Lewis Hamilton

[AriettyHomily]

Why isn't he more celebrated. An incredible achievement, 91 wins, equalling MS and it's so low key on the news?

The main difference with Hamilton and other drivers was shown to the world two weeks ago when he received penalties. His attitude over the radio was terrible and he continued to complain and berate the team over the radio for some time (not all of this was aired but I have family working in comms for F1 who's job is to listen to all team radio.

When Danny Ric received a penalty a few laps later he responded on the radio "ok then, better drive faster".

@AnyFucker

Because motor racing is really fucking boring and Lewis Hamilton is one smug prick

Next question

This, with bells on.

They just go round and round the track. BORING.

According to UNICEF/newspaper reports he often stays behind in countries to visit kids with disabilities or disadvantages. But he doesn't like the publicity so does it in private

They just go round and round the track. BORING

if you try and second guess strategies, team orders, tyre hardness and think about it strategically then it's much more than cars going round a track.

Cause he extols BLM but doesn’t acknowledge that the company He works for became great And big enough to pay him on the back of Nazi slave labour?
Black lives matter but so do other groups facing racism prejudice and persecution.

Lewis Hamilton is gay??

I agree OP.
He has fought his way from the back on a number of occasions and has shone many times when wet and adverse conditions have got the better of other brilliant drivers.
He is almost invariably respectful and mindful of the team behind his drives.
He is black and comes from a normal background in a sport dominated by a white elite. F1 drivers normally come from backgrounds of huge wealth with established connections to motor sport.

The worst I can say of him is that he can be a bit too corporate and anodyne, the whole “You guys are the best, I just want to thank...” - but ffs, surely he’s just being professional and mindful of the fortune his sponsors are coughing up. If he was acting as Hunt did in his day, doubtless he’d be slated as an unprofessional sleazebag.
I am a late but enthusiastic convert to F1 and follow it quite closely and devour historical programs and films about it. Regrettably I think there has to be an element of racism in the reluctance of some sections of motorsport to celebrate him as they would have done with Button had he had the same success. Some of the elderly former drivers seem to want to minimise his talent in quite a perverse way. I do wonder if they don’t want more if his type changing the feel of what was for a long time, a racy, privileged gentlemen’s private club.
As women have also found, these sort men really don’t like people who are “not like us” invading their sacred places; whether their difference lies in the possession of a vagina, black skin, or ghastly working or lower middle class accents and mores.
I don’t know him. When he is racing at 200 km per hour, he occasionally gets a bit testy on the radio, but I would say less so than most of them, but I really don’t see why he is singled out for the scorn he gets from a significant minority.
Of course if he is gay, as rumour apparently has it, then that will have further alienated the old bastards who ruled the roost in the glory days of gentlemanly derring-do. Any fule kno that driving a racing car is rather like making love to a beautiful woman...and thus the province of red-blooded chaps and not pansies.

Like all high achieving sportspeople, his character is a complex mix of good and bad.

No one at all gets to the top of a sport without being selfish and arrogant. They are core requirements. Without them you would have different priorities in life and instead do other things, such as spend more time with family.

Lewis is flawed. He is also a great F1 driver.

Michael was flawed. And a great driver.

TBH I think the lack of 'fanfare' is down to a combination of:

• there being bigger news stories this year
• he has just equalled MS but will go on to overtake him
• F1 is not as popular as it was, due to the free to air change and the attitude of F1 dinosaurs that fans without money were not worthy, thus alienating 'normal' people
• the reactions triggered when someone speaks about racism and the different opinions of the BLM movement

I agree that racism is also playing a part. Some people do not celebrate quite as hard when a hero does not look like them.

[quote difficulttod]@toffeekiwi when you say he's not out for his team do you mean Mercedes and the people who work for it?[/quote]
He doesn't support his team mates, it's all Lewis, Lewis, Lewis.

He’s become a two faced smug arrogant dick.

@AlwaysCheddar

He’s become a two faced smug arrogant dick.

I couldn't of put it better myself.

@GhostsInSnow

The main difference with Hamilton and other drivers was shown to the world two weeks ago when he received penalties. His attitude over the radio was terrible and he continued to complain and berate the team over the radio for some time (not all of this was aired but I have family working in comms for F1 who's job is to listen to all team radio.

When Danny Ric received a penalty a few laps later he responded on the radio "ok then, better drive faster".

I grant you that Ricciardo’s reaction was more attractive than Hamilton’s somewhat petulant one, but there was a key difference between the two scenarios: Ricciardo’s penalty was due to his own error but Hamilton’s was the result of a team strategy failure.

The mantra about Hamilton in our house is “easy to admire, hard to love” but I certainly don’t think he deserves the personal vitriol he gets (and I say that as the world’s most devoted Schumacher fan).

Ricciardo’s penalty was due to his own error but Hamilton’s was the result of a team strategy failure.

If a colleague made a mistake would you publicly berate them or have a quiet word ?

I didn't like him much when he was younger and went off him a lot when he was courting a Hollywood celeb lifestyle between seasons but I've actually warmed to him more now.

Of course he's arrogant, cocky, smug, thinks he's the best etc. He wouldn't be a world class racing driver if he wasn't! Just because some have a different personality in interviews doesn't mean their not as driven, and plenty of drivers have been vile to their teams over the radio. It is extra hard for Hamilton because he is black in a white world - yes he looks like he has privilege now and he got sponsored early but he will have gone through years of racism (some overt some everyday), of course that's going to affect you and probably harden you. It doesn't help that there is now a group of younger drivers who are friends, joke around, play video games and stream them on twitch etc which makes them come across nice and relaxed and relatable, but they are from different backgrounds and came through the sport at a different time.

