Hamilton already on back foot after season opener
20 March, 2012
Lewis Hamilton in Melbourne
Mar.20 (GMM) After putting his tumultuous 2011 season behind him, McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton has kicked off this year’s world championship in a downbeat mood after faltering in the season opener down under, despite the 2008 world champion claiming that his personal problems and on-track struggles are behind him and starting with a positive approach to his sixth season in F1.
Lewis gets a cuddle from race winner Jenson Button
But after his teammate Jenson Button beat him in the 2011 standings, Hamilton could not hide his disappointment on Sunday when the 2009 title winner also beat him to the first corner in Melbourne, before Button and reigning champion Sebastian Vettel went on to fill the top two podium spots.
“I just struggled out there,” confused pole-sitter Hamilton said afterwards.
David Coulthard, the former long-time McLaren driver and now paddock analyst, expressed concern about Hamilton’s “striking” post-race body-language and “stony-faced” performance on the podium.
“Has it [Button's win] knocked Lewis?” he wondered in his Telegraph column.
Many in F1 are astonished by how Button, described at the time as having entered Hamilton’s “lion’s den” at McLaren two years ago, is now being described by the famous British team as its title-winning hope.
“People underestimate him,” said team boss Martin Whitmarsh. “He’s such a calm, mature and easygoing fellow that people don’t realise necessarily the hunger that’s in him to compete and to win.
Lewis lost the Australian GP at the start
“He must now believe he’s in a good chance of a proper title run this year and providing we can continue to improve the car, not make mistakes, be reliable there’s no reason why he can’t do that,” he added.
On Hamilton’s side of the garage, meanwhile, is a downcast driver and an expiring contract.
“On his day, Lewis is unbeatable, and yet I suspect McLaren are wondering whether or not they want to keep him, because he brings so much baggage with him,” another former McLaren driver-turned commentator, Martin Brundle, told April’s Motor Sport magazine.
As for Whitmarsh, McLaren’s team principal insists there is no concern yet that Hamilton has already re-entered another spiral of despair so early in 2012.
Downplaying Hamilton’s post-race mood in Australia, he said: “When he starts getting happy with being third, or beaten by his teammate, then he won’t be the Lewis we all love and admire.”
Subbed by AJN.
Related posts:
- Masterful Button wins thrilling season opener in Melbourne
- Australian GP gets thumbs up as season opener
- Hamilton: I feel more relaxed and ready for new season than ever before
- Lewis Hamilton should stay with McLaren
- Our mid-season top ten F1 drivers rating
When Jenson had an engine air duct plug left in his car, and the engine overheated and he DNF’d at Monaco two years ago, there was no outcry that things stink at McLaren on his behalf.
Last year while pulling out of pits and a tire falls off Jenson’s car, mine was finally one lonely voice saying something stinks at McLaren, but there was no real support for that view.
Now, Lewis pouts and there is an outcry of conspiracy theories on Lewis’ behalf. Lewis has hardly suffered as Jenson has at the hands of his own team… Why only complain when Lewis pouts??? UUUuuuummm???
Something stinks at Mclaren, and I think it’s Martin. If they lose Lewis over this they will regret it just as with Fernando. He may join us at Ferrari anytime, I still believe he is one of the fastest with Kimi and Robert (and of course Michael!). Btw I’m not a McButton hater, I think he was a great champ in 2009 and had a more than decent last 2 seasons (I’ll never forget Monaco 2009, his run to the podium, history)
Malcolm… The subject at hand was Hamilton, and times are tough in the UK, and Hamilton is the latest UK citizen to abandon his home country for tax relief.
I just don’t think that Hamilton’s tax escape is going to relieve the fact that Lewis is going to be living on a lot less money when his contract is renewed at McLaren, if it is even renewed, unless he does win the WDC this year.
I don’t intend to shift the focus of the discussion because people like you don’t want to talk about the subject of the article… and want to trash anyone else in the process. Lewis has some problems… and fans are free to contribute their opinions, and I hope are not intimidated by Lewis fan-boys, and their veiled inferences that everyone is against Lewis for all manner of despicable reasons, such as racial bias. Is that what you were going to drag out here…. UUUuuummm???
Lewis has issues, and it’s not the rest of the world that does…
Actually to be perfectly blunt, I think it was a mistake for Lewis not to have ever spent any time in a mid-field team. Because of that he has developed a sense of entitlement to winning without having to even compete for it the way all the drivers do. So, he always blames the team, the FIA, other drivers… anyone that stands in the way of any win, while being a bad sport in the process. He doesn’t know how to win or lose graciously… As a result he brings the sport and his own team into disrepute all too often. He needs to go back and re-earn a place in the sport, or leave for NASCAR if he thinks he can do better there, because no F1 team can ever really meet his demands for a car that guarantees his personal dominance, conversely a worthy F1 champion, makes the best of what he has to work with, and that doesn’t appear to ever be enough for Lewis no matter how many millions a team may pay him, as McLaren has.
Even after McLaren’s most generous contract with Lewis, Lewis himself did not focus on his job, by his own admission last year. How disappointing is that both to fans and his team??? Now pressure is building, and Lewis is not on top at the moment, so there is going to be talk whether you Malcolm think there should be or not, about Lewis
Chuck, do you think many of Lewis’s countrymen resent Jenson Button who has lived in Monaco for years, or David Coulthard who owns a hotel in Monaco, and maybe Johnny Herbert another long time Monaco resident…..then why just Hamilton…..hmmmm??
I don’t see Lewis exactly saving his millions by living in Monaco. Maybe he avoids taxes in Great Briton, which many of his country men and women resent, but the cost of living there is kind of high.
If Lewis plans to move to LA then I guess he thinks Nicole might help support him? But, then she is taking time out to be at his races now, and that will not do her career any good in LA, and especially if she shows up to refocus on her own career, and she is carrying around a boyfriend. Better for her to lose the boyfriend and keep her own options open I would think. I don’t know maybe they have a kinky plan for success in LA… that sounds possible now that I think about it…
Oh well…
Well said, Chuck.
I’m also getting the sense Hamilton has just about worn out his welcome overseas, and will seek refuge in Los Angeles when it’s all said and done.
I have heard that Lewis thinks he might jump to NASCAR if things don’t go his way in F1.
Bad move if true… they will eat you alive Lewis if you come to the US and play crybaby in NASCAR. Even Danika Patrick seems to be tougher emotionally.
Danika would be the first to tell you Lewis, the NASCAR boys won’t have any problem tapping you from behind just to spin you into the wall, and not for any reason other than to see if you even belong in the sport… no matter what Ali G might say about it!
Personally, I’d like to see you come to the US and find out if what I say is not true… You will earn your money here if you show up, and the money isn’t going to keep coming if you don’t put on a good show. Playing the crybaby has never worked in NASCAR, and never will. Not even the women in the sport try to go at things that way here.
I didn’t hear that quote from Martin Brundle, or the one from David Coulthard but I’m sure Martin Whitmarsh will sooth Lewis’ feelings, but no matter what Martin says Lewis, people in the sport you are part of, or want to become a part of are taking your measure!