So LH needs to bend the team sometimes jokingly known as McHamilton to his will

Lewis needs to perform better if he really wants to be seen as one of all time greats one day. This season, you cannot say he performed better or worse than Alonso and Vettel - he did have it until Monza and he could have won in 3rd best car/team, but he failed to do so. While everyone knows that Lewis has it he is yet to do that magic season where he will drive brilliantly without costly mistakes.

I wish you guys would make up your mind. It wasn't so long ago that Lewis controlled the team, apparently!

Not to say, it was Lewis who taught Fernando everything he knows about building the team around him .

Amusing isn't it?! I never thought we'd hear that one of lewis's weaknesses is not making himself central enough to the team! But always fun to monitor the consistency of opinion and how they change to suit agendas, often taking positions completely contrary to those taken previously.

The truth is, it was only one mistake wich made the difference between being the great winner and now being the "great loser"
Lewis made not much wrong, less than others, but he had to pay more than the other drivers for his mistakes
The McLaren was a car which forgave nothing, Lewis season was one which forgave nothing, the media forgave nothing
and even Lewis himsef forgave nothing to himself.
He did not perform bad, he was the best driver in relation to the performance of the car and the other drivers
but he drove so brilliant at the first half of the season that everybody forgot, the car was not up to the place where Lewis was when they where leading the WDC.

While the RBR drivers and Alonso could allow themselfes a couple of errors without consequences, Lewis knew he had to be flawless if he wants to win the title
He fought an uphill battel and punched above his weight until Monza, but to pull it through the whole season was too much with a car which fell more and more behind every race until Abu Dhabi.

You are right, if Lewis won this year with this car, he would have been already one of the all time greats,
but on the other hand would any of the so called all time greats have won with the MP4-25 if he was in Lewis car/ position this year?
Would any of them have performed better?
I don't know

It's not only Monza, he was a bit lucky with some other mistakes like Spa one... but wheter mistake takes points or not is what counts. Fact is, if he started doing at Monza what he was doing later in season he would be a WDC now and would be praised as WDC in third best car.

That's why I'm a fan of Lewis he isn't afraid to try nothing ! He just goes for it . What's point in settling with 4th or 2nd don't get that higher place if you don't try! He will win title next year I'm sure of it . With the non finishes he had he was only 16 points shy of vettel. Best driver of season in my opinion . And no not just saying that because I'm a fan just a fact in my eyes . Roll on 2011 watch Lewis show these critical jealous idiots what he's made of!

If I were you I'd keep a copy of this post, there's a good chance you could repost it in 12 months, just having to change Hamiltons points gap to the 2011 WDC, and the year to 2012!

What's that suppose to mean?

Yes and no one knows it better than Lewis himself (you can read/hear it in his interviews)
I hope he gets over it soon, gets his head clear, sort out the woes in his life and start with new confidence in 2011.

Don't care
Aspi just wants to tease all Lewis fans

This pretty much should shut the detractors up. WHO OF THE CURRENT FIELD COULD HAVE GOTTEN MORE OUT OF THE 25 THAN LEWIS? Possibly Fernando, and that is IT, and not much more, if anything at all counting the mistakes he made early in the year. Considering that Lewis and Fred are the two best drivers of the current lot, That does not seem unreasonable at all. There is no one else that couldve gotten more. It's not like another world champion was driving the same car all year, made NO driving errors/attempts to pass that resulted in a DNF (but was crashed into which cost him 18 points, still not enough to finish ahead of Lewis,) and had ultimately better reliability in the same damned car! He didnt do much with it. Honestly, some of doubters cling to some ridiculously thin straws let me tell you, and its hilarious to watch the BS-ometer go off the chart when as65p, Bruce, Jpw and the other usual anti-lewis brigade come running. Who else? Webber? Vettel? Rosberg? Kubica? Schumacher? Button?

Good luck with that. Lewis aint perfect, not by a long shot, but the lengths some of you go to and the silly things you try to use to detract from his performance is laughable.

Yes we'll keep a copy of this post

McLaren used to be McHamilton when Dennis was in charge. Now we have a second driver personality in the team who did not fall out with the team boss like Alonso did, and who is able to pick up the pieces, if Lewis fails to score. And that man has considerable sympathies in the McLaren garage.

That´s what I mean with Lewis having to assert himself and take charge of the team. All the little incidents around Lewis and his reactions and volatile mood swings have done nothing to endear him more to the team. In fact, as of end of 2010, the atmosphere between Lewis and the team is colder than it was at any time of their association.

It´s in the little signals - you can see the end of a relationship in the little signals first.

That´s supposed to mean you can post the same thing in the end of 2011 and in the end of 2012 again, as Lewis is consistently losing mental zeal. He didn´t get it together this year anymore, and chances are 50-50 that he gets it together again next year or in two years.

