Sun 23 Mar 2008
F1:2008 - Lewis Hamilton Update
Posted by Craig under Formula 1 with the tags F1:2008 • Formula 1 • Lewis Hamilton • McLaren • Tiger WoodsLast year I was full of hope and praise for Lewis Hamilton coming into F1 after having seen him drive in GP2 at Silverstone last year, but his first year in the top formula wasn’t all plain sailing.
From a results point of view, last season would appear to have gone almost as well as it could have, however the history books don’t tell the full story.
Not since Michael Schumacher have we had a driver who has divided opinion into two camps so far apart - the lovers and the haters. For some reason, neither driver has many people who are simply indifferent towards them.
The big difference is that Schumacher produced the goods and over time it will be the record books which speak volumes about the man, so can Hamilton follow his lead and leave a legacy which will drown out any negativity?
Last year I was quite hard on Lewis as he just seemed to rub me up the wrong way at every turn for some reason - no matter what he did in a race or what he said afterwards, it always seemed to be the wrong thing in my eyes. The fact that this new kid on the block was suddenly splashed all over the TV, not just during the F1 programme but also in adverts during other shows as well, meant that pretty soon I was sick of the sight of him. Overexposure to any “celebrity” eventually has a detrimental effect on their popularity in my view but for that to be in their first year of public life doesn’t bode well for the future!
Having had a bit of a break from Lewismania over the winter, apart from the obligatory paparazzi snaps of him holidaying on yachts in the papers, I found myself a lot mellower towards him at the start of the season. How long it will last I can’t tell yet though!
He seems to be a bit quieter this year, whether that’s by design or simply because people aren’t asking for interviews quite as much I don’t know. We’ve certainly not seen as much of his dad/manager on ITV so far that’s for sure - hopefully he has seen sense and knows that things had to be toned down this year and that nobody really benefitted last year in the long run.
Of course, Lewis is still the main feature of ITV’s coverage, in fact sometimes he is the only feature - including the idents into the adbreaks, and then the star of the adverts themselves - but I suppose that is to be expected.
I wish they would be honest though and admit they talk about him so much because he is British, instead of insisting he is one of the F1 greats - he may end up there but nobody knows if they will be an alltime great until late in their career. Imagine Hamilton was Belgian or Swiss, how much would we know about him? Not a lot, that’s how much.
On past performance, ITV would have sent Louise Goodman out to see him in his Swiss chalet, helped him rustle up a small luncheon for his best friend (Ron Dennis) and that would have been about it.
But he is British so we just have to get on with it. As long as he performs well ontrack then I can almost see the justification for the offtrack interest and exposure.
So how has he started this season? Not bad at all in Melbourne, driving a pretty flawless race and taking maximum points. The second race in Malaysia this weekend has been a different story though.
Firstly in qualifying he wasn’t quite on song and even made a fundamentally stupid error by driving too slowly in front of cars travelling at much, much faster speeds which resulted in him being demoted down the grid. His race was always going to be compromised but he managed to get a good start off the line, before being held up behind Mark Webber until his first pitstop.
A podium was still on the cards though until he had a spot of bad luck when the wheelnut seized on the front right wheel - resulting in a lengthy stop which lost him around 12 or 13 seconds. This effectively ruined any chance he had of being among th frontrunners barring incidents, but he battled on as best he could.
Nothing much else really happened to him apart from getting stuck behind Webber yet again, before leapfrogging him finally in the last round of pitstops. Due to some other dramas (Massa throwing his car off the road again), Hamilton managed to come home in 5th place which was a disappointment but not too bad considering the weekend he had had.
Watching these guys on TV you forget that they are human beings with other things going on in their lives. Top sportsmen seem able to blank all these distractions out of their minds and just get on with the job in hand, but if there is some drama in their private lives then it must have an effect at some point.
I’ve just been reading a blog the BBC’s F1 correspondent Maurice Hamilton is keeping over on Top Gear’s website in which he claims Hamilton has some kind of personal drama going on - not something I’d heard tell of anywhere else.
This was not Lewis Hamilton’s weekend. He woke on Saturday morning to an unspecified personal problem ‘I’m not telling you about it but it’s something I’ve learned to deal with’ and his day - and subsequently, his race - went downhill from there. Maurice Hamilton
Of course, he is right to keep this private - I have no interest in finding out what it is that was (or is) wrong, and hopefully people will respect his privacy and leave the matter be.
