Tue 18 Nov 2008
The Champion won’t compete properly at Race of Champions
Posted by Craig under Formula 1 with the tags Lewis Hamilton • McLaren • Race of ChampionsI’m done with the Lewis Hamilton bashing - well until the next time he does something I don’t agree with at least! 
However, in the last couple of weeks there has been growing speculation that he may put in an appearance at the Race of Champions in December as teammate to David Coulthard in the F1 Racing team, something which DC himself was keen to happen (it would certainly help his chances of winning surely!).
However, I didn’t hold out much hope as for whatever reason McLaren seem a bit overprotective of their Boy Wonder. I remember before he appeared on Top Gear that the BBC had to get special permission for him to be seen driving something that wasn’t a Mercedes (unless that was just gossip) so perhaps the sight of him driving rally cars and allsorts at Wembley wouldn’t fit in with his various contracts.
Anyway, it has been announced that although Lewis will appear at the event he won’t be competing. Rather than put his title as the fastest driver in the world on the line, he is instead going to be effectively driving against a man on a pushbike. Even when that man is the fastest cyclist in the world, Chris Hoy, it’s still equivalent to 2.5 horsepower up against probably 300-odd, so it looks like a fair fight!
No doubt one of the things which has made this possible is that Hamilton/McLaren will be able to choose which car he drives (I’d put money on it being German, but not a VW, Audi, Porsche or BMW…) - and as I said previously it’s a race he should win but even if he doesn’t it can all be passed off as a bit of a fun challenge.
I’ve got mixed views - firstly I think it’s good that he is going to put in an appearance in front of the 80,000 British crowd, but I still feel a bit let down that he won’t be doing what he should be doing and that is racing the likes of Jenson Button and Michael Schumacher in equal machinery.
The real kick in the teeth is that one of the highlighted items in the news report I saw was that Hamilton would be finished his demonstration in plenty of time to make it up the road to Liverpool where the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year is taking place on the same night - to me, that would indicate where his/McLaren’s priorities lie…
November 19th, 2008 at 3:14 am
Oh for God’s sake, so will Chris Hoy be winging it to the BBC SPOTY ceremony - why haven’t you whinged about that? Leave Hamilton the fuck alone for Pete’s sake. Don’t worry, he won’t win the SPOTY - there are too many racists and morons like you who have whipped up enough hatred against him to last a lifetime.
November 19th, 2008 at 10:00 am
[...] The Champion won’t compete properly at Race of Champions [...]
November 19th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
@B Cave: I’ve re-read what I wrote in the post and I fail to see what made you get your knickers in a knot.
Yes, Chris Hoy will be making his way up to the SPOTY show - do you expect him to wait at Wembley to take on the rest of the drivers, just him and his bike? The Race of Champions is for professional racing drivers as far as I can tell and the last time I checked that was what Hamilton did for a job, and Chris Hoy didn’t.
I really like writing about Lewis Hamilton as it always provokes such well thought out arguments and discussions.
It also prompts people with very ambiguous names to post for the first time - A Parker and now B Cave have popped up recently. Why do people who disagree with the faithful Hamilton followers have to be either racist or a moron, or indeed both? Is supporting him such a no-brainer that anyone with one iota of sense would do so? I think not.
As I’ve said before, I couldn’t care less whether Lewis was black, white, pink or purple with yellow spots - it’s his attitude I don’t particularly like nor some of his on-track driving.
But anyway, as I said at the very start of the post - I’ve kinda given up saying anything too negative about him, so I’m not going to get dragged back in already!
November 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
I am a Hamilton fan (although not as much as I am a Button fan) but I entirely agree.
The Race of Champions at Wembley, with a British WDC should really be THE champion, i.e. Schumacher, versus OUR champion i.e. Lewis. That is what everyone really wants to know isn’t it? Is he as good?
Pffffft.
November 19th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Hi Craig - yes, my first reaction was exactly the same: a bike? _a bike?_ What is this, already? Why isn’t he racing Schumi?
But, to be scrupulously fair, I do think that Hamilton actually has a gold-plated excuse for this one - a prior engagement that he’s required to respect and which leaves him unavailable for the entire race event.
It wouldn’t be very civil to blow out all the people that had bought tickets to see him appear at the BBC event or who were planning to phone up and vote for him either. Sports Personality did, after all, sell out quite a bit quicker than RoC had any hope of doing.
I just hope that this appearance goes some way towards persuading McLaren that the world won’t end if he competes properly next year.
(Also, Hamilton-bashing or no, it’s good to see you haven’t drunk the viral video Kool-Aid… :- ) )
November 19th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
[...] The Champion won’t compete properly at Race of Champions - craigblog.co.ukCraig on the McLaren-Mercedes / Lewis Hamilton cop-out of the Race of Champions. [...]
November 20th, 2008 at 4:48 pm
This is boring, everything Lewis does or doesn’t do is pointlessly debated and he is on a hiding to nothing.
The race of champions is a pointless event that demonstrates nothing worthwhile. They are all driving big strange cars in a space the size of my living room, where a person driving a car races a person on a push bike - Utter Rubbish!
His priority should be the BBC sports personality of the year. An awards ceremony watched around the world, where the champions and figure heads of each sport are on hand to discuss their achievements.
Not also that the BBC gig is an important one as they will be bringing the races to the UK live in 2009 and this will give them a chance to promote the coming season.
Where as the ROC will be hidden away on a Eurosport/Motors which means people have to pay to see it, or pay £50 to sit in a cold football stadium for the joy of it all!
Change the record!
November 20th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
@LJH - Brits on Pole: All I would add is that several times in the past if a sportsperson has something else on that night then they can easily have a live-link from wherever they are. Ricky Hatton and Joe Calzaghe both appeared live from Las Vegas last year for example.
November 20th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
@Scott Joslin: As I said before, I don’t see why he had to choose one or the other - why couldn’t he do both?
If the ROC is so pointless why is he attending to do something even more pointless in racing against a bike?
I guess we will have to agree to disagree.