Hamilton is DONE at Mclaren

Hahaha indeed it does.

Lewis is chomping at the bit just a bit to much at times, and he wears his heart on his sleeve, is my opinion.

But anyway it gives food to the masses.

 

I think it's akin to blaming Alonso for not getting out of the way as he saw the carnage approaching in his rearviews.

Regarding the Twitter stuff, methinks that McLaren has an alienated driver on their hands. I agree with the writer who opined that they're allowing the same dynamic to pop up again and need to get a handle on it. His actions suggest that he may feel the team is sabotaging his WDC efforts and the frustration is boiling over.

 

Steve,
I do agree with you about his passion and determination to win and that cannot be denied and I support him asmuch as possible. The fact that cannot be denied is that some of his actions are very much in question. I only want to see the best driver/car combo win regardless of who they may be. May I ask you if you aswell have seen a negative change in Lewis after he sacked his dad as his manager?

In the end lewis really has nowhere to go except down if he leaves McLaren but I do not honestly think he will nor should he.

 

Indeed. However, of those million twits () how many could actually glean any information from it?

It's being heavily analyzed elsewhere (some of us have *way* too much time on our hands ) and there really isn't anything terribly useful in it. There's even serious questions that's it the "correct" (fastest laps) that are overlaid.

Personally, as a geek, I think they should be "forced" to release this kind of data post race - Even if the geeks at rival teams can derive some info from it, so what? Next year it'll all be different......

+1 "Haters gonna hate."

I said before, had it been anyone but McHam it would have been forgotten by now.

Cheers,
Ian

 

Kinda ironic that the usual Hamilton apologists are treating LH as some sort of victim as usual while complaining about anyone's critiques. He acted like an asshat this weekend. The wreck wasn't his fault but his Twitter antics were 100% his problem.

You might say it's no big deal but IMO a willingness to display secret team data to the masses just to make excuses about poor performance is NOT good. Whether or not it was actually important information, throwing the team under the bus like that is never smart.

 

1: No.

2: Mclaren have invested 15+ years in him and countless millions. They don't want to see him walking to another team.

It must be irritating for Button and others involved by working with him at times, because he simply behaves like a teenager (Gary Anderson agrees). It's a sensitive subject for McLaren seeing the amount of money and time in him, and bloody quick he is. They kind of need him more than he needs them, but for now, since there are no openings (not for a second I believe he'll go race alongside Alonso). The only place is perhaps Mercedes. But that's not open or closed.

 

F1 is like soccer in many respects in that it is all about passion and loyalty so I am NOT surprised at the responses to my sensationalist thread title.
If Maldonado can win a race this year it shows that the top cars are all very close in performance meaning a competent driver like Perez, Rosberg or many of the others could win if they were put in good equipment. IMHO Hamiltons behavior is grounds for dismissing him and finding a young talented replacement for next year.
Oh and BTW I have many years of professional race experience as an owner/driver/technician

 

+1

It has nothing to do with the crash, as all the sane people have agreed it was Grosjeans fault and Hamilton played such a small part in it it doesn't matter (the astroturf grass is wet and quite deep there and likely would have slammed him across the track. Entertaining as it would have been....I'm rambling).

LH was a **** how he behaved, simple as.

 

Fair enough, I think you have supported him in the past, in this sport you can become hero to zero very fast, I do think he needs a lot of guidance in the management sense, and yes I do think he has been lead astray with some of the glitz and glam of his management.

However I thought his dad was back on the scene, it always seems to me that when things are going wrong he has a tendency to make them worse, but this can happen to the best of them, it all part and parcel of F1.

Head down, do what your good and drive, try to keep out of the limelight if possible, is my advice to him.

 

Good advice.

 

Many have said the same. Drive, win, keep calm and quiet and get a NEW MANAGER

 

+1

However, I believe many that are now saying he needs new mgmt are the same ones who said he must fire his dad.......

Cheers,
Ian

 

McLaren can't sack him because then it proves that the driver training scheme was a failure.

And Vizsla, yes tragic hero ... but I'm sick and tired of him getting 2nd, 3rd ... chances. McLaren need to control his off track actions now!
Pete

 

In baseball they say it's easier to fire one manager than 25 players.
Who'd guess it was tha same in F1?
Give or take 24

 

The idea that a team can or even should control a driver's private life is scary.
An athlete with a free spirit and healthy sense of self is a good thing. Too many are packaged and branded like a consumer good.

Lewis is a grown man and has to be responsible for his behavior. If McLaren's farm system failed it is proper to recognize that fact. If only so that it can be scrubbed.

 

A driver nearly loses his head, a driver gets a rare race ban, but it's far more interesting to bang on about how Lewis is doing far worse things by tweeting information in which the rival teams already knew about, as admitted by Paddy Lowe.

Mclaren set about training a driver through a program, they very nearly won a WDC with that said driver in his first year, then they did win a WDC with him, yes a massive failure.

You have high standards.

 

Not a massive failure but given his talent still a disappointment.
The standards are higher for those with greater gifts. It may not be fair but that's the way I see it.

 

Agree. I said that in Post 37 of this thread.