Speaking of media blogs, Ed Gorman writes some excellent posts on his TimesOnline F1 blog and earlier alluded to something several people have commented on over the last year or so - how Lewis Hamilton measures up against Tiger Woods.
Now, I find it hard enough to think of a way to compare F1 drivers from different eras - is Alonso better than Hakkinen, was Schumacher better than Senna? It’s impossible to compare so we will never know - the cars are different, the rules are different, the tracks are different, and so on.
If it’s hard to compare people in the same sport, how on earth can you compare people from different disciplines?
I don’t think you can - and certainly not someone who has plenty of potential to be good like Hamilton and someone who has already proved himself to be up there with the best ever, like Tiger. I can understand why people may see similarities in their backgrounds and the fact they have both opened up their respective sports to new audiences in one way or another but to me last as far as you can go.
For Lewis to do well, he needs another huge group of people all to do their very best as well. He needs a design team to create an excellent car for him, a group of engineers to build the thing and make sure it’s reliable, then he needs a good pitcrew to make sure that side of things goes smoothly, and he also needs a good team around him to make sure he can concentrate simply on the racing, and so on.
Tiger relies on himself, a caddy and a set of clubs. And if his caddy didn’t turn up one day you have the feeling he could call in anybody just off the street and he would still have the skill and strength of mind to go out there and beat anybody and everybody. I’ve already seen him play a round of golf with a club missing (after his caddy dropped his 8-iron into a lake…), yet this didn’t put him off, he simply played round about it making sure he didn’t need to use that club anywhere.
If a cog in the Hamilton-machine didn’t turn up for work on race weekend I can’t see things going quite so well.
The main difference between the two men is that I don’t know anyone who dislikes Tiger, yet there is a certain amount of animosity towards Hamilton already. Normally success breeds contempt - just ask Steve Davis who dominated snooker for years on end which resulted in him being pretty much hated. Or ask the Chelsea players who were always thought highly of until they actually started winning things, and now are everyone’s favourite football team to hate.
Tiger has won much more than any of these people, so why is he still so well liked? Who knows, but perhaps it’s because everyone can see that he really is the best. Because golf is very much a solo sport, there can be no accusations that it was the equipment or team that won him his tournaments, unlike Hamilton who some people feel has been handed his F1 drive on a plate by Ron Dennis and McLaren.
Tiger has already proven how good he is. The comparisons between Tiger and Lewis Hamilton may prove to be relevant, but not for a good few years yet and only if Hamilton can produce the goods that Tiger has.
Until then, he really has to try and work on regaining the support and respect of those who are currently not on his side, and ensure he retains those supporters he already has.
This is only season two of his F1 career, but it could prove to be a very important one in the grand scheme of things. It’s going to be very interesting to watch.
March 24th, 2008 at 12:55 am
You can hardly say it shows a lack of talent in Lewis that having a misfiring pitcrew put paid to his podium chances. That is the nature of F1 - it would put paid to Schumacher or Raikkonen too. Being delayed 12 seconds extra in the pit lane was not Lewis’ fault and it impacted on his result more than not having a particular golf club would be on a golfer. Get real!
The comparisons to Tiger were blown out of proportion as per usual in the media. Stewart was comparing Lewis’s impact on the sport being a dynamic as Tiger’s on golf - you can’t deny that. He didn’t actually say Lewis was as good a sportsman.
To anyone who thinks Lewis was handed his McLaren spot on a plate, obviously knows nothing about Lewis’ pre-F1 career. Organisations like McLaren don’t treat people as charity cases - they nurture talent in order to win in the future. And why is it that after one poor weekend, people are writing off Lewis - they certainly didn’t do that after Ferrari’s bad first weekend. It smacks of wishful thinking.
The Lewis hatred, usually stemming from people calling him arrogant, makes me feel sick. It’s like calling Jesus arrogant and yes, I will make the comparison despite the derision it’s likely to engender, because it is so so untrue. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone hated as much for no reason in my life.
He is criticised for winning from pole (oh it’s easy to just drive in front) and yet if Raikkonen does it, it is “masterful”. The double standards spewing from so-called F1 fans all the time is a joke!
