I know every GP driver has some ego - but Hamilton is starting to **** me off. Not that I'm a fan of Alonso, although a talented driver. Does anyone else start to get the feeling that Hamilton isn't the team player he wants everyone to think he is, and has this win at any cost approach shown his true personality? Here is this rookie that was well on his way to breaking a tonne of records, and now, who'd want to have him as a team mate or a driver? I personally think he's trying to appear as this nice guy, but come on who swears and admittedly defies their Team owner, if you or I did that at work, I'm pretty sure we'd be shown the door. And then to talk to the FIA and not resolve within the team...come on, your a #$%^ rookie, enjoy the gift you've been given (Driving with a top team, and being sponsored your whole life), and show some respect.

From F1i -The tenuous relationship between McLaren teammates Fernando Alonso and Lewis Hamilton went beyond breaking point in Hungary. Championship leader and British rookie Hamilton admitted after winning in Budapest that the pair are now in the midst of a two-way code of silence. He said that just before the race, "I went round to the whole team and said, 'Come on, let's do this. Good luck'. There was only one person I didn't (speak to). "If I walk into the motor home and I see (Alonso) I will speak to him. "But I am not going to go looking for him to make him feel better." Alonso, 26, told Spanish radio Cadena SER that he was astonished not only by his teammate's foul-mouthed outburst on the radio with Ron Dennis on Saturday but at how Hamilton actually instigated the complaint to the stewards about the delayed qualifying pit stop. Alonso said: "We went to complain about ourselves. We were one and two in qualifying but it was one of the most surreal moments I have experienced in F1." Hamilton, however, denied asking the stewards to investigate the matter, despite members of the press finding him in conversation with one of the FIA representatives after qualifying. "I was downstairs and one of the stewards was there but we didn't really discuss it," he said.

I thought this year might be boring with out some great GP personalities (Villeneuve, MS and going back a bit Eddie Irvine) but I must say it's been pretty exciting on and off the track.

 

Ego and a ruthlessly competitive streak are mere prerequisites for a career in F1, not to mention a successful career.

And if you thought this level of subversion was bad, you've forgotten the days of drivers crashing into each other at 150+ mph. And cars then weren't as safe as they are now.

Is Hamilton's ego/talent quotient higher than, say, Eddie Irvine's? Arguably, no (LH ego just as large, but bigger talent). Does it really matter? No. IMO.

 

I was having exactly the same thoughts about him after I saw what happened. He should have appreciated the opportunity he got from Ron, he made him everything he is, plus what he was asked to do was the fair thing to do! In addition to that he didn't appreciate what he got from Alonso, he was copying his setup from the beginning of the year, Alonso made the car a winning car, I remember from the beginning of the year Alonso was commenting that the car needs improvement etc he worked with the mechanics to make the car perform the way it does. That's the first I heart that Hami complained to the stewards, that is just plain backstubbing! Don't get me wrong I dn't think Alosno i any better, but I did thought that Hamilton was a nice humble guy at the beginning.

Unfortunately though, the truth of the matter is that history of the spor indicates that it takes selfishness to become a winner.

 

Oh I do remember the days of Arnoux and Gilles Villeneuve pushing each other and banging wheels other for 2nd, back in the day, and yet, they managed to remain friends and respect each other. You would never had heard Gilles, or even Michael Schmaucher telling Enzo or Todt to F#$%^ swivel. And I also remember Gilles obeying team orders to let essentially Jody Schechter have his title. And even last year Kimi, despite all his challenges with the McLaren reliability even while leading races last year, rarely dissing the team.

I just find that Hamilton is shooting the hand that feeds him. And that this instant success at this level has gone to his head, it's almost as if he has the red mist (talked about in all levels of motorsport) all the time, without thinking of a bigger picture

 

+1 to all of the above comments.

