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"
 
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I just said because it struck me that I had heard it before I didn't mean anything by it and anyway even Ross says it is impossible to say if the damaged chassis has made any difference to Hamiltons performances recently they are also looking at a lower downforce setup...
 
A damaged chassis will have undoubtedly affected the last several GP for Hamilton. Should be a bit of a relief, as it it was clear that something was not quite right.

It would be amazing if Lewis can manage not to get boxed in today at the start. He's been getting better starts than most around him, but simply can't find any space in which to use it.
 
So why does Ross say it is impossible to say that it affected his performance and you say it undoubtedly did. Do you know something Ross Brawn doesn't? It could just as easily have been the circumstances he found himself in during the race..

I seem to remember Vettel having a bloody great big hole in his car at at Brazil and it didn't affect his performance...
 
Ross is correct in that it is indeed impossible to quantify the effects of the crack on this very chassis. But you can be damn sure it didn't have a positive effect. And when you look at the history of teams identifying a crack, and then replacing that chassis, there is quite often a noticeable difference straight away.

Seb had extensive bodywork damage, not a crack in the base of the entire car. To this day I marvel at how that thing held up though...
 
KekeTheKing said:
Ross is correct in that it is indeed impossible to quantify the effects of the crack on this very chassis. But you can be damn sure it didn't have a positive effect. And when you look at the history of teams identifying a crack, and then replacing that chassis, there is quite often a noticeable difference straight away...
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Lewis looked better right from the start of the race, and finished in a decent fourth place.
 
Because the Beeb and Sky commentators made such a big deal of this I'd just like to comment on those "contradictory" radio conversations:

The calls we hear are delayed as well as being subjectively selected to entertain us. There are two problems with this: firstly we don't hear them contiguous with footage at the moment they are made which in the heat of battle can be mighty inconvenient for the driver; and secondly we don't hear them in the full context of the conversations going on throughout the race - which means that often what we hear may be inappropriately inflammatory.

In the first call which elicited a very curt response from Lewis, his engineer was telling him the gaps to the guys behind and ahead. Lewis already knew roughly those gaps. in his seat I would have said "no shit Sherlock!"

In the call we heard later Lewis was asking for specific in formation about the condition of his tyres and the temperatures. With decent boots he would probably have had a good feel for their condition but with these rubbish Pirelli's who TF knows!

What gets me is that a lot of us F1 fans are as pee'd off as Lewis clearly is that we can't see the guys going balls out all the time. Tyre management may be a skill but it is tedious to watch. Drivers throwing their cars around demonstrating lightning fast reactions and amazing car control is exciting - even when they don't manage an overtake or two. Think about Alonso and Hamilton battling in 2007 and you'll know what I am missing.

Good drive today Lewis and thanks for the radio entertainment. I wonder if any of those plonkers on the telly and in the back room of the FIA are really listening and/or paying attention?.
 
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I agree Fenderman but what irks me is that Lewis fans were taking every opportunity to slate Jenson for his radio messages which were also taken out of context last year by shall we say entertainment editing, this site even started a whole fucking thread on it just to take the piss, but now the boot is on the other shoe you are getting offended by it...
 
Indeed and the same thing goes for everybody else's radio calls. That's why in one of my posts elsewhere I argued for radio traffic not to be broadcast at all. All they seem to do with them is stir the crap. We're supposed to be watching a sport not a bloomin' soap opera (which it can be without any help from the commentooters).

My post above Mephistopheles was not intended as a defense of Lewis, although clearly it is, but it was mainly a criticism of the low rent commentary for lowest common denominator casual fan.

I would suggest that such fans are few in number and that most folks who take the time out to watch F1 are somewhat more knowledgeable and bright than these presenteritis infested commentary teams give them credit for.

Edit: Just to be clear, I have always been offended by commentators using radio calls to stir the crap regardless of whose calls they are using. The fundamental thing is that they are not doing their job which is to inform and educate the punter about what is going on. The other thing that offends me is their tendency to get over-excited too early and to shout into their microphones all the fucking time so that when something truly interesting happens I've already switched off and gone to sleep!:bangfists:
 
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I like many, thought that Lewis was making a huge mistake by leaving McLaren for Mercedes. Hamilton in an interview which he had on Top Gear, said don't expect any pole positions, or especially any race wins at all this season. Instead he achieves 5 pole positions, 1 race win, and a possible home win at Silverstone. Fenderman nailed it when he said:

Fenderman said:
Who, back in March, would have expected that at the final race of the season Lewis will be fighting to hang onto third place in the drivers and Mercedes looking at second place in the constructors championships? Not me, that's for sure
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Fenderman said:
What gets me is that a lot of us F1 fans are as pee'd off as Lewis clearly is that we can't see the guys going balls out all the time. Tyre management may be a skill but it is tedious to watch. Drivers throwing their cars around demonstrating lightning fast reactions and amazing car control is exciting - even when they don't manage an overtake or two. Think about Alonso and Hamilton battling in 2007 and you'll know what I am missing..
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:yesss::yesss::yesss:

I hate those damn tires.
 
If Lewis keeps third spot, that'll be his best WDC result since 2008. Looking back over the years it's noticeable how he's been plagued by a larger number of retirements than the other top drivers which has undoubtly led to worse than expected results. This year he's only had one retirement. Whether he was a car-breaker or victim of engineering, his move to Mercedes looks to have been a good one at this point in time.
 
I know there has always been criticism of Button for "complaining" on the radio but I personally don't get involved with that. He has to give feedback.

I would also sacrifice false overtakes and tyre management for proper tyres that allow racing on the edge to take place. I still wish we had refuelling.
 

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