Hamilton Not Interested in Winning by Appeal

+1

Lewis' dad should make Lewis quit the team. I am so happy Kimi won that I am still celebrating, but there is no way Lewis should have been racing as hard as he was in China and again in Brazil. Someone from the team should have sat him down and told him to avoid contact and all dangerous moves and just finish in the top four or five and be happy. When Lewis went off-roading trying to pass Alonso I practically feel out of my seat.

 

+1 excellent post.

 

I already likes Lewis, but my respect for him just went WAY up. Many rookie drivers would take the title in given ANY circumstances, but it's obvious Lewis has more class than that.

Props to Lewis

 

I was amazed to see how well Hamilton did on tracks he had never driven previously. These are complicated, complex and fast race tracks. Some drivers never figure them out in a lifetime of driving. But, he was in the hunt in every race and won several of them. Very impressive. I raced for about 30 years on a couple of dozen tracks in the US and Canada, and believe me, what he accomplished was nothing short of amazing. I think we have some more years of enjoyment watching him improve. Ferrari should start courting him now to come drive for them asap. I am impressed that the kid wants to win the correct way, not in a courtroom, but on the track.

How well did Fangio, Clark, Stewart, Nuvolari, etc do in their rookie years as compared to Hamilton?

 

Or that he can read a Press Realease very well. Honestly, the only thing he's said all year that was not scripted by McL PR department was that he would prefer a different team mate than Alonso for '08.

 

Not appealing appeals to me.

Glad Lewis said the right thing.

Forza Ferrari!

Here's hoping that Lewis and I get our wish for no appeal hearing.

 

I think Lewis has been amazing this season. But, he has also been amazing for the last few seasons. I'm glad he has said that Kimi should keep the championship. I liked the way that one of his first comments after the race in Brazil was that there were just 22 weeks until the next race. I also wonder whether he knows that the championship was lost in Brazil because of a mistake he made:

Pitpass is not often wrong.

 

a bit harsh there, isn't it.

whatever it is, like it or not, Lewis Hamilton did make history in F1 this year, and has set the bar up high for future F1 debutants. as a rookie, i think he didn't do a good job, but a great job.

having said that, there's some flaws anyways. he didn't show Alonso the respect a 2 time WDC deserves. he seems to be talking too much lately, about how he's been more cooler than Kimi ( yeah right ).

anyhow, i'd be hoping to see him leave Mac someday....just to see if he can do what he did at Mac in other teams

 

Did he himself say that or does the media suggest it? (see Anthony_Ferrari's post). On Sunday, Norbert Haug said that Hamilton's gearbox was jammed for 30 seconds, but this quotation has been removed from where I read it. So if Hamilton really admitted that it was his simply own fault in spite of the team trying some cover up with mechanical failures, he takes another step up on my respect scale, in a way compensating for the strange "I haven't done any mistakes this year" statement some weeks ago

 

110% with you.
He has shown class and will eventually, I believe, become one of the great drivers. He has the potential and yes, he made a mistake but as someone that goes out every other weekend myself and race, I know just how easy it is to get caught up in a fight and lose perspective for the overall picture (damn...I had a race 1 1/2 hours before they started and smacked into someone myself, which was totally avoidable and cost me 4-5 positions)

 

BTW I don't think that immaturity or inexperience are good words to use with any F1 driver. There were few that really were inexperienced like Kimi, who did not road race much before. Hamilton won the F3000 Championship and has been racing for years before so he certainly is not immature or inexperienced. He may have to learn how to curb the circus around him a little better and need better grounding when it gets to the end of a championship. Keep better focused. Lauda always disappeared into his house in the mountains to avoid hearing anything and talking to anybody. With himself and his thoughts...

 

Looks like he's admitting he made a mistake: http://www.f1technical.net/news/7518

Interesting. In the old days it was possible for a driver to miss a gear and nowadays people lament the fact that this is no longer a possibility. Looks like Lewis managed to switch the whole gearbox off! I don't think China was his fault. The team were insane for keeping him out on those tyres for so long. Looks to me like Lewis saved his Rookie Mistakes for the last race of the season.

Another development:

I still think it was an error by Lewis. If so, does that mean that his car has had 100% reliability through the season?

 

Don’t get me wrong. Hamilton is a great driver in his first F1 season. In a good car, the guy will win multiple F1 championships. I was rooting for the guy early on when he just drove, made the podiums, wins and kept his mouth shut. After the Hungary incident where he showed his true color of how good a team player he was(NOT), and started to open his mouth, telling his boss to go f%ck swivel and stuffs, I am done with the guy.
In the end, my man Kimi won, and that's what matters.

