Formula 1 - Lewis Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton 

 

With the British Grand Prix now over, the post-mortem can begin. Ferrari seem to have worked out which drawer they hid their mojo in, while McLaren continue to slip backwards from Red Bull’s pearless march towards consecutive Drivers and Constructors Championships.

McLaren’s problems currently stem from the inability to get both drivers to the finish. In the last three Grand Prix’s, McLaren have had one car fail to make the checkered flag two times. And on both occasions the reason is the same: everyone is trying too hard.

Candian GP 2011

At Button’s pit stop, the chief mechanic is so desperate to get Button out of the box as fast as possible, he reacts to the front right wheel man’s movements to grab his spare wheel gun, releasing Button with only three wheels attached.

As for Hamilton who tried one too many audacious overtakes at the Canadian GP, causing a drive shaft failure for himself and almost taking out eventual winner and team mate, right under the nose of the team after having a collision earlier with Mark Webber.

However, rather than berating the young Brit, Webber in simply pointed out that the checkered flag isn’t on lap three.

This is Hamilton’s problem. It’s no secret that has made more overtakes than anyone else this season, and that the McLaren isn’t a match for the Red Bull, but he suddenly feels the need to over take the entire field within one lap.

Is this arrogance? An expectation that other drivers will jump out of his way? Or, as legend Niki Lauda suggested, is Lewis just “completely mad”?

Turkish GP 2012

Personally, I believe it’s none of these things. What he needs to do, is relax. There is no denying that Hamilton is one of the best drivers ever to take to a Formula 1 car. His eye for an overtake, his bravery and composure are breathtaking to watch and when he is relaxed and enjoying his racing, he has a maturity that allows him to make sure his overtakes are fair. Just look at the racing he and Button have had against each other. On several occasions we’ve been left admiring the respect and fairness the two McLaren drivers have for each other while their wheels are a card’s width apart. This includes the 2010 Turkish GP after the two Red Bull’s smashed into each other, the two McLaren’s got very up-close and personal, but not even a puff from touching tyres was seen.

This is Lewis Hamilton when he is relaxed, composed and having fun.

However, jump forward to 2011 and we see a frustrated Lewis Hamilton who can’t win races, can’t keep up with the Red Bull’s and now is falling behind the Ferrari’s after starting the season with a notable advantage over the scarlet cars.

The problem is, Hamilton is a racing driver of the purest type. He is the sort of racing driver that you simply stick into a car, place that car on a track, and let him go. That driver will then haul said car around said track as fast as it can be hauled. No more, no less. Ask him to slow down to save tyres or fuel, he’ll either ignore you, be confused by the concept of going slow, or rant and rage at how the car isn’t good enough.

And we have seen Hamilton ignore the team call to slow down and we have seen him ruin tyres quicker than his rivals, but setting astounding lap times in doing so. Hamilton is a driver that races a car at 100% of it’s abilities, and this inevitably leads to him demanding more than that from his car.

It’s not all doom and gloom. In China Hamilton made some incredible overtakes and was rewarded for his exceptional drive with the victory. But as the season has ticked away, he has watched the Red Bull team streak away and frustration has set in.

Monaco GP 2011

This has been evident since Monaco. Not only did he start from 9th while his team mate started 2nd, he was taken on Lap 1 by Schumacher at the hairpin. His body language has screamed ‘frustrated’ for a while and this was shown when he attempted a pass of Massa at the hairpin.

However, because he is trying too hard, wanting to make overtakes that can’t be made, he ran out of room as was always going to happen, banged into the side of Massa and we then got to watch the McLaren understeering, needing a paint swap session with the Ferrari to make the turn.

It’s not as if he can’t make the mouth-open overtakes. At Monaco, he later got one back over Scumacher at Turn 1 thanks to the DRS, getting up the inside, making the apex and making the overtake stick.

Monaco GP 2011

This is the sort of racing that has earned Hamilton plenty of fans, including myself. He can make moves that most other drivers wouldn’t dream of, or would never be able to manage without smashing the car into little carbon-fibre shards. Anyone remember Takuma Sato? A brave and daring driver who made some extremely brave moves, quite a few ending in a mess.

