Hamilton Believes He Is No #2-Even Next To Michael Schumacher!

IMO a good attitude for any sportsman. If you believe you're second best from the outset you're never going to be a winner.

 

Nail right on the head fella, nail right on the head Only history will tell how good he is/was.
When a boxing title contender faces the world champ, what the hell does anyone think the contenders thinking. Oh i am not a world champ so i can't possibly win this guy?
What does a fresh faced soldier think when he fights his first battle against a section of older experienced soldiers.....?
What does a lesser ranked football (UK) team think as its facing a more superior ranked team.......?

 

This is why I go back and forth on liking the guy, sometimes seems great, sometimes like this seems arrogant and annoying.

And as for not being #2 to anyone, even Schumacher............. WDC's: MS = 7, LH = 0.....granted he hasn't been in F1 for two full seasons but until you surpass some of those records stay quiet.

 

Ding Ding, round!!! etc....

 

+2

Hamilton is going to take a lot of criticism for this statement but he is absolutely correct. If you don't have confidence in your own abilities, then you need to consider another line of work than F1.

There will be some really ridiculous criticism to Hamilton's statements on this thread, I am sure.

 

I assume he was asked a question and was expected to give an answer, staying quiet was probably not an option.

And what do you think he should he have said? "I'm average." "I'm rubbish." "I couldn't lick MS's boots." None of those things is true and even if they were true self belief (not arrogance) is all important when it comes to achieving anything. I think he's got absolutely the right attitude.

 

That's why they don't give out the trophies before the race...

 

+3 IanMac, +100 to you Ted... that's a given.

 

I think what Lewis was trying to say is that he would never have accepted # 2 with any team even if it was with Michael Schumacher. He is saying that he would have worked his best no matter who he was partnered with. You cant very well blame him for that unless he was signed to play the #2 roll and I dont think he was at McLaren.

 

The ridiculous statements are already in posts #2 thru #9, not including #8. The same myopic cast of characters.

This is another example of why more and more race fans will not like Lewis Hamilton. If in fact he really did say this tripe, then he truly is a wanker. I am hoping it was taken out of context, and he really isn't the pompous arrogant jerk this article makes him appear.

As for being asked a question and "not having an option" but to answer, that is silly. He could have simply taken the high road with an answer such as "we'll see" or "ask me at the end of the season", something, anything, that can still exude confidence but not appear like an arrogant prick.

To compare himself, and again, I can not believe he really did this, to Schumacher, is ridiculous. Get real!!

I really do not believe that Hamilton meant to be arrogant. At least I hope not.

 

+1
I'm glad the kid has confidence and a clear drive to win and to be the best. Like others have said, it's a good attitude for a sportsman to have---to want to be the best is part of what it means to be a great competitor, which i do believe Hamilton is.
HOWEVER---to compare yourself to someone like MS given his current achievements is ridiculous. Until i see him go to a team that isn't always winning races, play an instrumental role in reforming that team, and proceed to win WDC 6 times.....he has no business making comments like that.
Like Ron, i hope this was taken out of context.
He is an extremely talented young driver, in one of the best cars on the grid. But make no mistake, he is NOT Michael Schumacher. period. unless he proves otherwise...

 

I disagree completely. Not even arrogant Schumacher ever said something like that, not even when it was clear that he bested everyone in F1 history. Remember how he cried at the press conference when a reporter asked him if he realized that he had more wins than Senna now?

I hope so too!


btw, Steve, to quote you from the other thread:

 

It's perfectly okay to have confidence in yourself, and believe you are the best - I agree that is how a pro athlete should think. However, stating it the way he did comes off as incredibly arrogant, especially from someone who has not even been in F1 for 2 years. He could have responded in a much better and appropriate way. He doesn't even have the excuse that English isn't his 1st language, where what he said was misunderstood.

This is exactly why I am not a fan of Lewis - his arrogance. He's a great driver, and he will probably end his career as one of the all time greats, however I will have never been a fan, nor will I have ever rooted for him. Soon, they will have to get him a custom sized helmet because his head is getting so big.

 

Maybe.

...but showing a little modesty wouldn't hurt.

 

Had it been Massa who said this, what would the comments be?

Hamilton's only transgression is that he is not driving a Ferrari. That's it. The rest is just whining.

 

Nice one Florian, I don't mind taking flak from someone with a brain cell, and your not short in that department...

However as Ted, says your just whining.....

 

I think Alonso knew he was slower than Hamilton and made a big smokescreen to not allow an apples to apples comparison.

 

He didn't compare himself to Schumacher - read what he said.

I think Franco probably got it right in an earlier post when he suggested LH was thinking he shouldn't be prepared to settle for #2 status in any team. We don't know when he had this thought but it might been when the internal politics at McLaren were difficult and he probably felt a lot of pressure to play second fiddle to his WDC team mate but felt his performances justified more than that.

Maybe he believes he can emulate MS, I certainly hope so, that should be every young driver's ambition.