 

THAT will never happen. LH's dad is like those mother who force their daughters to compete in beauty pagenst for personal gratification.

 

I still say blame 99% of the problem on RD and NOT LH!

 

Al Gore would have been president if he could only have won his own home state. LH would be champion if:

a) - he had not driven off into the kitty litter in the rain
b) - he had not taken at least two trips off-road in Brazil - but even with these errors:
c) - he had not somehow messed up his shift controls (the most critical mistake of all, probably, as all he had to do was improve his finish by a couple of places. The two excursions were recoverable)

This PR statement is a contrivance, IMHO. The appeal is a disgrace, which is certainly going to go nowhere. But, as above - it really can be laid on the RD doorstep and the way he mishandled the papergate in the first place.

 

Lewis had two chances to win the championships on the tracks, but:
1) he drove into the gravel while trying to pit in china.
2) messed up his attepmted passes on Alonso when he didn’t have to. Maybe he tried to win the championhip by winning the race in a blaze of glory but went down burning.

So yeah I would say lewis blew it.

In the end, doesn’t matter which individuals you want to place the blame on. The mclaren team had their chances but failed.

 

I don't know where you get that idea from, it's absolute rubbish. LH has said many times that he loves driving and racing and that is very clear from his demeanour, not only now but when he was driving karts and in lower formulae. It's as clear as day that he's not being forced to do it by anyone.

 

How can you say > "

with all that's happened this year? Nothing has been fair and square. At nearly every race there has been penalties, fines and chaos.

No driver ever would give up any chance at the WDC, they would be foolish to do so. I didn't say he was being nice, I said he was saving face and is trying to salvage his reputation from the fire.

 

Martin, I meant immaturity due to age, not driving experience. It seemed his ego got the better of him in the last two races, and that temperament usually goes with being 22 years old. (of course, some never grow out of that)

By no means was I suggesting that he didn't know how to drive or was unseasoned...

 

From F1 Live:

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that his bid for this year's Formula One Championship seemingly came to an end during the last race of the season following a moment of human error.

"My finger slipped on the steering wheel and I accidentally pressed the button used for the starting sequence," Hamilton confided several hours after the event, according to Montreal's French-language daily newspaper La Presse.

That error cut power to his McLaren for an interminable minute, dropping him down to 18th place as the Brazilian Grand Prix entered its eighth lap on the Interlagos circuit.

"The car went into neutral and I had to reinitialize the system, that is, reload the gearbox management program," he explained. The onboard camera recorded images of Hamilton pressing several buttons on his steering wheel while other drivers sped by.

Once his McLaren car was back up to speed, Hamilton would afterwards work his way back up to seventh place, two positions away from the necessary number of points that would have allowed him to be the first rookie World Champion.


However, his title chances might not yet be over: the McLaren team has announced it will appeal the stewards' decision not to sanction the BMW Sauber and Williams teams for possibly using 'cool fuel' during the Brazilian GP, claiming that precise information was not available.

If the FIA's Court of Appeal were to overturn the decision and sanction both teams with exclusion, that would remove drivers Nico Rosberg, Robert Kubica and Nick Heidfeld from the rankings and allow Lewis Hamilton to jump from seventh to fourth position in the race's final standings - thereby giving him enough points to become the 2007 World Champion.

While McLaren have declared their motive is to support their drivers' best interests, Hamilton himself does not at all feel comfortable with the procedure.

"Being promoted after some people have been thrown out is not the way I want to do it," he told Reuters.

His thoughts also went to Ferrari driver and provisional title holder Kimi Raikkonen: "To have it taken away is a bit cruel and probably not good for the sport."

 

You know? I agree with a lot of your posts. Maybe 90%.
But why don't you write him a love letter and send it with some flowers and hope for an invitation for his "swivel party".
Come on, be honest with yourself and admit it. As impressive as he was this season, HE JUST SCREWED UP. And I think it is OK. He is human after all and a rookie. I am not defending in any way the a-holes you are blaming for all, but it is not just their fault.
His time will probably come, but I think that one of the reasons why you and other people are feeling the way you are is just because you took it a little too far believing that he is already the next Senna an the next Schumi. The next "great one". Maybe one day but he simply isn't there yet.
The british media (which could be counted as 85% of the total F1 media) didn't help much with creating this false feeling either.

 

I guess we will know November 10, 2007 when the Appeal Court will convene in Paris how the McL petition will be decided. I wonder if Hamilton will change his tune if by "pure chance and injustice " the championship is awarded to him.

 

I sure hope nothing changes. This appeal makes Mclaren look awful especially with all the other crap that has happened. LH has had a great 1st season and will be back to do battle next year and the year after that and so on.