It’s Not Just Me……….
Written by George Katinger · August 19, 2007
……reassessing the attitudes and image of Lewis Hamilton.
An excellent piece which summarizes the unfolding disillusion with the boy wonder of F1. Found at canada.com. Regardless of all our opinions and thoughts, if Hamilton wins the title all will be forgiven by McLaren.
Walter Buchignani, CanWest News Service; Montreal Gazette
Published: Friday, August 17, 2007
MONTREAL - Could it be that he had us fooled all along?
Just like that, Lewis Hamilton is transformed from innocent, wide-eyed rookie to “latent Machiavelli” who will stop at nothing.
Such is the talk these days in sports columns around the world, as Formula One enjoys its extended break from the track until the Grand Prix of Turkey on Aug. 26.
It remains to be seen whether this new portrait of Hamilton turns out to be any more accurate than the previous one, given that both are dangerously black and white.
What’s certain is that the debate adds another twist to an already fascinating F1 campaign.
And who knows? It could even help lift the fortunes of Fernando Alonso, the other embattled driver at McLaren-Mercedes.
All this stems from this month’s Hungarian Grand Prix, where Hamilton’s defiance of McLaren protocol caused team boss Ron Dennis to toss his headset in frustration.
At first, it looked like Alonso was the villain after the stewards stripped him of pole position for holding up his teammate in the pits and causing him to miss his final qualifying run.
Hamilton, displaying his newfound craftiness, was only too willing to let that impression persist during the news conference that followed.
“You saw what happened,” he said into the TV camera, with straight face, while Alonso seethed silently in the chair beside him.
Unfortunately for Hamilton, his boss refused to play along when he met with reporters later and lifted the lid on what really had happened.
Dennis revealed that Hamilton had ignored the script the team had set out for qualifying in an attempt to gain a more favourable track position at the expense of his teammate.
“I don’t think either driver is blameless in this situation,” Dennis said, all the while ripping the mask off his young protege.
Now exposed, Hamilton quickly shifted into damage-control mode, apologizing for his behaviour and extending a warm hand to team members who had suddenly turned frosty.
This in itself revealed a political savviness far beyond what we had come to expect from someone who likes to play the role of naive newcomer.
“It was difficult,” Hamilton said. “You didn’t know whether the team hated you, or whether they just hated the situation, who they blamed. So I did go around to the whole team and I said, ‘Come on, let’s do this.’ ”
It worked, sort of.
Displaying a brutally ruthless focus, Hamilton went on to win the grand prix from the pole he inherited from his penalized teammate.
Hamilton extended his lead over Alonso to seven points atop the standings with six races to go.
But he might face a rougher ride the rest of the way now that his credibility has taken a hit with his team and the press.
“Rookie my foot,” commented the Australian newspaper The Age. “Hamilton drove a battering ram through the pretense that teammates can be friends in a fight for the championship.”
“Ron Dennis didn’t pay attention to the omens,” said France’s L’equipe. “He ignored Lewis Hamilton’s latent Machiavellianism, his already-highly developed political sense, his fake innocence.”
“The damage that Hamilton has inflicted on the team is terrible, as is the disillusionment he has caused in a man who has given him his all,” said Spain’s El Pais.
That man is Dennis, of course, and El Pais went on to speculate that national hero Alonso could end up benefiting from Hamilton’s insolence.
“For the first time,” the paper remarked, Alonso has “found the support of a team that has always been hostile toward him.”
Alonso himself was only too eager to play up that angle with reporters in Hungary.
“What happened yesterday was something new for the team. Hamilton not listening, disobeying them, was something they hadn’t expected,” he said.
“I guess he will have a different relationship with the team in the next race, because I don’t think they are very happy, ” Alonso said.
That’s Istanbul, next weekend.
Montreal Gazette
walterbthegazette.canwest.com
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19 Responses to “It’s Not Just Me……….”
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http://www.itv-f1.com/Feature.aspx?Type=General&PO_ID=40334
After that read, you tell me how any driver put in this situation would feel. Hamilton is crafty, but the actions are not transparent in the end. Alonso was in a bit of a road rage mentality for those few minutes leading up to the 10 second delay. He may just have got poll anyways, and went on to win likely. Such a shame responding to the new kids antics prevented us from seeing the race we should have witnessed.
Maybe I am confused.
I am trying to figure out why everyone thinks that Lewis Hamilton is the wide-eyed boy wonder.
