What Now For Lewis Hamilton?

Boyle

Race Winner
Contributor
Following his, let's be honest, quite startling interview Lewis Hamilton has shown for the first time really sheer frustration towards the his fellow drivers and the stewards. Claiming other drivers "are absolutely fricking ridiculously stupid" and his treatment from the stewards "is an absolute fricking joke... maybe because I'm black", I almost choked on the water I was drinking at the time! This is clearly not just because of one bad weekend in Monaco but must be a build up of the frustration of prior incidents going all the way back to the beginning of his Formula One career.

It will be easy for many to take this out of context and criticize these words. However, his comments themselves are not the topic for this thread. What the point is is that Hamilton seems to genuinely think that the F1 world is against him. Whether he is right or not is a matter of opinion.

So what direction does his career take now seeing as he is clearly rattled? If he feels that there is no point in racing on an uneven track will he cut his F1 experience prematurely short? If so, would he possibly end up on the other side of the pond racing in Indy or some other form of racing? Or will he feel it is his duty to continue in F1, stick it out and, in his mind, battle against the odds?

In any case, it will be interesting to see the reaction of the FIA, Mclaren and particularly other drivers...
 
I can't see him ever quitting F1 to be honest, but you can sympathise with him to a certain extent.

The most ridiculous example for me was when he was famously penalised for overtaking Raikkonen after giving the place back and complying fully with the rule which was in effect at the time.
The rules were subsequently changed as a result of that.

He was also penalised for a first corner incident at Fuji, something which no other driver seems to have been penalised for (recently).

That's not to say he doesn't deserve some (most?) of the penalties which are awarded against him.

At the end of the day though, a driver who attempts to pass, is going to be at risk of colliding with another driver, and therefore a penalty.
Drivers who just follow others around without making an attempt to pass aren't going to expose themselves to that risk.
 
Didn't hear the comments myself but it sounds like heat of the moment stuff. Probably get a telling off, fined enough to send Jean and Michelle on a nice holiday somewhere and then it will all be forgotten about. He'll probably win the next race and the World will be fine and sunny again.
 
I don't really see how he can blame other drivers, are the rest of 23 drivers in another sport compared to him??

I think he needs to apologise, or just forget about the situation. Or look across the garage where his team-mate is and learn from him.
 
He is a bit of a Chernobyl at the moment, this break will do him good, if we had a race this coming weekend he may just go off like Yellowstone
 
Good questions, Boyle99 but I would suggest that he no less human than the rest of us when he's had a bad week at the office. Right now he's worth a mint. He's provided te media with enough material to fill their headlines until the next round and they will be loving it! McLaren will need to wake up as their strategy calls have on more than one occasion set lewis up to faulter if not fail. They know his value and will not want to let him go without a serious fight. Maybe now they will pay some attention and actually ask for and respect his opinion. Lewis's remarks about the situation in Q3 this weekend betrayed the fact that he defers to the engineers more so than he should. The team need to analyse why that happens and empower him to play a full part in the decision making process. Otherwise relations within the team will disintegrate and he may well have to look at his options. Regardless of what the media, you or I think he is hot property and other teams will accept him in a heartbeat.
 
Following his, let's be honest, quite startling interview Lewis Hamilton has shown for the first time really sheer frustration towards the his fellow drivers and the stewards. Claiming other drivers "are absolutely fricking ridiculously stupid" and his treatment from the stewards "is an absolute fricking joke... maybe because I'm black", I almost choked on the water I was drinking at the time! This is clearly not just because of one bad weekend in Monaco but must be a build up of the frustration of prior incidents going all the way back to the beginning of his Formula One career.

I love a little controversy, this brings back some eminem for me "this looks like a job for me, so everybody just follow me, we need a little controversy, because it feels just empty without me."
 
I don't think it's wise to let a driver to play much more of a part, he said he agreed with the engineers at the time in Q3 as he wanted to save a set of super softs (I presume about the super softs, makes sense) yet he felt betrayed.

It is dangerous to let the driver have too much of say, it could end in turmiol, as we saw in the 80s

EDIT: This was a reply to Fenderman!
 
He's won in Canada twice before. Lewis has actually proven to be one of the most consistent drivers in the past, i think this weekend is simply a blip, if that. I don't think anyone can look at what happened this weekend and not see Lewis as being a bit unlucky.
 
I don't think it's wise to let a driver to play much more of a part, he said he agreed with the engineers at the time in Q3 as he wanted to save a set of super softs (I presume about the super softs, makes sense) yet he felt betrayed.

It is dangerous to let the driver have too much of say, it could end in turmiol, as we saw in the 80s

EDIT: This was a reply to Fenderman!

I don't think I implied that he should have too much say. The problem as I see it, is that he clearly isn't having enough input in strategic decisions. You'd think that McL would have learnt from the infamous China pit lane DNF when he had been calling for new tyres lap after lap. It's high time they paid some attention. Incidentally, he did not agree about Q3 he as he himself put it "deferred to the engineers".

"There is no I in team" - Management handbooks everywhere.
 
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