March 24th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
A Parker » I’ve re-read what I said a couple of times and I can’t see anywhere that I mention that a “misfiring pitcrew” were an indication that Lewis “shows a lack of talent” as you put it. He can’t help it if a wheelnut seizes on, any more than the poor guy who is trying to take it off can - it’s simply bad luck. But it’s bad luck confined to motorsport and not other sports such as golf which I alluded to - the nature of the sport means that Lewis depends on all these other things for him to have a good weekend, whereas Tiger Woods for example relies on very little outside of his own abilities.
Comparing a bad pitstop to Tiger being without a certain club is not a realistic comparison which is why I didn’t make it in the post - but you did in your comment. A more realistic comparison may be the case where a driver is stuck in a certain gear, or has a gear missing perhaps, and several drivers have suffered with this type of problem over the years. There can never be exact comparisons between sports, which is the point I was trying to make. In 50 years or so, the history books will tell the tale of how Lewis finished races, and for Malaysia 2008 it will say he finished 5th, there won’t be any explanation that he would have won it but for a bad qualifying session and a dodgy pitstop - in Tiger’s record books no excuses for outside influences will be required. If he doesn’t win it’s because he wasn’t good enough, not because of a mistake from someone else.
If it’s hard to compare different sportsmen, even those from the same era, then comparing Lewis Hamilton to a mythical figure like Jesus is simply ludicrous! Best of luck backing that argument up. In my view Lewis does come across as being arrogant from time to time, but I appreciate that other people will see his behaviour, etc in different ways and that’s fine by me - everyone is entitled to their own opinion, as long as they appreciate it may differ from mine. I don’t have a problem with that at all - I dare say he acts differently in front of the media to how he acts in private so I don’t necessarily think he is a bad person as such.
There’s no doubting the guy has talent, and McLaren have done all they can to nurture that talent to make him what he is today - but I’d be interested to learn how many other kids they have spent this kind of time, money and effort in coaching along. It was also interesting to learn pre-season that Lewis had been looking to switch to Williams a couple of years ago following a falling out with McLaren - if he really was The Next Big Thing why would Ron Dennis be willing to let him go? And why didn’t Frank Williams snap him up straight away?
I don’t feel any animosity towards Lewis Hamilton, and if he wins the championship then fair play to him. But it’s a bit like wanting England to win the World Cup, I wouldn’t mind them winning it’s just all the media nonsense that you know will follow on for the next 50 years! And I know Lewis can’t help what the media write about him before you bring that up again!
As Lewis’s unofficial spokesperson you are doing a good job of fighting his corner, but you better keep it up as you still have a good few people to win over yet - and I’d lay off the Jesus comparisons, especially around about Easter!!
March 25th, 2008 at 12:29 am
In your blog you said “no matter what he did in a race or what he said afterwards, it always seemed to be the wrong thing in my eyes”. Can you be more specific about what exactly you think was so “wrong” about what Lewis said when he spoke last year? I watched him all last year and couldn’t criticise the man – so I am perplexed as to what you are on about. I have no objection to people disliking someone for a logical reason, but I’ve yet to see a logical reason put forward for dislike of Hamilton other than “arrogance” of which I can see absolutely none.
You say you were sick of the sight of him because of his over-exposure. To me that indicates that you can’t have liked him that much to start with, because as a fan of his, the more I see of him the better. And you can’t blame him for the paparazzi taking pictures, or the newspapers plastering him over their pages whenever he was spotted with a female. He’s made it quite plain he doesn’t like it either because the accompanying story is more often than not false. And again, you cannot blame him if Parky wants to interview him or MTV want him to present an award. He does have loads of fans you know, despite the shite written on the internet and in the media. For him to decline invitations would be rude and would disappoint his fans. He is stuck in an unfortunate place where his haters (overwhelmingly racist) don’t want to see him at all and his fans want to see him all the time. He’ll never please everyone.
The tone of your comments about his dad have such an underlying nastiness to them. His dad is part of “his story” and I for one am fascinated by it and by them, as many others are too. [I might have mentioned before that I’ve met Lewis, his dad and his brother and what a charming family they all are.]
