting as much out of his career as he can before he slips into obscurity, a one time WDC which is better than most do.....

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Why do you want to disfigure your body? I thought that had finished with the ancient Britons.

What made you think that? Silicon implants, for example, were not even around in ancient Briton. That seems a rather silly statement to me. You would have to be severely visually impaired to go pretty much anywhere without seeing someone with piercings, tattoos, etc. I struggle to even think of a solitary female I know who doesn't have pierced ears.

I took some time away from the forum as motor racing discussion seemed to be getting more and more sidelined and I come back and there are pages and pages of stuff about pets and body-image.

What has happened here?

He takes Rosco to every race now and I honestly believe that Lewis is more interested in the attention he gets than focusing on being a racing driver..

...and this is just hypocrisy. Let me rephrase. "I now honestly believe that F1 fans are more interested in driver's fame than their being a racing driver."

 

[racecub]

He takes Rosco to every race now and I honestly believe that Lewis is more interested in the attention he gets than focusing on being a racing driver..

In short he has allowed himself to be distracted by his fame and is not concentrating on his racing.....

Maybe he has realized that he is not this generations superstar racer, Vettel is, and so maybe he is just getting as much out of his career as he can before he slips into obscurity, a one time WDC which is better than most do.....

Well that post just beggars belief. What a lot of assumptions you make about Hamilton.

Kewee Im not interested in what Vettel does or doesn't do with his beautiful girlfriend, whatever works for him. But he's not Hamilton, Hamilton will do what works for him.
Maybe his dog brings him solace not distraction. Who knows? Only Hamilton. I've seen no evidence that distraction has cost Hamilton a single championship.

 

[Mephistopheles]

I took some time away from the forum as motor racing discussion seemed to be getting more and more sidelined and I come back and there are pages and pages of stuff about pets and body-image.

What has happened here?

...and this is just hypocrisy. Let me rephrase. "I now honestly believe that F1 fans are more interested in driver's fame than their being a racing driver."

You should be here when we start going on about curtains and pelmet designs.....

 

[Kewee]

racecub..... The point I'm making is Vettel's approach is working for him and he has the titles to show for it. You said Hamilton will do what works for him, well what he's doing at present isn't working. I'm not anti Hamilton by the way. Hamilton lost his way for quite a while after he dropped his father as his manager. Plenty of insiders, people that know much more than you and I, people that are close to Hamilton, said how badly he needed good management to keep those that were making too greater demands on him at a distance, to enable him to concentrate on what matters, his time at the track. I'm still not convinced he's being managed particularly well. I think he gets the rock star treatment which is not very helpful for a racing driver that would clearly love to add more titles to his name.

 

[Kewee]

ExtremeNinja.......This is the Lewis Hamilton thread Ninja so tangents are things we go off on. One other thing of course that I've only just learned, being the Lewis Hamilton thread, Lewis can do no wrong.

 

[racecub]

Lewis can do wrong. He's geting the braking and tyre combinations wrong. But when people start blaming his dog, his girlfriend, his body art, his dress sense, his management, his musical taste, his comittment and Uncle Tom Cobley and all, I think it's those people that have issues with Hamilton rather than anything else.

 

[Brogan]

well what he's doing at present isn't working

The same could be said for every other driver on the grid since 2009.

When was the last time Alonso won a title?
Quite clearly what Alonso has been doing for the last x years hasn't been working for him.

See what I did there?

 

[Kewee]

Brogan.....Your absolutely right. I was going to say the same thing but it hurt too much, besides this is the Lewis Hamilton thread so I had an excuse to remain silent.

 

[Brogan]

My point is it's not always about the driver.

Any one of the top 3-5 drivers would probably have won the titles that Vettel has won in the last three years, had they been in a car which was as dominant.

 

[Kewee]

Brogan......We agree again, though the last time I mentioned Vettels car dominance I antagonized quite a few people so I leave it to others to suggest that now. It's safer for me and avoids people taking a poke at me. I'm sensitive about such things.

 

[Hamberg]

That's a silly comparison. Vettel won those championships because Newey gave him the best car. And when things don't go his way his behaviour towards his team and his team mate and other drivers is very childish. Yes he's different to Lewis, and everyone will have their preferences, but lets not hold Vettel up as a paragon of virtue.

Newey gave Mark Webber the best car too? Of course skill and keeping a level head over extreme pressure towards the end of the season had nothing to do with it.

Lewis isn't childish on occasions? Tweetgate, monkey at the back gate, lie gate, coz i iz black gate? Honestly I love the boy and believe he is the best driver out there but he is far from this model of perfection being created. For once kewee raises an interesting comparison. Althought Vettel wasn't exactly seen as a star because he didn't have a massively impressive junior record.

For those of you that think having a dog, a few tattoos and a girlfriend means he prefers the high life to racing, is making the most of it whilst it lasts and is distracted by it all - you are also talking bollocks (and probably have a touch of the green eyed monster).

I am refraining to comment on the earrings.

 

[racecub]

Yes Lewis has been childish on occasions, I don't believe I said otherwise.

 

[Blog Zbod]

Why do you want to disfigure your body? I thought that had finished with the ancient Britons.

If you doodle on your arms with a pen, people will take you for a twit. But if you mark them with an ink that won't wash off, you're "cool." A "hipster."

Go figure.

The simple fact is, if Hamilton didn't want people's tongues wagging about his new tatts, he shouldn't have made getting them a public event. Provoking people to talk about you is easy. Getting them to speak positively of you, OTOH, ....

That's a silly comparison. Vettel won those championships because Newey gave him the best car...

If Vettel had the best car, it necessarily got that way from having the best developmental driver. Regardless how perfect it might have been on paper, no car is ever even close to perfect when it first meets tarmac.

Vettel has a trick he does, transitioning abruptly from late braking understeer to early exit oversteer, allowing him to square corners and get on the throttle noticeably earlier than other drivers. Newey's genius at maximising grip at the rear is key to this manoeuver.

Regardless whether Vettel developed this trick because Newey's chassis already had the necessary characteristics, or whether Newey focused on adding it to support Vettel's driving style, it's still full marks for Vettel. Webber doesn't exploit this characteristic as well as does Vettel, and no one else in F1 could match Vettel's precision and consistency with it, even when EBDs with exhaust overrun were legal.

So the operative question is not whether just any other driver could have won in the same car, the operative question is whether Newey could have built the same car if he'd had just any other driver.