This might sound racist, it is NOT meant to be in the slightest, but it appears that while Ham is obviously a phenomenally talented and smooth driver (remember what Sir Jackie Stewart always said about this quality), his whole dad/bro/afro-american-race thing is starting to really wear thin and is a little overbearing, and glimses of his "real inner" character are starting to show through. MM and Dennis have made the dude whatever he his (just like Red Bull did for Speed....$55M is what I saw Peter Windsor add up what Red Bull spent on Scott Speed before it was totally flushed down). The dude needs to have a lot more respect for his team, the opp he has been given, MM and his incredible blessings....but too often people who have sudden success forget and disavow those whose shoulders they have stoon on to even get there, w/o whom they would be nowhere. Of course, if anyone of us was 22 and suddenly had the record and limelight that Ham has.....what would we do??? This is not a defense of Ham, just some perspective. Ham s/ continue to act like he did after the first 2-3 races and take Kimi as a model of stoicism and never saying bad things about his team or managers. No matter what anyone says about Kimi, he is widely respected for never bad-mouthing his team, teammates or bestowing blame on anyone else; his humility is also most respectful.

 

Looks like my fellow Irish man seems to agree with my comments. Gotta love Irving, the sport needs more personalities like his.

http://www.itv-f1.com/News_Article.aspx?PO_ID=40326

 

Agreed - Even this year when he appeared to be struggling and Massa was doing better, Kimi remained the "ICEMAN" and people were able to still notice his talent, and sheer speed. I actually like Kimi's off track personality as well, he's young, enjoys life, the odd pint, hangs out with his friends, and has a life outside of F1.

 

The biggest "problem" w/ poor Kimi is just his luck...else he would already have been WDC.....or this year, but no chance this year for him either.

 

When was the last time a nice humble guy won a WDC?

I wouldn't expect the World Champion of lawn bowling or snooker to be a nice guy. Sure, he might be a nicer guy than your star footballer, but you get the point....

Not that any of us should excuse behaviour such as, say, M. Tyson's - in or outside the arena. But competitive sports is not a popularity contest (except to the extent that endorsments/sponsorships need to be attained/maintained).

That being said, it is a shame when prodigies destroy their careers through hubris, being/becoming a spoilt brat, losing focus, etc. It's a shame not so much because their antics offend our sensibilities, but because we lose the pleasure of seeing a great talent come to fruition.

$0.02

 

I'm not too bothered about R. Dennis being sworn at - anyone think this is the first time any of his drivers have sworn at him?

However, I do agree that (hopefully sooner rather than later) LH realizes it will take MS or Mika levels of professionalism to be really successful.

The days of "just get in the car and drive" are long gone, if they ever existed. Winning a WDC these days requires being a highly talented driver at the top of his game AND basically being a CEO of a small company. If you can't get the engineers, designers, technicians, mechanics, etc. to work with you, it won't matter how talented you are. And the team principals and sponsors will have a lot of say in how much of these resources are allocated to you.

MS did not win all his GPs and WDCs simply because he was the best driver of his era, but because he was also arguably the most professional and disciplined.

LH could conceivably win the WDC this year, but if that turns out to be his best year in F1, it will ultimately be regarded as a fluke.

 

Why even bring up race at all? Unless you believe it's relevant to the discussion, why bring it up?

 

I have no intention of getting a furious diatribe started here, but I do believe that under the surface it is relevant, although I myself don't care what ethnicity wins the WDC, but is has and is discussed in the media and he's heralded numerous times as the first black f1 driver. Enough said.

 

I thikn that would fit MS better then Kimi... sure kimi didnt bad mouth its team but true class was shown last year by MS in Japan where he lost the WDC-- you saw him going back to the pits to thank HIS team instead of going hay wire...

 

I agree, but how long do you think LH will have the respect of the engineers, technicians, etc, if he causes such conflict within a team? I think you hit the nail on the head - it's the professionalism that he's missing, maybe that will come with age, but I see the beginning of a trend towards being more like the once star actor, who gets viewed as difficult to work with, and gets soon forgotten.

 

I dont know how old you were when Senna was alive but I can assure you that no matter what kind of a jerk Lewis is / might be that his driving skills are amazing. He is almost as good as Senna and watching him take corners in slow motion on replay is like watching pure physics in motion.

Let's remind ourselves how tough Senna was and his full-speed usage of pitt lane to set a lap record. After that one incident the speed limit was introduced.

F1 is not like working in a bank. There is no prize for coming to work.