You go on and on about your dislike of the ITV coverage of him. Yes it is because he’s British (you ought to watch Spanish tv and their obsession with Alonso or Australian tv and their obsession with Webber – the difference is their countries are behind them and I think they are both quite unpleasant people). I think the ITV coverage is very fair and features all the drivers. Why shouldn’t they feature the British driver who is LEADING THE CHAMIONSHIP more than the others? Add to that his attractiveness, coolness, appeal and him being very interesting in interviews, it has certainly boosted the viewing figures of F1 in Britain – that is an indisputable fact. I’m sick of seeing all this whinging about “equal coverage”.
His fantastic performance in Melbourne you just gloss over. As to the qualifying mistake, the new rules in qualifying have created this dangerous situation and there are calls to look into amending it for safety reasons. The McLarens were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Notice the GPDA who were bleating about Lewis not joining (particularly Jackie Stewart and Mark Webber) haven’t made a peep about this safety issue. Also they were haranguing LH re. joining but Kimi, Anthony Davidson and Adrian Sutil weren’t harangued at all. Another case of different treatment for LH to what the other drivers receive. He actually got a brilliant start and was ahead of his teammate in the first lap – he was undone by the pit stop and the tyre choices. I have to wonder if his team are really behind him with those serious errors – and the water not working! How fundamental was that? No wonder Kovy was looking sheepish on the podium – maybe he knew something we didn’t… I’m glad you at least acknowledge the problems he had and his subsequent good performance despite them.
I must say I’m worried about his “personal problem” you mentioned. I’ve not heard about that before, and incidentally, that Maurice Hamilton website appears to be “down” and has been for a few days.
I read the Ed Gorman blog too. Re. the comment about Tiger Woods this was about his impact on the sport. I just got the latest copy of F1 Racing magazine, and in it there’s an interview with Lewis. In answer to the question: “What’s the question you most hate being asked?” he replies, “Are you F1’s answer to Tiger Woods?” Yet this innocent comparison made by Jackie Stewart was another means to beat Lewis over the head with and accuse him of arrogance, even though he’s never made the comparison himself.
Why the heck should he have to try and gain more support? Thos who hate him are either a. racists, b. Alonso supporters, c. both a+b, or d. incomprehensible to anyone of rational thought.
In your reply, you’ve more or less said that Lewis can never be compared to a sports great as he relies too much on other factors around him than just his own ability. I beg to differ. I think you can also be a great in motorsport if your talent outshines others in your field and you have that extra factor that transcends your sport and attracts people who weren’t previously interested. Lewis definitely has that – Schumacher definitely didn’t despite his obvious mastery.
You can’t be so stupid surely to say I was implying Lewis was the same as Jesus. Please reread my post. I was saying to call LH arrogant is as inaccurate as calling Jesus arrogant, i.e. TOTALLY INACCURATE! Again I ask for specifics – what has he done or said that makes you say he’s arrogant?
Lewis’ pre-F1 career speaks for itself – there weren’t many other kids with such amazing careers without sponsorship or rich dads like Button and Rosberg to name but two. LH wrote about the Williams incident in his book. People can have disputes no matter how highly they’re regarded. The Williams team have since said they regretted not sponsoring him. So where is your argument going?
It all depends on what/who you like with regards to the media hype over British wins. I loathe the England football team and am not in any way patriotic and am proud to say it, so I dread the hoo ha over the football/rugby, so maybe others feel the same about LH for similar reasons, although that is no reason to actually dislike the man. I like Lewis Hamilton because he’s Lewis Hamilton, not because he’s British. I will always fight his corner because he deserves it because he’s so wonderful.
I would just like to finish with a quote from Ed Gorman’s blog, someone who has actually met him several times: “I see every now and again some horrible personal criticism of Lewis by people who have never met him and probably wouldn’t have the nerve to say what they write here to his face anyway. (We publish this sort of rubbish on the basis of giving people the chance to express themselves in a free manner). All I can say is that, whatever you think of him as a driver, Lewis is a genuine, honest and impressive individual who has made mistakes but has been big enough to admit them.” Amen to that!
March 25th, 2008 at 10:48 am
A Parker »
I’m sure you’ve probably met someone (not anyone called Hamilton obviously) who just doesn’t appeal to you for one reason or another when you first meet them - this judgement then follows them around and you see everything they do negatively.