As far as this race is concerned only Grosjean is to blame-drivers MUST have situational awareness and these older tracks are much narrower than the tilke tracks-That funnel at the end of the straight @ Monza is always interesting. In Belgium Grosjean went into Hammy; Hammy was just driving straight minding his biz as was Fred, who came with a foot or so of being killed.

 

I would say things are totally and utterly out of perspective, with this issue.

To be honest I have had enough defending him anyway, haters can fill their hate boots, it is pointless and I'am wasting my time.

Thing is since I have been on here, it is the same old story when discussing Hamilton, start a thread with his name in it, and the result is the same, and the thread starter thinks HE is the star....

 

Thanks Paul, Agreed..

 

Agree! Mercedes and McLaren should swap Rosberg and Hamilton. mcLaren would get one of the up-and-coming gentleman drivers and Hamilton can cut his teeth on a lower level team.

I'm certain Whitmarsh would be all over this. Great thought here...

 

Fair comment, but lets not forget in his first year he ignored team orders and did not draft his team mate. My point is that he has been ignoring instructions from his team since he started and for some reason his boss does not seem to be able to control this behaviour.

Social media is a cancer (yes strong words, but I feel apt) but being able to immediately voice an issue to the rest of the world is not a good thing. It is better, like we used to, to sit on it a while and think twice or even three times about it before you respond.

The Australian Olympic team got caught up in FB and Twitter and distracted themselves from the main game. I think we will find they won't be on it again.

LH is of the age where he lives on the these social media sites ... thus too many of his random thoughts (which we all have) end up being posted. This is not doing him any favours just as it would not do the same for me.

The McLaren team is a multiple million dollar business, like the company I work for. Just as it would not be appropriate for me to voice my concerns about my company it isn't for LH. My company even bans social media sites during work hours.

McLaren, or somebody manage, this driver who most of the time on the track is a good driver and does add some excitement to an otherwise now boring sport (hence why he is talked about so much).
Pete

 

Ok I'll play, I agree he is awkward to deal with, IMO though he should question what he is told to do sometimes, I would, 2 examples spring to mind, one in China when his tyres were down to the cord, he should have disobeyed orders to stay out, and come in (maybe there was other forces in play FIA v Mclaren) buts thats another story, he then would have been a 2 x WDC.

Also he should have disobeyed a order to lie to the stewards, can't remember I think it was in the Aussie GP when he overtook a backmarker that ran wide under the SC, basically it all kicked off after that.

But yes in fairness I hear you, I have also got shut of a employee who consistently messed about on FB, after repeated warnings, I hate that site anyway.

 

Agree re social media-hammy needs to be doing the following: driving, visiting the factory to stay in touch with his team/crew, doing the sponsor PR thing, banging nicole (but not on race weekends per Moss), eating and sleeping. No need to facebook, tweet, skype, etc. Its all ancillary bs, and if there should be a need for that stuff let his agent handle it.

 

Steve, You and I have had plenty of run-ins about Lewis over the years, and in the past I have tried to say to you that you're pretty much fighting a losing cause trying to get some love for lewis on a Ferrari orientated site (Hell, the Ferrari drivers take a fair bit of flak on here - let alone a driver from another team!).....

Hold on!..... let Me finish!.......

But I do admire the fact that you stick by your beliefs and admiration for Lewis and defend him where possible ( sometimes you remind Me of those old westerns when the Indians go on the attack and the cowboys circle the wagons for defence - only trouble is there's only one wagon in your wagon train going round in circles! ).


Now you know when it comes to Lewis I have mixed feelings and I'm not his biggest fan: In the car I think he's fantastic! - out of the car he tends to annoy Me! (and seeing his girlfriend every two minutes in a race annoys Me even more!)

First let Me say that on Sunday there was nothing really that he could have done about the incident.

His steering no longer did anything and had he braked hard, he would have got a massive shunt from behind and launched god knows where. He was a passenger and he knew it.

One thing that did show some smart thinking was that he got his hands off the steering wheel bloody quick to avoid broken thumbs!


As for the tweet that he released, I get the impression that that was a bit to do with a bruised ego due to Button being so much faster than he was. To Me it seems like he was suddenly desperate to show the World some evidence that it wasn't He who was slower than Button - it was his car.

I honestly think that, on a circuit noted for being a "drivers track", he was struggling to accept that his team-mate was so much faster than he was, especially as everyone was suddenly raving about the incredible job Button had done. I think that really stuck in his throat.


As for all this: "He's done at McLaren now!", I think that's nonsense quite frankly!

I think what this incident has done, is get him a severe bollocking (most likely From Ron Dennis directly), and weakened his side of the negotiations for a new contract (such as, McLaren may have considered allowing him to keep the original trophies he won in the future, but now that's not going to happen).

As others have said, McLaren have invested a lot of time and money into Lewis, to mould him into their ideal driver, and they're not going to just give that up.

Also, I think Lewis is smart enough to realise that if he went to another team it would be a much bigger gamble than staying on with McLaren - he'd pretty much have to afresh with a whole team set up and car that he's not used to. For most drivers that may not be too much of a problem but he's so integrated into the McLaren team methods, I'm not convinced how well he'd get on TBH.

At the end of the day, I believe he'll eat a big helping of humble pie, publicly apologise to the team, back down on some of his contract demands and see out his career at McLaren.

In the meantime Steve - You just keep that McLaren wagon going round and round!