- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
And if that was the extent of it, I would be quite content to let sleeping dogs lie. But I think there's something more to it. Arguably, the thing that set me against Hamilton is media representation, and believe it or not, there was a time when I thought quite highly of him - back in 2009, when he had to stand out and lead McLaren.
Sometimes, the media are to blame. When he had the opportunity to match Senna's record in Singapore last year, you could be forgiven for thinking that we were about to crown a new king, as if he was the sole heir to the Senna legacy (which is arguably something that belongs to every driver).
Other times, I think the fans are to blame; I have found that some of the most aggressive and disagreeable fans to be his fans. They will tirelessly defend some of his incredibly aggressive moves, only to turn around and criticise other drivers for doing exactly the same thing.
But there is something about Hamilton that I just find unseemly. Earlier this year, he publicly questioned the wisdom of swapping engineers about. That led to the unprecedented set of circumstances whereby the team were forced to publicly defend their decision making process as they came under pressure from fans and the media to "support" Hamilton. Toto Wolff handled it with dignity, but it was obviously humiliating for the team. You can't expect anyone to believe that Hamilton had no idea what was going to happen when he made those comments. He undermined the team and caused a lot of embarrassment for the faintest promise of an advantage. There's ruthlessness and then there's this - a completely unsporting move that showed a complete lack of respect for every single person in the team.