Similarly, if they make a good first impression then subsequent events involving that person will be seen in a good light.
In the case of Lewis last year, obviously I fit into the first camp and you into the second - and there’s nothing I can say to change your mind in just the same as there’s no way you can change mine.
Why is it so important to you that I like him anyway? And not just me, I see you comment on other F1 blogs so you are obviously on some sort of crusade to convert the world to be Lewis fans!
I can’t recall saying anything disrespectful about Lewis, he is a good driver and I have said as much - it doesn’t mean I have to think he is the best ever or actively want him to win if I don’t want to though.
The GP2 races at Silverstone last year were the first time I had seen Lewis racing, and I thought he was brilliant so you are wrong to say I “can’t have liked him that much to start with” - when he appeared I was interested to see how he would get on in F1. I wasn’t an instant fan as I didn’t know anything about the guy so why should I have been - he had to go out and earn my support.
His driving at the first few races was really good so I warmed to him as a driver, but all the palava offtrack was putting me off him. Every clip they showed on TV, right from the oldest clip of him as a little kid, portrayed him as being a cocky little sod and I’m not too keen on people being like that. Yes you have to be confident and sure of yourself to succeed in sports, but again it doesn’t mean I have to like the people who are like that.
I was never much of a fan of Schumacher either when it comes to it, but he was clearly the best driver I’d ever seen in my lifetime so I respected him and even though it was perhaps a little boring, it got to the stage that I always wanted him to keep winning. It could be the same with Lewis, give it a few years and I may be willing him on to, stranger things have happened!
Lewis does already have lots of fans, you are right, and so it’s inevitable that he gets invited to parties, award ceremonies and the like - it doesn’t mean he has to accept. He is an F1 driver, a sportsman, and it’s understandable that he goes to things connected with that world - everything else is just to raise his profile, and ultimately to make money. The more fans he has, the more people who know his face and who he is, the more money he can make from advertising and the like.
Are you sure you watch the same channel as me? Perhaps I get a different version of ITV to you, but I can’t remember when the last time ITV had a feature about David Coulthard or Anthony Davidson for example. One of the little idents ITV show as they go to the adbreaks now is purely a close-up of Lewis’s face, can you tell me when you saw one of DC, Button or Davidson? Or if you think they only show Lewis because he is challening for the title, perhaps you have seen one of Kimi, Heikki or Massa?
Is this the crux of the matter - he is attractive? He is an F1 driver, it shouldn’t matter what he looks like as to do his job he wears a helmet! And as for coolness and being interesting in interviews, I’d have to object there - yes, he speaks quite well but he doesn’t actually say anything at all. Compare a Lewis interview with a DC interview and with Coulthard you will at least learn something, Lewis will only talk about how good a job he has done, and how good a job the team have done - that’s it. DC has opinions, he thinks about things and says whatever it is that he is thinking, Lewis seems to only say either what he thinks the interviewer wants to hear, or what he thinks the team would want him to say.
It was nice to hear him cracking a joke the other day about needing a beer, hopefully we will get more off-the-cuff remarks in the future.
During qualifying in Malaysia, there were numerous cars on the track yet only Lewis and Heikki were penalised - why? Because they were the only ones who were not aware enough to know that the session wasn’t over and that faster cars were still on flying laps. The two McLarens stayed on the racing line and it was that which made the situation dangerous, not anything to do with the rules at all. And I blame Heikki as much as Lewis in that by the way.
Last year Alonso made suggestions that his team weren’t completely behind him and he was derided for it - no doubt you weren’t too happy with him suggesting Lewis was getting preferential treatment either. So why do you do exactly the same thing by suggesting that the McLaren team are conspiring against Lewis by making sure he didn’t have anything to drink during the race? Why would they do that? It makes no sense at all!
I’m not going into the Jesus thing again, just to say that I didn’t call either him or Lewis arrogant either in my post or in my reply to your comment.
If Lewis does have something going on in his private life, either a personal problem or medical complaint then it’s none of my business - just as it’s none of your business or anyone in the media’s business. Hopefully we will never find out what it was unless Lewis wants to tell us - but if you want to read the quote for yourself then the Top Gear website is working fine for me, or you can download Maurice Hamilton’s podcast from iTunes if you prefer. I’d recommend it as it’s a really good listen.
