- 33,155
- Hammerhead Garage
Another race, another penalty. After nearly crashing into Felipe Massa on the Q3 outlap, and then really crashing with him in the race, Lewis Hamilton has once again successfully taken himself out of the running of another race. This, naturally begs the question: what's going on in Hamilton's head?
The past few races have been scrappy, to say the least. In Hungary, he pushed too hard in changing conditions to get the priority pit call and then blew his tyre choice when he did. In Belgium, he made a silly mistake passing Kamui Kobayashi, and crashed out. In Italy, Hamilton spent twenty-seven laps pinned behind Michael Schumacher - when Jenson Button passed him on the first attempt - and the team were heard encouraging him over the radio (when was the last time that happened?). Finally, in Singapore, he crashed with Felipe Massa and earned himself a penalty. No doubt the Hamiltonistas will come up for an explanation for this (their latest one is that Massa should stop worrying about Hamilton and start worrying about saving his own career - funnily enough, if they insist Hamilton is driving as well as he ever has, then that means everyone else on the grid is faster than him, which is that much worse for Hamilton), but all is clearly not well with Hamilton. We're now at the point where Hamilton is out of contention for the championship while his team-mate is still in with a chance. That has never happened before.
I believe Hamilton's problems are two-fold. First of all, he is over-driving the car, trying entirely too hard. He was the first man to prove that Sebastian Vettel could be beaten when he won in China, and he did it before Vettel secured his stranglehold on the field. Lewis Hamilton should have been the man to lead the charge against Vettel, but it never materialised. Hamilton did everything right, and still came off second-best to Vettel. He simply has no answer to Vettel's pace, and that must gnaw at him. So he has started over-driving the car, trying too hard. We saw it at Monza when he out-braked himself into the first chicane while trying to lap Buemi. It was a completely unnecesssary move, and while it didn't hurt him, it certainly didn't help him. Other times, he's gone for gaps that simply did not exist - Maldonado and Massa in Monaco spring to mind, as does the aborted pass on Button in Canada.
Secondly, and much more worryingly, I think Hamilton has no respect for the other drivers. We've seen this several times over the year, and while taken individually they seem harmless, when you look at all of them together, it's a much more worrying trend. Firstly, he made disparaging comments towards other drivers after Monaco, as well as his poor joke that the stewards are racist. Then, after colliding with Kobayashi in Belgium, he accused the Sauber driver of being at fault without bothering to look at the replays. And now in Singapore, he nearly collided with Massa on their outlap in Q3 - a compeltely pointless exercise, because he traded being caught in Massa's dirty air for being caught in Alonso's; for someone depicted as one of the smartest racers on the grid, why didn't he simply back off on his outlap and get clear air? Vettel did it and put in a fantastic lap. Finally - and this one is debatable - Hamilton made an aggressive lunge on Pastor Maldonado at the end of Q2 at Spa. Now, it's true that Maldonado left the door wide open at the time, but Hamilton barged him wide on the exit of the Bus Stop, pushing Maldonado out onto the wet line. It's unlikely Maldonado would have made Q3 himself, but with the track constantly drying through the session, he did stand a chance at improving his lap time until Hamilton forced him wide. Hamilton's fans state that Hamilton should have the right to set a competitive lap time, but if that is true, then Maldonado has the same right. Like I said, taken on their own, these incidents are minor - but looking at the Maldonado incident and taking into account Hamilton's behaviour towards other racers, I think it's starting to show that Hamilton has no respect for other drivers. It's a "me first, me first" attitude, where if other drivers get in Hamilton's way, it's their own stupid fault. Of course, that's just my own opinion.
So, what do you think is going on inside Hamilton's head? And what do you think he can do to reclaim his mojo?
The past few races have been scrappy, to say the least. In Hungary, he pushed too hard in changing conditions to get the priority pit call and then blew his tyre choice when he did. In Belgium, he made a silly mistake passing Kamui Kobayashi, and crashed out. In Italy, Hamilton spent twenty-seven laps pinned behind Michael Schumacher - when Jenson Button passed him on the first attempt - and the team were heard encouraging him over the radio (when was the last time that happened?). Finally, in Singapore, he crashed with Felipe Massa and earned himself a penalty. No doubt the Hamiltonistas will come up for an explanation for this (their latest one is that Massa should stop worrying about Hamilton and start worrying about saving his own career - funnily enough, if they insist Hamilton is driving as well as he ever has, then that means everyone else on the grid is faster than him, which is that much worse for Hamilton), but all is clearly not well with Hamilton. We're now at the point where Hamilton is out of contention for the championship while his team-mate is still in with a chance. That has never happened before.
I believe Hamilton's problems are two-fold. First of all, he is over-driving the car, trying entirely too hard. He was the first man to prove that Sebastian Vettel could be beaten when he won in China, and he did it before Vettel secured his stranglehold on the field. Lewis Hamilton should have been the man to lead the charge against Vettel, but it never materialised. Hamilton did everything right, and still came off second-best to Vettel. He simply has no answer to Vettel's pace, and that must gnaw at him. So he has started over-driving the car, trying too hard. We saw it at Monza when he out-braked himself into the first chicane while trying to lap Buemi. It was a completely unnecesssary move, and while it didn't hurt him, it certainly didn't help him. Other times, he's gone for gaps that simply did not exist - Maldonado and Massa in Monaco spring to mind, as does the aborted pass on Button in Canada.
Secondly, and much more worryingly, I think Hamilton has no respect for the other drivers. We've seen this several times over the year, and while taken individually they seem harmless, when you look at all of them together, it's a much more worrying trend. Firstly, he made disparaging comments towards other drivers after Monaco, as well as his poor joke that the stewards are racist. Then, after colliding with Kobayashi in Belgium, he accused the Sauber driver of being at fault without bothering to look at the replays. And now in Singapore, he nearly collided with Massa on their outlap in Q3 - a compeltely pointless exercise, because he traded being caught in Massa's dirty air for being caught in Alonso's; for someone depicted as one of the smartest racers on the grid, why didn't he simply back off on his outlap and get clear air? Vettel did it and put in a fantastic lap. Finally - and this one is debatable - Hamilton made an aggressive lunge on Pastor Maldonado at the end of Q2 at Spa. Now, it's true that Maldonado left the door wide open at the time, but Hamilton barged him wide on the exit of the Bus Stop, pushing Maldonado out onto the wet line. It's unlikely Maldonado would have made Q3 himself, but with the track constantly drying through the session, he did stand a chance at improving his lap time until Hamilton forced him wide. Hamilton's fans state that Hamilton should have the right to set a competitive lap time, but if that is true, then Maldonado has the same right. Like I said, taken on their own, these incidents are minor - but looking at the Maldonado incident and taking into account Hamilton's behaviour towards other racers, I think it's starting to show that Hamilton has no respect for other drivers. It's a "me first, me first" attitude, where if other drivers get in Hamilton's way, it's their own stupid fault. Of course, that's just my own opinion.
So, what do you think is going on inside Hamilton's head? And what do you think he can do to reclaim his mojo?
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) for almost 2 years in a row 