 

He's every bit as good as Michaels #2.. And he'll never be better either.

 

Hi
just to put my spoke in, i was reading one of the sunday irish papers(THE IRISH MAIL).
these are lewis words not mine,that he was better than schumacher now and will only get better.
to be honest with you,he is good driver,but he not schumacher and never will be,because when you make a statement
like that you but your money were your mouth is,god help him if ever leaves mclaren for a lesser team
then we will see what he made of

 

something does not smell right here.

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/formula_1/article4608566.ece

Lewis Hamilton has appealed to his team to provide him with a faster car as he attempts to win his first world title in his second season in Formula One. The 23-year-old drove an incident-free race in Sunday's European Grand Prix in Valencia to finish second behind Felipe Massa, in a Ferrari, a result that leaves the Briton leading the Brazilian at the head of the drivers' championship by six points with six races to come.

However, Hamilton is concerned that in the past two races - in Valencia and Hungary - the Italian cars have shown superior race pace to his McLaren Mercedes, describing them as “bloody quick”.

“My car is quick, but their car is quicker,” he said yesterday. “We dropped everyone at Valencia. It was just me and Felipe in a completely different world, but he was still just edging away from me and I could do nothing about it. It is something I am constantly telling the team that we need to fix; there are certain things that we need to fix and they are working on it. It probably won't be fixed for the next race - it might not be fixed until next year's car.”

Hamilton also spoke revealingly about the contrast in his approach this year to last and admitted that in his historic rookie season - which ended with him losing the title race by one point to Kimi Raikkonen, of Ferrari, at the season-ending Brazilian Grand Prix - his main motivation was to show everyone that he could win races and to prove wrong the sceptics who predicted he would be slower than his team-mate at the time, Fernando Alonso, the former world champion from Spain.


Hamilton explained that he wanted to prove that he was no “No2 driver”, whoever he was up against. “Put me next to Michael Schumacher and I am not No2 to him - that's what I was there last year to do, to show how good I am,” he said. “I did that, but this year I want to top that using my mind. My only focus is winning the World Championship.

“I don't know if you can see, but I feel a lot stronger than I was this time last year. I think it is just maturity, knowing what you need. Last year I would have been at this race [in Valencia] and I would have just driven my heart out not really knowing, not really thinking exactly why. I just wanted to win and was not thinking how the points were going to work.

“During the race on Sunday, I could see Felipe was pulling away. I was pushing my a*** off, but I also thought to myself, ‘He is pulling away even though I am driving my a*** off.' The only way to do even better is to push even more, but that causes risks of crashing so it would have been silly of me to have pushed too much, crashed and lost eight points. It was better for us to be smart and take the points.

“There will be another time when I get the chance to take the points off him. Last year, that would have played against me. I think this year that is not going to happen.”

Although the Ferraris may have the edge in terms of speed, the Scuderia have suffered two engine failures in successive races - one for Massa in Hungary and a second one on Sunday for Raikkonen, whose power plant produced a billowing plume of white smoke 11 laps from the end.

These successive failures in a standard specification engine are strange given that Ferrari had run through the first ten races of the season without any problems on either car. Hamilton did not miss the opportunity to rub it in.

“Formula One is all about reliability,” he said. “They can have the quickest car, but if it is not reliable it's their problem. We have got a really quick package, but we have also got amazing reliability. I have not been having any problems.

“The next two races [at Spa-Francorchamps and Monza] are the hardest races in the year and it will be interesting to see how their engines go. Maybe it was a batch of two bad engines, but it will be interesting to see how they manage that in the next race and if [they] have the same problem.”

 

Step back for a moment and think about some of the comments Lewis Hamilton has made over the past couple years. Something I find very refreshing is that we don't get the usual PR-speak that modern sports is so good at producing. I like that he sees himself as being worthy of #1 status and isn't afraid to say so. Love him, hate him or somewhere in between, there's no denying the fact that he is a front-running driver with the inside line on this year's Championship. This isn't DC's annual "This year is my year and saying it will make it so" blabber we became accustomed to hearing, which became as much a rite of spring as the first Robins.

 

To clarify my arguement, if I misinterpretted his remarks then I am wrong. I TOTALLY agree that he should have the attitude that he will be a team's #1 driver, no arguement there whatsoever. The right attitude to have.

My first post was from me interpretting that he thought he was the best driver ever, even compared to Michael.

I think he is a phenomenal talent, I would just like him to be a little less public about his arrogance. I understand that given his role you need supreme self-confidence however you don't need to be so public about it.

IanMac, he doesn't need to say he's terrible, but something along the lines of "I believe I have talent to compete with anyone" or "I would have enjoyed racing Michael, but unfortunately we will never know" would have been better, but again, perhaps I was mistake when reading his remarks.

tifosiron, agree with your whole post with the exception of you lumping me in with the group of myopic characters. I would humbly say that I have been fairly open-minded in all topics that have been presented in the past.