I note you have made a slight error with your quote from Ed Gorman, probably a slip of the finger or perhaps some kind of error on your PC, but you neglected to quote this part :
What it boils down to is that you like Lewis and I don’t. I don’t hate him or anything, I just don’t particularly like him. But by the same token you seem to have a dislike for other drivers who you probably don’t know very much about apart from seeing them on TV - so if you can dislike Alonso for example, simply because of what you have seen on TV, why can’t I dislike Lewis for the same reason?
You say that you think Alonso and Webber “are both quite unpleasant people” which is fair enough as it’s your opinion and you are entitled to it, yet I think a lot of people would take umbridge with that - certainly as far as Webber is concerned anyway.
To finish with, you say people who don’t like Lewis “are either a. racists, b. Alonso supporters, c. both a+b, or d. incomprehensible to anyone of rational thought”. I love it when people have such sound reasoning for their arguments!
I’m not a racist, I don’t support Alonso and I have been known to have the odd rational thought so I suppose I must be e. Someone who just doesn’t care whether he wins or loses, and wants to see more than just Lewis Hamilton plastered over our F1 TV coverage.
Yes, I’m back to harping on about equal coverage which I know you are “sick of seeing all this whinging” about. Hopefully the BBC’s coverage won’t be quite so Lewis-centred.
March 26th, 2008 at 1:48 am
It’s not important you like Hamilton – but as a fan, I cannot stand the crap said about him with no logical reason put forward – it just leads me to think the dislike is spurred by a more sinister reason than by something the man has actually done. That I do not like, and am entitled to express my view. You’ve put your thoughts out there; you have to expect comments that might not always agree with yours or why do a blog? Yes, I do comment on other sites – maybe you do too as you certainly visit them. So what?
Lewis comes across to me throughout his career from boy to man as a sweet little boy with a hold on his destiny to a charming young man brimming with self-belief. It’s pathetic to call that cocky – I shall return to that at the end of my post. He doesn’t have to accept invitations? So you condemn him for accepting – again just a useless reason to criticise him. He probably enjoys the buzz – what young man wouldn’t?
Yes I do watch the same channel you do. There are loads of items about the other drivers – are you sure you are actually watching or do you switch off your brain when Lewis isn’t on because you are so obsessed with him you cannot focus on anything else. I actually think ITV seem a bit nervous to feature Lewis at all because of all the vicious criticism they get. I love to see LH as you can imagine – the more the better I say. Last year the idents hardly featured Lewis because he hadn’t proven himself. This year they feature him heavily – and why do you think that is? Because of the 4 Brit drivers in F1, last year Lewis came 2nd, DC came 10th, Button came 15th, and Davidson came 23rd. Now why shouldn’t they feature the Brit driver who did the best last year? They feature all the Brit drivers in the opening credits. What a senseless whinge, like all your whinges.
How naïve of you to not recognise his attractiveness not being important in this modern media-heavy world. ‘Nuff said! I love to hear what he says – your hatred of him colours what gets into your eardrums obviously. That off-the-cuff remark he made about the beer was stripped down and analysed on some forums, with the conclusion that McLaren predicted the question so fed LH a witty answer to pull out. Yes, that is the level of maniacal hatred of the man that a spontaneous comment isn’t even attributed to him! And you wonder why I defend him and am annoyed (as a fan).
As for suspicions about his team being against him, I will forever be suspicious of the white man against the black man’s success. Look at the shenanigans over Obama this year. I don’t expect you to understand – you have to be a victim of racism to really understand it as me and my friends know in our hearts. I didn’t say you called him arrogant (I don’t think) but that is a common description of him and I was highlighting the ridiculousness and inaccuracy of that assessment of him in my last post. Actually using the word “cocky” about him as a boy is as good as calling him arrogant (look it up in a Thesaurus).