One does not get to the pinnicle of the motorsports world without being comewhat aggressive and hard nosed. To say that the top drivers are willing to use any and all means to acheive what THEIR objective is would be an understatment. Just watch Juan Pablo in NASCAR, Dario in IRL, etc. The bump and run is well and true in action, and Lewis and Alonso are just using a different form. Sure Hamilton may have been under team orders, but Alonso did balk him in the pits. The war of words could backfire on Lewis within the team, but I am willing to bet that His mechanics will appreciate the fight the the kid has within him. The competitive spirit is what the boys (and Girls) in the shop want to see and are what they work for. We have seen this before,Senna at Honda/Mclaren, Michael at Bennaton and Ferrari, Alonso at Renault etc. When they come across a driver that delivers on the track during testing, racing, debriefing, and in the media, they tighten everything just a little more, check everything a little closer, etc and end up winning a dozen or so championships.
By the way all of the past champions have not exactly been choir boys, especially Aryton and Michael.
Machavalian indeed!
El Pais blames Lewis ? Rips into him ? Francophones in Montreal and Paris follow along ? Quel surprise ! If you’re looking for perspective, take a look at how the Continentals treated Graham Hill, and Damon, and every other British driver who’s ever seriously threatened for a world championship. In a word, only slightly better than the Americans who have dared to show up. Engish-speaking engineers and money welcome, drivers not so much. They’ve had to bite their tongues for 3/4 of a season because Lewis is black, but now they’ve got an excuse and they’re going to pose and expostulate. Lewis, I suggest you just bark back at them a little; as a rule, they talk a lot, but tend to back down from a fight !
Interesting perspective on the European disdain for English-American wheel talent Steve. I’ll have to do a little digging and look it up.
Thanks for the counterpoint.
“…..as is the disillusionment he has caused in a man who has given him his all,
For the love of God! Ron’s got thicker skin than that. This is small potatoes when compared to the civil war at McLaren between Prost & Senna, & that feud lasted several seasons.
Ron is “suffering” the high class problem of having two very competitive, talented drivers & a championship winning car…should every other team owner be so lucky! Last year the McLaren car could not even win a race, & Kimi/JPM were anything but enthusiastic.
IMHO, I dont think we have seen the worst of the Lewis-Alonso battle. With McLaren almost guaranteed the front row of the grid, I’m convinced we will see a first coRner/lap clash between the two protaganists before the season ends.
I second what Peter said.
“This is small potatoes when compared to the civil war at McLaren between Prost & Senna, & that feud lasted several seasons.”
But the Prost Senna civil war did not include a combatant that was virtully hand raised by the team for over 10 years, did it?
Ron does have a thick skin not to mention a sharp business acumen, and the sense of betrayal mentioned in the Spanish press may be overblown: But deep down inside Ron is at the least wondering what kind of monster he’s managed to cook up in his lab, eh?
And as you said, a problem every team would love to have. Except Ferrari. After all they “accidently” let Massa run out of fuel to give their No. 1 a long shot at winning Hungary, didn’t they.
You really are quite daft if you think Ferrari ran Massa out of fuel on purpose. That’s basically throwing constructor points away when they need them most.
I believe it’s just the lack of appropriate leadership that’s finally starting to handicap the team. We all expected this to start happening, and when it does, you pretend they’re doing it on purpose.
As for Ronnie-boy? He’s reaping what he has sown. He only has himself to blame. He’s made his bed, now he has to cry himself to sleep in it. A penny earned is a penny taxed. What?! Sorry, I got a little carried away there.
Hamilton may be a little Machiavellian, but I think most of this is the fickleness of the British press. They’ve built him, now they’ll topple him. That’s what they do. Remember how they treated Jenson? Now, they’ve elevated Hamilton even higher, watch as they shoot him down like a scud. it’s sad that they’ve managed to pull so many people into it with them.
I third what Peter said.
Plus I think that what the press did to poor ole Jens, they got away with because he did not perform on the track. Not entirely his fault.
But also, not what Lewis is doing. The press can say and do anything that they want, but if the driver continues to pole, win and gather points, the press will matter not.
Something that Jensen has not be able to do.
And if a shoving match occurs at a turn one in the near or very near future, my money will not be on Alonso.
The ‘Kid’ has the poise on track that is impressive to say the least. On track he has not put a wheel wrong during a race. And that ladies and gentlemen, is when it counts most.
Points are not paid out for winning during Friday practice, nor during Saturday’s qualifing.
On track, on race day, Lewis has only impressed. Not many drivers will ‘bank shot’ their car at Monaco and get away with it.
Lewis? Every lap.
How many times has he been outbraked going into a corner? I cannot think of once.
Ron Dennis is in a very good position indeed.
Alonso, not so good.
And Lewis, very, very good, indeed!
A few years ago - after the Schui experience - Flav compared new, young drivers to tiger cubs.
