Interesting.... Lewis wants no repeat of last year's fiasco Tuesday 13th May 2008 Heading into Monaco Lewis Hamilton has urged McLaren not to repeat last season's mistakes by forcing one driver to allow the other to win. Last year's Monte Carlo street race sparked the team-mate war that would dominate the headlines throughout the season as McLaren forced Hamilton to stay behind team-mate Fernando Alonso in the latter stages of the race. It was a decision that irked the Brit, who felt he had the pace needed to overtake Alonso and win. However, McLaren told him to stand down. This year McLaren could insist on the same situation, although this time it would be in Hamilton's favour as the 23-year-old has a clear 14-point advantage over new team-mate Heikki Kovalainen in the Drivers' standings. However, Hamilton has urged McLaren not to pick a winner just yet. Rather he believes the Woking team should continue with their policy of allowing their drivers to race. "He is an extremely talented driver, and I heard he had a fantastic race in Turkey," said Hamilton of Kovalainen. "He was just unfortunate, but I have no doubts he will be up at the front next time out. "Felipe Massa had a couple of bad races and has bounced back. "We are a team and I felt sorry for him (Kovalainen) that he was not able to compete in Turkey. "If I am not winning then I wish he was and it is the same feeling vice-versa, so I want it to continue as it is, fair and square. "It would not be right for the team to push me ahead of him." Hamilton is currently second in the standings, seven points adrift of Championship leader. However, he hasn't won a race since the season-opening Australian GP. The Brit, though, reckons that could change in Monaco as the street circuit has in the past been a happy hunting ground for McLaren. "Monaco is the dream grand prix to win, the most important race to win personally," said Hamilton. "If I feel I can win anywhere, it is definitely Monaco. But you have to be in the right place at the right time. "And it is difficult to know exactly how we will do at Monaco because there are so many differences to Istanbul. "Ferrari seem to be really quick in the slow corners, and although our performance will be really good, I don't think we will have the dominance we had last year because the teams are much closer. "It depends if we can put together a better package for that weekend. I think we can, but it will be closer."
Why, he did the right thing. Besides, I think he's flattering himself, could he really overtake Alonso at MONACO! He never overtook Alonso all last year, how could he do it at Monaco.
+1, I really liked him up to this point but I could finally see that he was a smug, whiny brat you expected to get everything he wanted. Attempting to overtake your own teammate at Monaco is pure insanity, you have a better chance of taking both drivers out than successfully completing the pass. Lewis should know better than that.
he was saying that he would overtake alonso in the pits because he was called about 2-3 laps earlier than he needed to be. If he had made that pit stop 2-3 laps later he would have leap frogged alonso. i think i heard this explanation in some 2007 f1 review by ITV.
That just proves everyone else's point. He should have been thinking about racing for the team, not just himself. Alonso was quicker all weekend, therefore had the favorable strategy, as it should have been. He whined about not being allowed to pass Alonso, the reality is, there was no way he would have gotten by, pits or otherwise. He thought he could have leap frogged Alonso in the pits, there is no way to know that for sure. If he would have tried to pass him it would have ended in a smoldering mess on the armco barriers. LH's attitude is why McLaren lost the WDC last year.
u have a point about the overtaking part. but, IMO, he should have just listened to the team, and not go to the press and say that he wasn't allowed to race Alonso.
