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]

No Bucks - no Buck Rodgers...

No winning drivers, no sponsors - ask Frank Williams. I just think Mclaren need to reassess how they look after what is their primary assets, the drivers. Jenson has coped this year, Lewis obviously hasn't and the management need to recognise that and perhpas wind down the pressure a bit. Mclaren do have a history of setting drivers against one another though, way back to the days of Teddy Mayer.

 

[Road of Bones]

A fair point FB, but let us look at things from the point of view of the ordinary man-in-the-street shall we? What constitutes the more taxing line of work - jetting about the world driving sexy cars really fast and having to stand up at sponsor events once or twice a week and answer the same questions over & over again (and being paid millions for it), or sitting in a call centre being paid tuppence an hour day after day and having to answer the same questions over and over again?

If they can't take the pressure of being a top-line racing driver, then they don't have what it takes to actually be a top-line racing driver. Heat/Kitchen etc.

The whole Sponsorship-vs-Success loop is self-generating anyway - once it gains sufficient momentum, it looks after itself (unless you do something catastrophically inept, such as alienate your Munich Engine Suppliers... ).

Let me point out here that I am in no way suggesting Lewis Hamilton is anything less than one of the very best Racing Drivers currently on the circuit - I just feel that there are far too many excuses being sought for his performance this year, and to my mind the whole "he's got too many sponsorship commitments" is one of the lamest excuses going.

He's had a bad season. He will get over it. I have no doubt he will win further championships, provided he gets a fast enough car and someone else doesn't have an even faster car...

 

[RasputinLives]

But RoB he was in a dark dark place....in a dark dark house.......in a dark dar street.

I understand what you mean - an F1 driver complaining about having too many sponsorship commitments is a bit like hearing someone complain that their wallet is too small for their £50 notes and their diamond shoes are too tight.

To be fair I've never heard those words come out of Lewis's mouth I just see them written on forums so I won't judge him on that.

One thing that did make me laugh was his line "I don't plan to be single for long" - I guess when you're a millionaire motor racing driver you can make decision like that - us normal guys just have to wait and see who's stupid enough to take us on next.

 

[The Artist.....]

Let me point out here that I am in no way suggesting Lewis Hamilton is anything less than one of the very best Racing Drivers currently on the circuit - I just feel that there are far too many excuses being sought for his performance this year, and to my mind the whole "he's got too many sponsorship commitments" is one of the lamest excuses going.

He's had a bad season. He will get over it. I have no doubt he will win further championships, provided he gets a fast enough car and someone else doesn't have an even faster car...

I do remember another driver who refused to yield to sponsor commitments - Kimi Raikkonen - and look what's happened to him now...

In a way, I can understand the issues about sponsor commitments, as it detracts from the ability to train/work on the simulator etc etc. - and athletes in other sports would never have so many commitments (Can you imagine Usain Bolt having to do 6 or 7 sponsor meet and greets in the 2 days before the olympic final?) However, such is the beast of F1 - the teams are beholden to the sponsors... The only alternative is if tv revenues were to massively out-rate the sponsorship revenue - but then I suspect all the cars would end up racing in Sky liveries.....

 

[Road of Bones]

Exactly Artist - if you won't roll over and have your tum tickled for the sponsors, you can scarcely expect them to keep ponying up the dough so you can live in the luxuriant fast lane with the trophy arm-candy dripping off you...

 

[racecub]

What a shame that the McLaren team do not agree with you on this http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/96215 . Just start looking at how many laps Button had where he had no KERS, work out how much time he would have lost there, he could well have finished in second place.

Button has beaten Hamilton in the points race this year because he can race consistently in any sort of conditions and has learnt how to handle distractions.

Yes Jenson has beaten Lewis over the year-undisputed. Not sure why Whitmnarsh feels the need to dwell on the KERS problem since Button himself has said he wasnt fast enough on the softs even without that problem. As to fighting for second, by lap three, long before the KERS problem Jenson had been overtaken by Alonso, dropped 5.238s to Hamilton and had to work to keep Webber at bay. This was a race where Lewis was better than Jenson. Why is it so hard to accept that?

