Current Sir Lewis Carl Davidson Hamilton MBE

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"

 

[teabagyokel]

Few, I believe, took on F1's best in their debut season.

Remember, he didn't just start at the front. He was instantly competitive with the reigning champion (x2). He lead the championship from the gun, causing one of the biggest psychological crash 'n' burn moments in F1 history "on the other side". He was tangentially involved in spygate.

He then lost the championship in the most ridiculously melodramatic way in the process of sending his team-mate back to Enstone.

This was big news. Then he got somewhere close to similar melodrama in Year 2.

He was big news. He still is.

 

[siffert_fan]

TBY

The first-year record that he most approximated was that of Jacques Villeneuve!!! And we all know how fond of HIM most seem to be (at least on here)

 

[teabagyokel]

Totally agree.

Difference being that he played the Schumacher to Massa's Villeneuve in 2008: that Ferrari was a better car than the McLaren.

 

[RasputinLives]

I think Lewis Hamilton was an amazing driver in the junior categories and I think he had the best debut season I have ever seen. I think we all knew he was a very special talent right from the start. I certainly Don't remember this 'hate' that was apparently directed towards him by the 2ND race of the year. I do think he has the most extreme fans I've ever seen in F1 though. It's a 'you are either with us or against us attitude'. I've always found it odd.

As for the 'growing up on a council estate whilst his Dad toiled and toiled' bit that gets punted around (not by Lewis I may add). That is certainly something people like to add to strengthen the folklore (a working class hero is something to be). His Dad was an IT consultant and he grew up in a nice area of southern England going to the same school as Manchester United footballers. He was hardly on the breadline. His Dad worked dam hard to get Lewis into racing but then so did a lot of other Dads. Button's dad worked his ass off to build up his business to help get his son into racing (he helped Lewis along the way too) but because of the way his money is made JB is seen as 'privledged'.

Lewis is a legend in his own right. He doesn't need people exaggerating his story to turn him into some sort of superhero.

 

[teabagyokel]

To be fair, he wasn't a Manchester United footballer at the time. I believe the school was connected to Watford FC, which can't have harmed the PE department.

 

[racecub]

I think Lewis Hamilton was an amazing driver in the junior categories and I think he had the best debut season I have ever seen. I think we all knew he was a very special talent right from the start. I certainly Don't remember this 'hate' that was apparently directed towards him by the 2ND race of the year. I do think he has the most extreme fans I've ever seen in F1 though. It's a 'you are either with us or against us attitude'. I've always found it odd.

As for the 'growing up on a council estate whilst his Dad toiled and toiled' bit that gets punted around (not by Lewis I may add). That is certainly something people like to add to strengthen the folklore (a working class hero is something to be). His Dad was an IT consultant and he grew up in a nice area of southern England going to the same school as Manchester United footballers. He was hardly on the breadline. His Dad worked dam hard to get Lewis into racing but then so did a lot of other Dads. Button's dad worked his ass off to build up his business to help get his son into racing (he helped Lewis along the way too) but because of the way his money is made JB is seen as 'privledged'.

Lewis is a legend in his own right. He doesn't need people exaggerating his story to turn him into some sort of superhero.

His dad started an IT business, so he had more freedom of time to race with Lewis, he wasn't a consultant in the early days though. He also went round putting up estate agents signs, to make more cash , he did another job as well I can't remember what. So yes, he toiled and toiled. And he lived in a flat on a Stevenage estate. Lewis went to stay with him weekends and had a little go cart on the balcony , he was with his mum in the week.
The school he went to was a catholic school, he's Catholic. It also had a good rep compared to the local compass so his dad fought to get him in it. Maybe some Manchester United footballers are Catholics too, I've no idea, but it wasn't a fee paying school.
I'm sure other parents have toiled and toiled as well, but it's the Lewis thread, so we were talking about Lewis.

 

[RasputinLives]

Yes racecub we are talking about Lewis and 'growing up in public'. His dad worked his ass off and I think his fantastic for that. However the 'working class hero' (near claimed by him or his dad by the way) irks people because a lot of people's fathers work exceptional hard from a lot worse positions and the 'I'm just a poor boy' thing is just plain annoying when it has nothing to do with his talent and genius. Was Senna any less of a genius from coming from a millionaire background? No. So why does the Lewis thing get brought up so much? Do we even know it doesn't apply to other drivers on the grid? Hell I have no idea how Danni Kvyat went from living in a poor far flung corner of Russia to F1 and no one is keen to tell me.

