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"

 

[KekeTheKing]

Apparently Button was complaining of massive oversteer. Isn't the car bound to be like that with the almost non-existent rear wing? I'll bet that suits Lewis more, he likes a `twitchy` car

Button did query whether the rear wing was "working" over the radio. Not sure exactly what he meant, but the call came after he had a minor moment upon entry into the Parabolica.

I would actually think this McLaren setup leans towards Jenson's liking though, as they appear to be running quite a bit larger rear wing than anyone else.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Apparently Button was complaining of massive oversteer. Isn't the car bound to be like that with the almost non-existent rear wing? I'll bet that suits Lewis more, he likes a `twitchy` car

Yep. I said the same last year. Lewis got knocked for dropping the F-Duct, but Lewis was quicker without it than Jeson was with it. The qualifying results don't tell the whole story as he was held up in Q2 and Q3. I say held up but he was basically planted in Massa's dirty air round parabolica. Just goes to show how these things can have such a knock on effect. We would have seen a very different race and possibly a different champion given how close the competition was to the last race.

Anyway, enough of my romantic speculation. Looking forward to watching practice 2 in ten minutes.

 

[Josh]

I actually hope Lewis is going to win this race. It won't make much of a dent in the championship, unfortunately, but it would be nice seeing him on the top step for a change.

I agree with your sentiments Keke but to be fair I think Josh (I and I hope i'm not being out of line here) was referring to the fact that every Hamilton incident seems to get done to death, dug up again and then done to death all over again. It's as much the fault of the usual I'm-warming-my-keyboard-up-waiting-for Hamilton-to-make-a-mistake brigade as it is the people who defend him no matter what. Just my 2cents worth

Yeah that's what I meant, but it's not really for this thread so whatever.
(btw, liking those posts was not sarcastic. Incase anyone thinks so )

 

[Quintessentially]

But I said it then and I'll say it now, if it had been a championship contender in Massa's position, I do not believe he would have turned in like he did. He barely took any curb on a chicane where they routinely bounce over a good portion of it.

At the same time If i was a championship leader against a non-championship rival I would've bailed out of that move a long time ago. This was one of the few times I thought Hamilton played the percentage game badly especially when he had the performance to dispatch Massa later on in the race. He can only blame himself there.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Very difficult to argue with that. Funny how incidents can be perceived differently given thier wider context. On any other day, this might have been fine.

 

[Lewywo4]

Yep. I said the same last year. Lewis got knocked for dropping the F-Duct, but Lewis was quicker without it than Jeson was with it. The qualifying results don't tell the whole story as he was held up in Q2 and Q3. I say held up but he was basically planted in Massa's dirty air round parabolica. Just goes to show how these things can have such a knock on effect. We would have seen a very different race and possibly a different champion given how close the competition was to the last race.

Anyway, enough of my romantic speculation. Looking forward to watching practice 2 in ten minutes.

It looked as though in the second practice session that, Lewis was on his way to improve and set the fastest time, but was delayed by Alguersuari. Lewis appeared today during both sessions, like being a man on fire!

 

[Tacitus]

Hope Hamilton makes a hatrick today at monza!!!!
go figure

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Hope Hamilton makes a hatrick today at monza!!!!
go figure

Following a DNF with a win?

Nope - that's not it.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Ah. Three wins. Simple as that. doh! Vettel will take some beating in that Red Bull. If the Bulls have the race pace, he'll be fighting for third come the finish line.

 

[Brogan]

I expect Hamilton's frustration levels will be even higher after that race.

His car wasn't fast enough to pass (thanks to a very weird set up) and when he finally did, Schumacher just breezed past again within a few hundred metres.
Schumacher should have been penalised for blocking and weaving but wasn't, and effectively chopped in front of Hamilton, forcing him onto the grass at one point.

This allowed Button past and as a result, after the first round of pit stops, Hamilton comes out behind Schumacher again as he had to pit after Button due to being behind him on track.
Alonso and Button then scamper away.

Because Button was so close to Alonso after the stop, he was able to pass easily when Alonso's harder tyres weren't at their optimum temperature and pressure.

So despite putting in all that work hassling Schumacher lap after lap, Hamilton finishes 4th, a mere half a second behind Alonso, when he should arguably have been an easy 2nd.

What was most telling for me, was how Hamilton yielded at the first corner, despite being alongside Vettel and on the inside.
I've said it before, but I think he's now at the point where he's afraid to fight it out on the track for fear of being blamed for any incident.

I think we're witnessing Hamilton changing his style as a result of everything which was happened recently.
And not in a good way.

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Yep. All ifs and buts but Schumacher put Buttn in front of Hamilton with some very questionable driving. This then gifts Button the the first pitstop which then loses McLaren two spots on the podium instead of 1. Silly move from McLaren and Schmacher should have got a drive-through which would have at least released Hamilton to get ahead of Fernando and fight Button for second.

May sound like a load of excuses, but if I was Lewis I would be very disappointed today, but not with my own performance.

 

[KekeTheKing]

He needed Pole. It wasn't possible. And after getting sandwiched at the start, his race was effectively over. If he had covered off Alonso on the inside, he probably would have led into the corner.

Hamilton's between a rock and a hard place right now. He has to be extremely courteous while receiving no quarter from anyone else.

 

[no-FIAt-please]

I think you summed it up perfectly Brogan, not much to add.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

I dont think he will be really frustrated, more like resignation

He is out of the WC this year, I hope he changes his style to just turning up run through the motions, avoid all incidents, jump out the way and try to beat Button. Then after the race one word answers to the press, no thoughts or emotions, go home and think of his pay check and next season

But of course EJ and others will complain that he is not driving with passion or has got worse

 

[RayInTorontoCanada]

He needed to be more alert on the re-start.

Both Brundle and Coulthard saw what we all saw: Alonso and Vettel away after the re-start while a "sleepy"/"napping" Hamilton got out-raced by a very determined Schumacher.

Schumacher not only jumped him on the restart...but then - out of the blue - re-took Lewis after having been passed.

Lewis simply didn't take care of Schumacher.

It's very obvious that Lewis underestimated Schumacher on the re-start. Had he been more alert, it would have been him on the 2nd step of the podium. He may not have won...but he certainly would put some pressure on Vettel.

 

[KekeTheKing]

I won't wallow in this one. Lewis drove extremely clean today. Was very fast when the car was in space. And brought the car home.

It was definitely a missed opportunity for a podium, but whatever.

edit - He was always going to get passed on the restart. The setup was dependant on gaining a gap in sector 2. He was definitely too far behind Seb though. But it didn't matter.

 

[Brogan]

Hamilton's between a rock and a hard place right now. He has to be extremely courteous while receiving no quarter from anyone else.

Quoted for truth.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Lewis simply didn't take care of Schumacher. Had he done so, it would have him on the 2nd step of the podium. He may not have won...but he certainly would have been closer to Vettel.

After all that happened to Lewis before this race, do you think MS was the one guy he wanted to avoid at all costs, he just wasn't racing other drivers today, just cruising and collecting

 

[ExtremeNinja]

Well, Hamilton is my driver of the day. The way he handled adversity on the racetrack was extremely mature.

 

[Johnny Carwash]

Thought he kept his cool today very well. He didn't do anything rash today and he bought the car home to finish 4th.