Their cute,cuddly and everybody in the team falls in love with them………………….then a few years later they grow up and turn around and kill you!
Doesn’t anyone remember Prost and Senna. They also drove for Mclaren and they also had a no give relationship.
The curent qualifing systems is great between teams, but just does not work within a team.
Lets say we have 2 teams with identical cars. Would you rather be fighting the other team or your team mate? How much better than your team mate does one need to be to win from the inferior stratedgy? Perhaps beating the other team with the equal stratedgy would be harder. At Ferrari Massa was clearly number one from the start, and was doing marginally better. After making a few mistakes Ferrari came to their senses and backed Kimi, the margin now is not nearly as close as before. Kimi is looking way stronger….I put this change up to the preffered race tactics within the team over anything else. Even Kimi himself has as much as said he is doing the same as he has allways done.
If Ron backed Alonso he would be 20 points ahead in the points today, playing number 2 he is just 7 back.
As mentioned in the abvove post somewhere. It is best to be best on raceday than all weekend. Well to the contrary…if you are fastest all weekend and have the fastest lap in race yet are handed the inferrior tactics…well you don’t get the points…but you do prove yourself fastest. Ron has the power to decide who wins. Lastly, If Alonso had started the previous race from pole, he would have been much further ahead of Kimi/LH by the end of the race. Likely 15 seconds.
To say that if Alonso had started from pole he would have won the race! I am not buying that.
Lewis has been easier on the tires all season, his turn in and car set mid corner is much better on the tires and the chassis likes it better then Alonso’s harsh turn in and catch the car. Alonso seems to have a more consistant problem with tire graining then Hamilton. And he appears to be easier rattled then his rookie teammate.
I think that had Alosno not balked that additional ten seconds during Q3 the questions would have never been asked of the team as to what the F is going on, the team would have never been put into a position to lie to the stewards and Alonso would have never been docked the pole.
Alonso is in a very precarious position and he is trying to use everything that he can to advance his couse.
Hamilton is the rookie and has done very little wrong. Apart from telling Ron off, he has been a poster boy on and off the track.
Advantage: Hamilton.
Alonso’s only recourse is to beat his teammate on the track during a race.
I don’t see it happening enough to overcome Lewis’s bid for the championship.
It may be a little premature, but I am calling this one: Game, set and match, Lewis Hamilton.
Now if we can only get The Michael into a Toyota next season, then we will have a fight on our hands in 2009.
I think Lou’s comments about equal drivers and cars winning the pole and race are very relevant. If pole is determined by team strategy, than Lewis needs to be a team player.
We’ve mentioned before that Ron has two tigers by the tail; time to grab them both by the balls and get their attention! That’s one way to keep the tigers from killing you Peter!
I agree with Lou. I think Alonso’s experience and when running from the front this year as shown to be unbeatable, regardelss of what Tim says. LH would have never beaten Massa on the race before if facing the same situation. We all saw that he did not do very well coming from behind on a track that was much better to pass than Hungary. I will given him the benefit of the doubt and hopefully he will meet or exceed all our and media expecations and beat the current best ( Alonso and Kimi ) to multiple championships, then he have proven to be of champion caliber. Let’s not forget he is starting his career on a very fast and reliable car on one of the top F1 teams. Even Michael and Senna as well as others could not do much when in inferior cars,but did better than the average anyway. to prove my point, JV was a winning rookie and a champion when the Williams Renault was the best car and look at what he did afterwards on a shity car.
And Tim, It’s not just me thats daffy over Ferrari “forgetting” to fuel Massa’s car.
http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/61685
Sometimes the bigger the lie the more believable it is… to those that want to believe it.
You really think Coulthard believes half of what he says? He was just getting his name in the paper and needling Massa at the same time.
As I said, we’re starting to see cracks at Ferrari, nothing more. Go back to the early 90’s when it was a bounty day when the Ferrari was even clean! True, those were the brutal back-stabbing days, but I don’t think they ever sabatoged getting constructor points to favor one of the drivers. But you may be right, they probably thought Massa would pass everyone on a track that’s almost impossible to pass on. Sure.
And maybe David needed a sandwich to offset a buliemic attack, but I can almost guarantee he’s not the only one thinking the same thing! He’s the only one daffy enough to mention it in a press conference no less! What captured my attention though was the way Massa’s response was reported, almost as if he’d been caught.
For sure Ferrari aren’t worried about constructor’s points any more, the FIA will gift them the title along with a piece of Ron’s hide.
Hurray!! Hurray!! Even Bernie is picking Alonso to win. That guy has insider information. None the less, after hearing his view on the remainder of the season, I am even more keen to support the rising viewership of F1. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article2317374.ece
Note to self…don’t post after midnight.