I did see the Top Gear blog – it was temporarily down but now appears to be working. It was no error to not print Ed Gorman’s assessment of Alonso. I’m not writing about him so why should I include that comment. Gorman also commented on Heikki, Felipe, Jean Todt in that blog – why didn’t you ask me why I didn’t include those quotes either? I don’t like Alonso, more than you dislike LH probably, but I have logical thought out reasons for my dislike unlike your vague, gut-feeling type reasons for disliking LH. Alonso came across last year as an unpleasant bad sportsman who wanted his teammate hampered so that he could win the title not entirely on his own merit. I read Mark Hughes’ excellent biography of Hamilton and numerous other reports and that is what I am going on. The events of last year were so widely reported that they are likely to be true. One of the nastier things I read was Alonso’s emails to and from Pedro de la Rosa when they were wondering if an item on the car was safe and they jokingly said Hamilton could test it to see if it was safe. (I’m surprised de la Rosa is still with McLaren after his part in the spygate scandal!). The six tenths speech, the accusations of unfair treatment sparking a referee to be posted in the McLaren garage in Brazil, the failure to condemn the racist abuse in Spain testing earlier this year and even suggesting Lewis was fabricating this as a “nasty trick”. What a stinker of a human being – are those enough reasons for you? As for Webber, his exploits in Japan last year re. the driving behind the safety car after he had initially blamed Vettel, and this year continually writing rather nasty items about Lewis (so far, “only Britain is interested in LH, the rest of the world don’t care”, which actually is rubbish. LH is quite popular across Europe, extremely popular in Brazil, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, but maybe the latter are countries Webber in his typical racist Antipodean way doesn’t consider “proper” countries because of the dark people in them; and “Lewis is a novelty because he’s black and it will wear off” – wow this guy seems to have some sort of beef with Lewis) have made me think he’s an extremely unpleasant fellow too. Again, I have concrete reasons for my dislike. The other drivers I’m not too bothered about. Kimi seems okay, not a bad person, and a brilliant driver, but like some sort of boring robot in interview. I like Heikki and think he will give LH a run for his money this year, which LH will like at it will push him to succeed. I have quite a few pictures of LH with Heikki in the past and think they get on splendidly.
I’ve come to the conclusion that those who have this horrid dislike for Lewis must be racists. I have discussed this in depth with my friends and family and they wholeheartedly agree. You see, we have been at the sharp end of this knowing and instinctual racism all our lives, so we know of what we speak. Sometimes some white people are so instinctually racist their reactions just occur at gut level without any rationale behind them. But others are blatantly racist and cannot express that view in your average forum, but it is amply expressed in forums with no restrictions. Here is one example on YouTube posted on a video about Lewis: “You must be blind. Lewser Hamilton is not fit. He looks like a monkey. Now Alonso, on other hand, is a very beautiful man”, and “Lewis Hamilton looks like a monkey. But then again most negroes look like monkeys”, and “he looks like a monkey , smells like a monkey , what is he ??? A FUCKIN MONKEY !!! LOSER !!!”. These are not isolated cases – there are loads more where that came from. The hatred of LH is 9 times out of 10 generated by the colour of his skin. Some white people are used to black sportsmen being drug taking, violent womanisers (Mike Tyson), dreadful roasting footballers (you name the premiership footballer), sad thick Uncle Toms (Frank Bruno). They don’t like to see an intelligent, articulate, decent, clean-living, confident fresh faced black man doing so well in a white man’s sport. I’m sure Tiger Woods gets his fair share of crap but he’s won so much, they know there’s no use going on about it. Let’s hope that situation occurs with LH. Me and my friends sit there and think why would anyone dislike such a lovely man, and cannot think of any other feasible reason. Hell, you haven’t been able to come up with one except “you just don’t like him”. Yeah, right! My boss saw him on ‘Top Gear’ and as he knows I’m a fan, he came and spoke to me about him. He said, “Well, he comes across so well doesn’t he?” and I said yes, he’s great, but you know he gets so much criticism. He was flabbergasted and couldn’t understand it. My boss is a white man but just a nice, normal man and was flummoxed at how LH could attract this sort of criticism. Well there you go!
I will finish by posting a brilliant YouTube clip of LH showing his skill in other areas; how sweet and polite he seems and how he seems appreciated more in another country than his own: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3MX5JoGoQu0 No doubt you will not see this for what it is, but assign negative comments about it. Enjoy anyway!