And it seems a bit unfair to praise some drivers for quietly doing lots of charity while critiquing Hamilton for not doing lots of charity in a public fashion. Maybe he is doing charity work quietly? maybe he wants to support other causes not just grassroot karting?

Tax dodging I am less keen on but he is far from the only one doing that!

He also can't win with BLM. He gets criticised for being too full in but if he did nothing with his profile and platform, he would be criticised for that too...

He’s done it more cleanly than Schumacher but he’s usually been in the fastest car on the grid with huge funding.

Verstappens more naturally talented imo. Mercedes won’t hire him though because they don’t want another Rosberg scenario. Have you seen lewis in press conferences when Rosberg has won? He looks like a sulky child. So they have Bottas who can qualify just fine but loses it on the first corner when he’s under pressure & locks up frequently. That said Rosberg himself admits he nearly killed himself to win that championship & looked physically exhausted on the last race.

The trouble with Hamilton is that he is desperate to be from the ghettos of America but he came from Hertfordshire, his dad sounds as middle class as they come & motor sport is not easy to get into without massive amounts of funding be it from your parents working themselves to death or sponsorship. It’s like Olympic trap shooting, it is not a poor mans sport.

Lando Norris has a privileged background but doesn’t try to pretend otherwise.

I don't think the media know what to do with him. His achievements should be celebrated and as a black man perhaps even more so, but there's so much about him and his conduct that is really quite unsavoury. If the press gave him a higher profile, those elements would have a higher profile too.

@30daysoflight

Really don't understand the hate for Lewis Hamilton

Nor do I. Most sports champions are arrogant. I like Lewis

Never really cared about LH either way but now dislike him ever since he lied to officials in Australia ....some hoo-hah involving Trulli if I recall. Can’t bear lying cheaters.

He’s done it more cleanly than Schumacher but he’s usually been in the fastest car on the grid with huge funding.

TBF the fastest car point has been said about 90% of F1 champions since as far back as I can remember (mid 90s). It was certainly said of Schumacher all the time. It was said about Vettel. It was said about Button during that 1 year. It was said about Mika Hakkinen.

I think Lewis is often criticised for the same character 'flaws' that other F1 champions have displayed.

Vettel was as sulky as it gets when he didnt win. And clearly demostrated he was in it for himself, not the team (multi-21).

Schumacher cheated - or at least stretched the rules so far as to become unsportsmanlike (e.g. 1994). He was also arrogant in his demeanor (e.g. www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/2348589/The-dark-side-of-Schumacher-should-not-override-his-genius.html)

Alonso lied to officials - famously

Villeneuve was always hanging around with celebrities and wanting a 'Hollywood' lifestyle.

...and so on.

The reality, I think, is that only deeply flawed people can make it to the very top of a sport. Dan R's response to a penalty might have been nicer but he has also never made it to the top of F1 and is unlikely to now.

Maybe Lewis is arrogant - but he is also absolutely top of his game. He is the highest paid, highest succeeding person in a sport filled with high earners and high success. Arrogance is both the cause and the effect, I should imagine.

He doesn't have the talent in his entire body that Schumey had in his little toe. well that’s statistically untrue.
Whether you like him or not LH will be the greatest F1 driver of all time.
His skill is incredible.

Do you not think verstappen does amazingly well though to put that red bull consistently in 3rd given its lack of straight line speed though @MakeAPeaCry?. Bottas is in the second Mercedes but laps so far behind lewis. The last two races he’s lapped closer but I’ve seen him way down the field because he just seems to lack that killer instinct when it comes to racing.

He never seems to take the fight to lewis.

The Stevenage thing was a ridiculous storm in a teacup which he instantly corrected himself on

The people of Stevenage saw it as a Freudian slip.

I really like LH. I’ve been watching F1 for 8 years and I’ve seen him grow as a driver and as a person. I believe he will get even better.

Do you not think verstappen does amazingly well though to put that red bull consistently in 3rd given its lack of straight line speed though @MakeAPeaCry?

Oh, for sure. It's hard to say if he is MORE talented because I think we've all seen plenty of examples where someone looks good in one type of racing scanerio, but struggles in another. So talent comparisons are hard to do, apples to apples.

e.g. Jenson would struggle in a straight out car scrap but his ability to work with his engineering team to give great feedback on car handling and improve the car was excellent.

I actually think there is a lot of talent on the grid at the moment, which is making for some good racing moments as they all work their way through. I would be amazed if we don't see Verstappen take the top prize some year soon.

I also loved watching Hulkenburg's trip out this weekend. He has always been an under rated driver who hasn't ever quite had it all come together for him.

Agree about Bottas and I don't think it's wrong for Mercedes to have kept him rather than court Verstappen. A good team is not necessarily two top tier racers. Taking the fight to Lewis probably means hairy moments and a few collisions. The team won't want that and a steadier also-ran is better for consistent 1, 2s. I'd feel sorry for Bottas for having such a reputation but then I remind myself he has one of only 20 F1 driver spots in the whole world, is paid well and will retire years before most people get to. He is still one of thelucky ones.