Unfortunately, in his current state of mind, Hamilton is prone to moments of madness, and after the restart attempted the same move from much further back on Pastor Maldonado, the impressive Williams rookie. The Williams driver decided he was going to defend his position, as he is perfectly entitled to do, taking an early apex. Hamilton, with his death-or-glory move, ends up jumping the kerbs, tagging Maldonado, who ends up with broken rear suspension and front wing from the resulting accident.

Monaco GP 2011

Personally, I think this is racing. You’ve got 24 of the best drivers in the world sharing a few miles of road. It is inevitable that they are going to collide. This doesn’t absolve Hamilton from blame, despite his protests, on both occasions, Lewis shouldn’t have had the nose of his car where he put it and was lucky to finish the race.

To me, this is where a good, strong team boss is needed. After Monaco, Martin Whitmarsh should have sat Lewis down, had a few words about chilling out, relaxing and not worrying. Ok, the boy wants to win, and so he should. McLaren are as big and successful as Ferrari and Lewis is a talented driver who has all the stuff a champion needs.

However, McLaren should be pointing out that the 2011 championships are gone. There is almost no possible way for McLaren to take either title. And neither do they deserve them, they have not had the fastest car or the best package this season and are now only third best thanks to Ferrari’s revival.

I’d be telling my driver to get out and enjoy himself. Forget the title, forget beating Vettel, forget everyone. Just get in the car, go out and drive the wheels off of it.

Instead, we arrived at Canada and Hamilton still had that frustrated look to his body language. And what happened? He collided with Webber almost instantly, and was lucky not to damage either his car or the Red Bull.

Not long after that came one of the talking points of the season; Hamilton’s attempted overtake on Button.

The story is well know by now: Hamilton gets a better drive off the last chicane, pulls outside of Button to get the best position for Turn 1, just in time for Button to move onto the normal line. Touch, bang, Lewis is out.

Somehow, as Hamilton’s front right wheel touches the rear left of Button’s car, Jenson’s doesn’t end up smashing into the pit wall, something that would have resulted in both McLaren’s retiring. Button’s radio message of “What is he doing?” is a damn good question and the answer is simply that Hamilton, in his desperation to make something of his season is pushing too hard, expecting to make too many overtakes.

The Now Infamous Hamilton/Button Collision

As a result, Hamilton ends up with a bent drive shaft and retires. DNF.

How Button’s car remained undamaged is a mystery to me. While the suspension of F1 cars can absorb plenty of lateral movement, they do not like being placed under compression, i.e. Being hit by another car. Any fan of F1 will know how easily suspension components break, even over a seemingly innocuous touch.

And so here we are, with Hamilton now having dropped to fourth in the Drivers Championship from a clear second, with 95 points between himself and run-away leader Vettel. And even worse? Hamilton still appears frustrated and angry. He has even begun to respond to the criticism of pundits and commentators, saying he “couldn’t give a toss.” when asked about his thoughts on Lauda’s comments.

I take it as a bad sign when a driver has this sort of response. It suggests that he is not happy at all and that this anger is spilling out into the unforgiving media spotlight.

Again, this isn’t something I think I Lewis’ fault. Of course you get frustrated. Vettel and Webber had some seriously unsporting moments with each other during 2010, and Webber took several swipes at his team that season. Equally, Michael Schumacher has looked fed-up on more than one occasion since his return and Jenson has sounded very despondent this season, but this is where a strong leader is needed. Racing drivers want to win, and when they don’t or can’t, they are going to be unhappy. If the team just can’t provide a car to change that, then a leader who can restore the peace is needed.

Schumacher went from sounding like someone ready to retire (again) to sounding like he was enjoying racing again, and Webber has looked and sounded content through 2011, a miracle after some of the problems through 2010 and this is what is needed from McLaren.

For whatever reason, they can’t provide a consistently winning car to Jenson and Lewis, so Whitmarsh needs to get Lewis enjoying himself behind the wheel again.

This means taking the flack from the media, reducing the demands on Lewis, who has said he is being worked hard between races and giving him the opportunity to see in his own time, that the whole team is as frustrated and angry with the lack of victories as he is.

Hamilton is enough of a team player to respond to this and has in the past made a big thing of feeling loved by the team.

If he comes back after the summer break having been able to rest, gather his thoughts, and find that ice-cool attitude that makes driving a Formula 1 car fun, then we will see the champion Lewis Hamilton and his array of talent.

If not? Then sadly, perhaps his days at his boyhood team are numbered, a situation that I would be deeply saddened by.

MD