At the end of the day, and I'm sure Lewis would agree with completely on this, when you put that crash helmet on it shouldn't matter if your black, white, blue, green,male, female, binary, rich or poor. It's about how you drive the car. I think Lewis suffers in his public image as much from positive discrimination as he does from negative. I think the attempts (again not by him) to make him a saint pisses people off.

It reminds me very much of the Remain voters and the Jeremy Corbyn supporters. People encamp themselves so much with the 'their view is right' stuff that they Don't realise how much they are pushing away people that agree in principle but are weighing things up.

At the end of the day Lewis is the greatest driver of his generation and that's all I care about.

 

[siffert_fan]

I'm not sure that I would say he is any "greater" than Vettel, and they are of the same generation.

 

[RasputinLives]

I think they are close but on current careers I give Lewis the edge.

 

[siffert_fan]

IMO, the last 3 years make it far more difficult to compare the two drivers.

For the last 3 years LH has been in the most dominant car that F1 has seen (at least since 1962, when I first started following the sport), and that has tremendously skewed the statistics in Hamilton's favour. Indeed, in that period, the only person you can really compare Hamilton to is Nico, as they are in (ostensibly) the same car. In fact, that comparison makes it more difficult for me to evaluate Hamilton, since, to me, before that period, Rosberg seemed a high-mid-level driver and no more than that. Therefore I expected Hamilton to completely outclass his teammate, yet that hasn't happened.

 

[Road of Bones]

Perhaps Nico is a better driver than you credit him?

 

[Hamberg]

He is.

 

[gethinceri]

Caesar tended to exagerrate his enemies' capabilities after he'd defeated them, too.

 

[oli_f1_best_sport]

Hamilton stood no chance against Rosberg this weekend. Championship fight luckily got very exciting again.

 

[Hamberg]

I rated Rosberg as an F1 driver before Hamilton came on the F1 scene and still do. He's just had two great races where he outclassed Hamilton.

 

[racecub]

RasputinLives, as F1 fans we will always be more interested in the racing and the talent than the social side of drivers. But for nonF1 fans and casual viewers, those facts about Hamilton's life do engender interest, even if they irk you. I put them forward as one of the reasons for media interest, it sells papers; just like banging on about his music and his dogs and his clothes and his friends irks me, but it sells papers. I understand why they do it.
Lewis a saint? I'd say his appeal to many is that he is the opposite of that. I don't quite get that comment.
Interesting you mention Senna, I wrote a piece once on the differing backgrounds of Hamilton and Senna. No , it doesn't matter a jot to purists what racing drivers backgrounds are, but it makes an interesting story to others. Perhaps if Kvyat was challenging for the championship in his first year and winning it in his second he'd have a rags to riches story in the Russian dailies.

 

[RasputinLives]

If his background doesn't matter to you then why do you bring it up at every opportunity?

 

[racecub]

I don't bring it up at every opportunity. I brought it up in the Lewis thread when discussing why the media focuses so much on him.
He has a background that interests people. Why does that upset you?

 

[RasputinLives]

Lol. racecub you pretty much have it as a copy and paste statement for anytime anyone talks about Hamilton's life outside of F1.

And it doesn't bother me. I responded with my view on the perceived 'hate' towards Hamilton (see original post) and that bothered you. I was just confused why you're saying its not important to you yet you reference it a lot. It's almost like your looking for a fight about it or something.

Shall we agree to disagree (actually thinking about it if you read what written in our posts we actually agree) or poke each other a little more?

 

[racecub]

Nope RasputinLives , I don't have it as a cut and paste, but I know the facts, I've read a lot. I was going to write a piece about the early lives of Vettel/ Hamilton and Alonso to see how similar/ different they were. Never got round to it, still might one day........ Drivers backgrounds interest me, they don't matter , but they interest.
I posted that info in reply to Lewyo4, who was questioning the hatred and media interest. I was suggesting why that should be and you took issue.
I don't want a fight, but neither do I want to feel intimidated about what I can and cant post ( within the remit of not being personal or offensive to others).
I don't mind the odd poke, so long as it's a good natured poke