The opposition is not getting weaker.

Thats true i belive that Vettel has something like 47/53 chance of putting his mental zeal together next season Alonso somthing like 51/49 depending on the weather in norway, Button is not looking good hes about 44/56 chance....

And don´t ever think I´m makeing this stuff up

Sorry to ask but, who do you work for? McLaren?

You know sh%t about atmosphere between Lewis & team, just like me and anyone else.

If you´re McLaren employee than my bad and I´m sorry!

Contrary to Vettel, Alonso and Button (who are solid in the mental department - to go to McLaren was a sign of mental strength and confidence on the part of Jenson), Lewis just confessed a few days ago that this year he was not fully focused, due to private matters.

My analysis brought up this point a few weeks earlier - it´s clear for all to see anyway. Now Lewis brought it up himself.

I do hope for Lewis that he focuses on what is important in 2011 and does not look left or right. Especially if he wishes to emulate his great role model, who did not look left or right in his most successful years....

Another thing, this is to all Lewis fans: I deem it completely feasible, that Lewis himself is glancing into this thread once in a while. He is a guy who kept touch with the base, and it matters to him what people think about him. There is probably no other F1 driver who is so forthcoming with fans like Lewis is - which is because to him his fans and what they think about him really matters. Take Alonso: do you think it really matters to him what others think about him?

In some ways, Lewis is still a kid, gone world star, who is very human and vulnerable.

Do you think you are doing him a service by hyping him as the best constantly or would you, were he to read your utterings here, be better served by a sincere discussion of his strengths and weaknesses? By telling him: "Lewis, you can be an all-time great, but you´ve got to keep it together, don´t look too much left and right. You have the talent, the incredible driving and overtaking skill, in some ways you have already been the best for years, but you have to make your package complete!"

While you may think I am enjoying fantasies here I just alert you to the possibility. Lewis is fantastic, but don´t blind yourselves and overlook the areas where Lewis still has to improve to become the complete package.

That´s what I mean with "mental zeal, that is lacking".

What signals do you mean?
For me and some others it looks like Lewis is more tied to McLaren than ever
without Anthony at his side, Lewis travels alone or with the team
(at Korea he took the team bus as other drivers chartered a plane to Seoul)
he goes playing golf with his RE
he is managed by McLaren, Whitmarsh is his temporary manager (in his job as TP)
Lewis said recently that he probably stays forever at McLaren, he needs not to drive for Ferrari or any other team
he could imagine to stay the next 10 years or so.
Whitmarsh said something similar
Sometimes it looks more like Lewis is assimilated from Macca, than he would ever change to another team.

And for the "2nd" driver in the team
the team and we saw, that even a distracted Lewis is able to beat this 2nd man by 75% of the season easily!
What do you think, if Lewis was not "ailing" (according to MW lewis was in bits at the start of the season) at the first races of the season, had Button ever had the chance to win two of this races?

This is the reason why Lewis has so many fans

And it's really good that he is like he is

He is not an grouch like Alonso
a spoiled brat like Vettel
a smug playboy
an arrogant a** like some others

Lewis is an human human being who cares about what the people think, the so called fans without them, F1 and their drivers where not in that exposed position like they are
At least Lewis is clever enough to realize , that it's the fans who watch the races, who buy the memorabilia, who save their money to buy some expensive F1 tickes , who travel 100erds of miles to see him /them racing live.

And This:
"Lewis, you can be an all-time great, but you´ve got to keep it together, don´t look too much left and right. You have the talent, the incredible driving and overtaking skill, in some ways you have already been the best for years, but you have to make your package complete!"
I'm sure he already knows, better than anyone of us.
He gave his season a 6 out of 10 for this year.

Sorry, but spoiled brat and Vettel don't go together. He is not from rich family(to be spoiled I mean), he don't have support of strong F1 team all his racing career. He didn't start his F1 career in the best team, he fight his way up. And he is young, he can make mistake for his age, but not because he is spoiled brat. But, if this make you feel better...... For me it is all about age, as it is with Lewis. They need more life experience.

Where did mental strength and zeal get Jenson? He finished 5th in the WDC

You have not to be rich to be a "spoiled brat"
but perhaps it was the wrong word
I think Vettel is childish without being naive or unaware.
He knew since the age of 14 that he will have a F1 seat when he is old enough
He was supported from RedBull since early age, and he had the support of BMW for some time.

Vettel was a nice guy, before he raced for RBR, perhaps he will be it once again, when he has more life experience.

It goes without saying that you have a right to that opinion, but I suspect that more than a few would dispute with your implication that it is a fact.

All one needs to do is replace Vettel with Lewis, and RedBull/BMW with McLaren and I can swear I've read a thousand other posters claiming the same thing about Lewis. It makes as little sense applied to Vettel as it did when it was applied to Lewis.