 

[teabagyokel]

McLaren's shareholders will be wondering why Alonso was better than Button - hence Whitmarsh 'dwelling' on the KERS issue.

 

[racecub]

McLaren's shareholders will be wondering why Alonso was better than Button - hence Whitmarsh 'dwelling' on the KERS issue.

Perhaps he drove better.

 

[Road of Bones]

Racecub - I think you ought to stop reading articles about Martin Whitmarsh, it's clearly making you cross!

(incidentally - could you get your avatar to put his shirt on?)

 

[teabagyokel]

Perhaps he drove better.

That won't cut it with the stakeholders, will it? They want to know why they scored 40 points rather than 43 and saying

You know that driver we sacked a couple of years back? He's bloody brilliant, you know?

is hardly likely to calm the issue.

 

[racecub]

Racecub - I think you ought to stop reading articles about Martin Whitmarsh, it's clearly making you cross!

(incidentally - could you get your avatar to put his shirt on?)

Martin makes me very cross you're quite right.
I like the shirt off

 

[Road of Bones]

it's not as if I have a choice not to look though...

 

[RasputinLives]

Thats actually me in racecub's avatar - I never wear a shirt

 

[racecub]

That won't cut it with the stakeholders, will it? They want to know why they scored 40 points rather than 43 and saying


is hardly likely to calm the issue.

So its better to say the cars at fault? Hmmmm. Im not sure that will impress sponsors. And surely jenson has done enough this year to please the sponsors (except maybe negotiating a contract with less time for sponsors)

 

[ExtremeNinja]

The thread is going off on a tangent a bit, but whilst we are still there, didn't Vettel and Webber spend the whole first half of the season resetting their KERS every other lap?

 

[The Pits]

More circular debates,with different views dependant on your allegiance.

Lewis was on it all weekend, and we all know how good he can be.

Jenson had issues with kers, how serious and how much time this cost, we do not know, however, he finished further back than he would have with a perfect car.

in terms of red bulls kers issues, I think it was mostly mark at the start of the season, although the advantage red bull had was a lot greater at that time anyway.

 

[Bill Boddy]

Personally I don't have any problem with Hamilton beating Button. However, there are a number of Hamilton fans who seem determined to denigrate Button, so I was just pointing out that Button had to work hard for what he got.

Button obviously lost time due to the KERS issue, just how much we do not know, but to say " if he can dust Button (who has double his experience, is having his best ever season, is a WC) as comprehensively as we saw on Sunday" is just imo nonsense. Beating someone in qualifying by nine milliseconds is somewhere around thirty centimetres over a five and a half kilometre circuit, hardly "dusting" them. Supposing that Button was losing half a second a lap over thirty laps that would be fifteen seconds, reducing the gap to ten seconds over the race distance.

Hamilton drove well and once Vettel was gone the race was his to lose. But others drove well too.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

'if he can dust so and so on Sunday' doesnt include qualifying in Saturday so 9 milliseconds is somewhat irrelevant

We know Lewis is quicker in quali, thats not the point, we are talking about the race where Jenson has done better this year and where Lewis' mindset was in question

If he was fragile and weak mentally then it shouldnt be possible for Lewis to pull away with Alonso so far so quickly (even before kers issue) , surely his mental weakness would have seen him crash under the pressure

Maybe you find the term dust degrading, but its not meant to be, it just means there was enough of a gap between Lewis/Alonso and Jenson that he wouldnt have seen the back of their cars much after a while, only the dust they left as they rounded corners ahead etc.
Jenson was never really quicker than Lewis kers or no kers, Button had an ok race by his new higher standards
http://cliptheapex.com/attachments/2838/

 

[ExtremeNinja]

 

[The Artist.....]

Ok... Question for you, if people had come on here talking about JB "Dusting" LH in Japan, would you take it lying down? Nope... Thought not! Remember that it's always difficult as we're not always comparing like with like,.....