 

Hamilton's ego is so big because he is actually the second coming of Jesus Christ... look at him in the pic below actually walking on water...

 

See thats the thing ... thats the question... is hammy as good as the great ones that have come in our past ? the brits already think so because hes winning..but hes just in a winning car..... come to think of it... theirs not many brits in the hall of fame

 

This is an overstatement! I know it's been presented like so by the media, its their job to exaggerate make things sound interesting and sell their magazines.

There's no question that he is a good driver but in F1 its universally accepted that 70% of the performance comes from the car/team and 30% the driver. In order to compare him with the other drivers on the grid (let alone Senna) he has to compete in the same or at least similarly performing car over time and on different tracks. Do you think for example that by placing him on a Williams, he will do better than Rosberg? How about Heidfelt, he continuously does well with an a proven to be inferior car, don't you think that he was going to do well or even better on a McLaren?

Regarding Senna; Senna proved himself time and time again to be a great driver, it took him 4 years driving for much inferior teams (Toleman, John Player Special), he still drove impressive enough to get him a seat to McLaren and win the championship. Furthermore, you can't really compare, the cars those days were much harder to control, had I believe more power, a lot worse tires, no electronic controls and poor aerodynamics. Michael Shumacher, wasn't a match back then for Senna and Prost. Luis hasn't even prove yet if he is better than Schumacher. Also, the drivers of that time didn't have the training aids that today's drivers have (i.e. simulators).

Finally, I believe that the most important thing for a driver is the psychology. Back then they knew that a crash (i.e. similar to any of the few that Hamilton had this year) could cost them their life!

 

Oh i see. Hamilton shoud`ve ordered some take-out while sitting in his car behind Alonso and just, basically, chilled-out. I mean it would`ve been rude to let his boss know that "WTF is going on? I need new tyres so i can make one final lap of qualifying!". Yeah, that would`ve been the end of the world.

 

I understand what you are saying and it is because you haven't read what happened before that insident. The reason that Hamilton was held up was because he violated/bypassed team orders to get an edge from Alonso! If you read the statements form the team you will see that he was supposed to let Alonso by during the burning fuel laps (before the timed laps for the Pole). In every race inherently one of the drivers has a slight advantage due to the fuel load strategy. What McLaren does to make things equal, is alrenate this advantage between their drivers. In the Hungarian race it was Alonso's turn to have that slight advantage and Hamilton chose not to give it to him despite the fact that the team told him as it was reported FIVE TIMES over the radio to let him by. That's Hamilton's actions seem so ugly because eeven though he choose to do something sneaky, he still had the arrogancy to curse at his boss (thinking that it was him that choose to delay Alonso as a punishment for not following team orders)!!!

http://insider.speedtv.com/viewtopic.php?t=153609

Now, its hasn't been made clear if the delay at the pit-stop (insident you are referring to) it was only by Alonso's choice for being pissed at Hamilton or if there were other people involved from the team. It was said that it was Alonso's engineer that counted exactly the seconds of the delay needed to let him go. In addition to that, it was also said (not confirmed by the team) that Alonso was left to qualify with used prime tires instead of the option ones, so even though Hamilton wouldn't be able to get an extra lap, they thought that Alonso wouldn't be able to beat Hamilton's time! At the end he did.

 

I remember that slide Senna had in Monaco (through the tunnel) when he was going sideways and changing gears at the same time.

Lewis has excellent line through corners and a cold manner in keeping his car at a steady pace through a lap. He doesnt have blistering fast laps and then slow ones (except when he rides slicks in the rain).

I see a lot of Senna in LH. Not the fire but certainly a lot of control. Keeping his engine running in the gravel was good but his control in the wet was pretty ordinary.

 

Well, traction control is out for next year... let's see if we see a return to the slide (or a return to option 13!)

 

I know of all that too. If the whole shebang was orchestrated by Alonsos engineer McLaren has a big ego-problem on it`s hands and it needs to be solved. And i do not believe that Hamilton is the one to blame.

 

Why not? It ok for Hamilton to cheat but not ok for Alonso? !

 

He didn`t hold up anyone.