If you think that Lewis needs to read this forum to understand where he needs to improve then your opinion of him really is a low one.

Care to support this statement with something?

BV - it's difficult enough on this board to deal with unfair posts about Lewis without being consistently undermined by posts like this, slagging off other drivers to support Lewis really isn't the way forward.

its clear now you just hate Lewis.
You go to such extremes and ignore facts to shore up your stupid and wild claims with what?
half baked ideas and idiotic claims such as the one above so lets look at it.
the Alonso who is only happy when he has a lap dog as a team mate.
The Alonso who self destructs whenever he has someone challenge him.
The Alonso who mid season was screaming down his mic what about Lewis.
yes surely a clasic example of mental fortitude

Shall we move onto Vettel now or just lol at you when we consider how Vettel has acted all season long.

Button i will agree with but perhaps we should remember last season when Rubens was beating him and how he started reacting then.
However this season he has been more settled surely that not only has something to do with him but also his team mate and even more so the team.
But then that wouldn't fit in with your twisted view of everything Lewis would it.

I'm intrigued as to what examples Aditya will give of these volatile mood swings.

Wholeheartedly agree. It's a shame some can't see that their rhetoric is exactly the same as those they complain about. Just swap the drivers names and it's an identical mantra.

In fact, you are right!

Regardless of other peoples opinions, i feel Lewis did rather well this year, apart from a few minor blips, and it seems im not the only one.

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/12/29/lewi...driver-of-2010/

Lewis voted the best driver of the year, by the readership of F1 Fanatic and before Halifax or additya mention bias he won one of 3 polls:
Kamui Kobayashi won best overtaker ( i Know! )
Kubica won best overtaking move of the season.

Breakdown of the nationalities that visit the site, acknowledging that not all british F1 fans support British Drivers
http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/forum/topic.php?id=437

2011 can't come soon enough!

Dare I mention bias!

This says it all - F1fanatic's readership top twelve:

United Kingdom 33.02%
United States 12.29
Australia 6.33
Canada 3.38
Poland 2.84
India 2.43
Netherlands 2.23
Spain 2.14
Brazil 2.11
Germany 1.98
Italy 1.71
France 1.51

He is just giving his readers what they want.




Happy Holidays!

Very well said.

This was Lewis' choice - love all these tracks actually. Really good interview.

Travie McCoy — Billionaire.
will.i.am & Nicki Minaj — Check It Out.
Jessie J — Do It Like A Dude.
B.O.B Ft Rivers Cuomo — Magic Ft Rivers Cuomo.
Drake — Best I Ever Had.
Nicole Scherzinger — Poison.
Scorcher — It's My Time.
Professor Green — Jungle.
Cee Lo Green — Forget You
Rick Ross — Maybach Music.

Just --one-- mistake?

Wich one was that?

1. The Japanese mistake?
2. The Korean one?
3. The abu dahbi one?
4. The Monza one?
5. The Singapore one?
6. The Spa one?

And Lewis forgave himself nothing? Didnt he always claim that 'he would get stronger from this'?

And the stewards did not forgave the

- impedinging Petrov from overtaking?
- racing over spaces of other etams pitboxes?
- overtaking of a safety car?

Then there is the superior thinking of Button who gave Mclaren their first wins of the season.

Im sorry, but this must be THE most blinkered pro-hamilton post ive read in a long time. You should rethink it a bit and include all mentioned events, although im sure youl find a way to sugarcoat them and get down to one single mistake wich defined Lewis season.

1968 Shelby GT500

Read again perhaps you get it
it was a metapher



It was only one mistake which made the difference between winning or losing the title....etc.etc...

Lewis not forgiving himself was a metaphor?

Happy New Year Lewis!

I think you will beat your teammate again and be third behind Vettel and Alonso in 2011.

Good luck to you.

Given you dont know who will have the car for 2011... can you also let me have the lotto numbers please.

When does LH officially become an american??

That whole interview and especially the music was a serious test of my fandom....

Glad i missed it dont like any of those tracks

I don't know since when he has the classic Shelby GT500, he said in the radio interview he likes to cruise on the mountain roads of Switzerland on sunny Sundays for relaxing.

Well, if his choice of music or cars are as important to you as what he does on the track......... I guess I'm different to some fans. I have no interest in what he does away from the circuit, if he has a different taste in music to me, etc To bother about that, or take an interest in it is the definition of fanboyism!

...as I said in my intro post i've been perusing this forum for a few years (as well as James Allen's blog) and I gotta say the off-season really seems to bring out some bitter comments, bordering on just plain nasty - to repeat a phrase my old ma used to tell me "if you've nothing nice to say it's best to say nothing at all"; some here would do well to remember this...

Like most successful racers Hamilton generates his fair share of nutters who follow him only to snipe. Hamilton is simply too good for comfort for some- this forum is their outlet to redress the balance.