March 26th, 2008 at 10:20 am
A Parker » Lewis could be purple with yellow spots for all I care, therefore I fail to see how you can presume I don’t like him because I’m a racist. You on the other hand appear to hold him in such high regard, at least partly, because of his colour - and because you perceive that he is a victim, as you yourself would seem to have been.
If you have then you have my sympathy - noone should be judged in that way, and thankfully the world seems to be turning against that way of thinking. Although perhaps not fast enough.
Can you honestly say you would be such a huge Lewis fan had he been white? Would you have been so keen to meet him and his family then? Would you be sticking up for him as much as you have done?
I write the posts on the blog for my own “enjoyment” - just to get my thoughts out there if you like. Mainly they are for me, but if anyone wants to add something then they are more than welcome. I visit other blogs as you do however I read posts on a variety of subjects and add my own thoughts if they differ - your comments that I have seen are all about the same subject!
We are going round in circles here so I’m going to wrap this up now. As far as I can see from your comments, you haven’t actually anything very much to say about what I’ve written - all your quotes are from other websites rather than quotes from my post.
Unless you are simply returning time after time to have an argument, why bother returning if the content isn’t worth reading?
March 26th, 2008 at 11:18 am
For a lot of people, racist reactions are so deep in their subconscious, they are not aware of it themselves. I put you in that category.
I have explained my arguments very comprehensively and succinctly about how Lewis is regarded in contrast to how other drivers are regarded, and have told you my conclusions. If you want to ignore them, that’s up to you.
You haven’t really answered any of my questions as to specific reasons for disliking Lewis so much and yet you ask me questions to answer. Well, a resounding YES to your question of do I stick up for him because of his colour, and that is for obvious reasons.
BTW, you have absolutely no idea what other subjects I write about. I have a list of files with different topics that I write about. Don’t be so presumptuous.
I have written copiously in reply to your posts dissecting everything you say. One of your whinges is that Lewis is featured too much on ITV coverage, and I commented on that. I don’t think you actually read what I write and take it in which at least I do to what you write. How can someone have a debate when your opponent won’t read/listen to your argument?
It is indeed futile if you can’t have a sensible debate.
Hope you enjoyed the YouTube video.
March 26th, 2008 at 12:05 pm
A Parker » Ah so I really am racist, I’m just too stupid to realise it. What a fool I have been and I can only apologise.
But I would have to turn that back on you with this comment :
Now racism is a form of prejudice, where you make an assessment or judgement prior to knowledge of the full facts, but instead base it on the colour of someone’s skin - white people judging black people, or black people judging white people etc.
From wikipedia :
Your comment above therefore can be said to be prejudiced - ie you are basically saying that you like Lewis and those who disagree with you must therefore not like him because of his colour and so they must be racist.
That is plainly stupid.
Going back to the original post, it was intended to be quite a positive piece on what my current views were on Lewis Hamilton - as far as I can pick out (ignoring my criticism of ITV’s coverage of him) this is the only passage which could possibly have caused you offence.
This was to explain how I felt last year. If I could put my finger on what exactly it was Lewis said that rubbed me up the wrong way, then I would tell you but as with a lot of things it is just little things here and there. Perhaps just a personality clash or whatever.
I don’t dislike the guy, nor do I worship the ground he walks on - I’m somewhere in the middle, perhaps leaning towards the former rather than the latter.
Your arguments, and accusations of racism on my part have done your idol absolutely no good in my eyes I’m afraid. You accuse me of not listening to your opinions or reading what you say, but I would counter that there is no arguing with someone who has their mind already made up as you clearly do.
The YouTube clip you kindly provided a link to lets me see that Lewis is quite decent at football. What was that meant to prove? He may come across as a nice guy, but I’m not really bothered about that - as a big fan I can see why you would want to see him here, there and everywhere but I’m only bothered by him at the racetrack.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:42 am
You’ll never get it will you because you don’t have the capacity or the will to understand.
March 27th, 2008 at 10:13 am
A Parker » I have both the capacity and the will to understand other people’s viewpoints, I simply have no desire to blindly roll over and agree with whatever you have to say.
Thank you for your comments over the last few days though, they have provided plenty of food for thought - but if it’s a fair point to see the fans of a person or team as being representatives of that person or team then I’m afraid your arguments have only done Lewis Hamilton’s reputation more harm than good in my view.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
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