kchristos

I think even though Lewis is doing a great job as a driver, he is out of his mind talking too much trash for the other drivers. Check this interview out:

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/70475

But he (referring to Kimi) was braking much earlier than you?

LH: Well, that's his driving, that's all. That is how he drives. If you don't have the ***** to brake late then that is your problem! At the end of the day, in those situations it is the driver who can feel the grip more and put the car more on the edge. And I know I am great in those conditions. I felt the grip more than him, I knew where to place my car and I did place it in different positions to him and I found the grip.

How ironic to say that for a driver who has been doing that succesfully for a lot more time than he did. As Kimi explained in another interview when you are first and it starts raining, you don't know how much grip there is. By being second you have the luxury to look at the guy in front of you and estimate if there is more or less grip.

Regarding Massa too..

Q. You say you are confident for the coming races, but how much is the shadow of Massa a concern for you?

LH: Not really. I think Massa he is on the back foot and he is the one that has to work damn hard to keep up with me. We do have a close race, a close battle, but I feel I am in a very strong position.


Its a bit Ironic to say that for a driver that won more pole positions this year than he did!

dbarrym

Agreed that he should ideally be a bit more humble, certainly in an interview (sounds like a PR flack was not in attendance!), and given that this is only his 2nd year in F1.

But remember, one of the traits that defines a champion is an absolute confidence in your abilities...and no doubt Hamilton has that!!

1985mb

Wow, he sounds about as classy and gracious as....................Don King

EdoubleNickel

I dont think he said anything wrong. Like Mike Tyson used to say he was the greatest.... and you know what he was during his time. I think Hamilton has got God given talents when it comes to driving. The man is good and no one can take that away from him. No one has done what Hamilton has done in their debut season in F1 NO ONE! He lost the tittle due to his inexpierence and KIMI won it BY LUCK period.

BMWEATR

yea right, L.H doesn't act like some jack a$$ hood rat. he is always well spoken and polished, he also is venting frustration over the belguin GP B.S. w/ the whole late braking qoute.
so what if he's cocky, he is just getting in the heads of the other competitors.
look at scott speed he's a little cocky ****** fu$er but he backs it up on the kart track, he never had a car in F1 but always was the team leader. and now he's clowning the nascar guys, can't wait for him to get into a cup car.

FThornton666

I think thats awesome, its what F1 has missed from the old days. We finally have it again real battles, real drama, real competition. Dont forget massa and lewis are friends, so this is only friendly banter anyways.

kchristos

I don't remember Scott Speed to cocky in his interviews quite the contrary a few times that I heart him seemed humble, he said once that the reason he made it to F1 is not that he was the best but he was around the right people.

Also, I don't remember him to be a team leader either. Neither him or Liuci were doing well enough to satisfy Gerhard Berger and as a result he let both of them go.

kchristos

Are you sure about your "NO ONE"? Jacques Villeneuve did that impression his debut year but then his performance dropped. As he commented later on there are a lot of politics in F1. I don't think he had the support Lewis has from McLaren.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacques...ve#Formula_One

Also, you have to consider that in order to make such an impression you have to have the car to do it. Obviously Alonso, Kimi did that impression when they started to lesser teams that's why McLaren and Renault hired them later on and now Vettel is making that impression but he doesn't have the car to win races.

kchristos

I agree that he has to be confident but it doesn't mean you have to be arrogant. Look at Roger Federer arguably one of the best tenis players of all times if not the best, he is so humble he always tries to compliment his opponents. Look at Sebastian Loeb, multiple championships one of the most successful rally drivers in history, he is always so simple and humble as well. Markus Gronholm a two time world champion was also the same.

EdoubleNickel

Im talking about Hamiltons rookie year.. one point away from the WDC. Numerous podiums. And your right.... he did start on a top flight team.

SeaCoupe

Whoa...Scott Speed was a mouth. Quite outspoken.

E

BMWEATR

you haven't had the joy of watching him come up through karting etc and like i said before torro rosso cars were POS while he was there and up until about 3 races ago. what i meant by team leader was he on average did a lot better than luici(sp?) don't take my post wrong i am a speed fan because he backs it up on the track!

on a side not please do not mention Gerhard Berger in your posts he is dead to me!

BMWEATR

I don't think the poster has seen all the interviews. probrably just the last few wind tunnel ones where he was trying to clean up his image for Neck car good ole boys.

kevink2

I think lewis took too much credit for his wet performance. A very informed ferrari fan told me the red cars needed more heat in the tires vs lewis. If Lewis swapped seats with kimi in the wet conditions, I doublt he would still be outbraking him. He's a great driver, but in this case takes too much credit.

Massa was also very loose in the rain with dry tires.

BMWEATR

the red team does do better having there tires hot. But there's no doubt in my mind lewis is the best rain driver out there as good if not better than M.Schumacher. you would have to put him in the red car to give the other guys a chance.

kchristos

He wasn't so good in the rain today wasn't he? The bottom line is that you can't judge someones abilities based on limited data. I know Vettel did his lap when it was raining a little less but never the less Lewis couldn't move from that 15th spot even after multiple attempts.

Massa was heavily judged by his performance in the wet in the Silverstone GP but he did reasonably well in Monaco and reasonably well today, at least better then Kimi and Lewis. I believe that drivers should be judged over their performance over the long term on multiple situations, cars and teams if possible.

FThornton666

Anytime it rains lewis does exceptionally well. Reminds me of Ayrton Senna, he is just on a different level than pretty much everyone else in the rain it seems. Hes one of the few drivers who actually enjoys racing in it.

FThornton666

That is because he went out on intermediates on a gamble to try and get a very fast lap time, unfortunately for him that decision cost him big time as the rain came down even hard and he had limited grip if any at all.

kchristos

Understand that, what I said is that I wasn't expecting him to outqualify Vettel who obviously did his lap at better conditions but if he was so much beter than everybody else after the couple of tries that he did there he should be able to progress from P15 to at the very least p14 or something marginally better, he couldn't do any progress at all!

Ayrton was very competitive and winning races in a Toleman!!! Hardly a fair comparison with driver the McLaren which by the way is arguably one of the 2 best cars at this moment if not for some racetracks "THE" fastest and better drive car to drive.

In any case it is way too early to do such a comparison, Schumacher won 7 championships and people don't compare him with Senna not Lewis who just started!

ozoz

they all good driver ... put them in the same car and be able to tell who's quicker

BMWEATR

yea lewis sucks in the rain only went from 15th to 2nd to finish 6th

like i said before he is as good if not better than M.Schumacher.

panzr15

Your Ferrari fan is on the right track, the same reason why Ferrari are able to make better use of the softer compound tire is the same reason they suffer greater grip issues than McLaren in the rain. Their car setup generates equivalent levels of grip in the dry as say McLaren, by way of less mechanical grip via the tire (i.e. less camber). So, less tire wear results in a cooler tire during dry use. Throw in a bit a cold rain water and now the tires are outside of their optimum heat range. Hamilton is an amazing driver, don't get me wrong, but the cars make a bigger impact on the outcome than the driver.

Just my $0.02