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]

Oops! Getting ahead of myself...

 

[sportsman]

Oops! Getting ahead of myself...

 

[Il_leone]

I bet other drivers wish they had had as bad a season as Lewis!

LH 2012

3 wins
3 second's
Every race he didn't retire from he was in the points.

the last comment applies to everyone in the top 5 I think if I am right

I know he aspires to greater things but it's not a bad return given the relative speed of the Mclaren at the start of the year compared to the Red Bull and he was the only one to win a dry race against Vettel until Japan! Does this mean he was out performing the car? Oops, there's a can of worms opened up

If you want to rate Lewis' season it would be a
B- or 6.5/7 out of 10

If your teammate is the only benchmark - then Button's 12 podiums including 3 wins dwarfs Hamilton's achievements

Plus on expectation that Mclaren is his team and to many pundits, fans, critics they all think he would thrash Button which did not happen this season

As for him outperforming the car then why is not he 2nd in the championship then ahead of Webber? For every 1 great race LEwis has had this season he's had 3 bad ones that follow afterwards

Some have suggested the DRS with the KERS seems to have hindered him like Kobayashi

 

[KekeTheKing]

I think the fact that Button is being roundly credited for driving his best season, largely for beating his teammate who had a personally dreadful season, speaks volumes.

 

[teabagyokel]

Lewis will never be consistent, but unlike Vettel and Alonso we'll still be talking about his wins in 30 years time. We'll tell our offspring about the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix.

 

[Il_leone]

Lewis will never be consistent, but unlike Vettel and Alonso we'll still be talking about his wins in 30 years time. We'll tell our offspring about the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix.

9 podiums in a row in his debut season shows he can do it when he is focused and if he gets his dad back in the paddock in his corner it will help as well

some might put it down to being able to use some of Alonso's telemetry but he can do the job

Schumacher early in his career would have one or two accidents or mistakes which were costly but he managed to cut them out and develop consistency... so there is time for Lewis to do it as well...if he looks at how his teammate has developed race consistency then I am sure Lewis will be back to his best

Even his hero Senna knew consistency was key to his titles in 1990 -1991 in an inferior car at times

 

[teabagyokel]

Lets hope so, because it would be great to see the three of them duking it out!

 

[Jen]

Lewis will never be consistent, but unlike Vettel and Alonso we'll still be talking about his wins in 30 years time. We'll tell our offspring about the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix.

I doubt that I will tby

 

[teabagyokel]

I doubt that I will tby

Some of us will. Maybe.

OK, it would be possible to enthuse about the 2011 Chinese Grand Prix in a way that it would not be possible to enthuse about most of the victories of Vettel and Alonso.

 

[KekeTheKing]

I hear ya tby, but if I ever sit my kids down to have a chat about Lewis, I'd actually start with a non-win*. Spa 2008 sums up the highs and lows of Lewis Hamilton in a nut-shell.

 

[Il_leone]

I hear ya tby, but if I ever sit my kids down to have a chat about Lewis, I'd actually start with a non-win*. Spa 2008 sums up the highs and lows of Lewis Hamilton in a nut-shell.

Mine would be China 2007 because he and Mclaren threw the race away against a backdrop of all sorts of political rows as well as Alonso's moaning. The fact Ron Dennis allowed his ego to cloud over the championship cost them the drivers for Lewis

 

[KekeTheKing]

To say that China 2007 sums up Hamilton's career is to ignore the fact that he is capable of extraordinarily supreme driving.

China 2007 may indeed epitomize the mind-numbingly poor way that McLaren handled their drivers (off and on track) in 07, but to say that epitomized Hamilton as an individual/driver is a bit much.

 

[Brogan]

Hmmmm, OT, but an interesting idea for a thread; one race which sums up each driver.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Hmmmm, OT, but an interesting idea for a thread; one race which sums up each driver.

Not a bad idea at all Bro. I think Webber just had his.

 

[KekeTheKing]

Some great videos that johnnoble had posted in the DRS thread.

 

[Senna's_right_foot]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/dec/11/bernie-ecclestone-lewis-hamilton-f1

 

[Jen]

Always thought that - a greater impact on Lewis's performance than losing his 'pussy cat' or being beaten by Jens.

 

[Cookinflatsix]

Interesting article, although I seem to remember many constantly complaining that his father was around too much, his face was too often on screen, Lewis needed to be more independent etc

Not sure if Bernie remembers this, or remembers his own opinion of Anthony Hamilton (if any) when he was ever present

Hopefully Lewis will gain from this and cut the showbiz/showboating support for something similar to his old man.

 

[racecub]

Bernie's not saying anything new, just giving his take on what was up with Lewis. Its nothing that hasnt been said time over by people. Lewis has said his problems are private and he's said he was deaply affected bythe loss of two close friends. Beyond that its supposition on the part of people who seem to delight in whipping up negative comment about him.

I personally think Lewis should have stuck with his dad and is probably regretting it, but as Cook says, at the time his dad was managing him forums were awash with negative comments about 'daddy's boy' and the like.

 

[FB]

I think the criticism of his Dad was that every time there was an interview in the Mclaren pit it was with Anthony and the camera cut to him so often during a Grand Prix we missed the racing. I have made the criticism of constant interviews with John Button, especially in 2009 - the problem was not with either Anthony or John but the singular lack of imagination of the broadcast media (both ITV and BBC were as guilty as on another) in trying to find anyone else to talk to.

Interesting interview none the less and I think Bernie made some very salient points.