Will the real sportsman please stand up?

Photo: Mercedes AMG Petronas

"I've just lost this race, didn't I?"

That "no shit Sherlock" moment was perhaps the last honest moment from Hamilton and Mercedes in Monaco,  everything that came after was pure Hollywood.

Motorsport media seemed eager to buy into the narrative of Hamilton first screwed by the team and then magnanimous on the podium with his proclamations of "we win and we lose together".  Some even praised him for his reluctant, no eye contact handshake with Rosberg.

Amazing.

Now, we don't want to say "I told you so" but we told you so.  It's pretty clear it was Lewis himself who instigated the idea of a pit stop...   in Monaco... when you're leading...with 14 laps to go....

I know, right?



The running over the 3rd place placard, the moping up onto the stage making sure everyone knew he was the victim of unfortunate events,   it was all for the cameras.  
Hamilton contemplated parking his car at Portier to go straight home and had to be told by Lowe to get his ass back to the grid.   I guess Lewis did not realize that when Senna stopped there in '88 he had crashed out of the race, not a podium finisher.   The whole scene was jst over the top,  a true sportsman would have just put his hand up and taken one for the team rather than hashtagging his misfortunes in instagram.

Mercedes of course is equally to at fault,  they should have stuck their plan and never allowed the pit stop to happen.
Wolff or Lowe should have gotten on the horn with Hammy and said something along the lines of "what have you been smoking Lewis,  stay out".   And they might have save for what happened last year, when Hamilton blamed his loss in Monaco on the team NOT pitting him.

Mercedes took the whole blame for the error after the race.  I suppose it would be bad form to suggest, in Monaco, in front of corporate big wigs and sponsors, that the guy you just signed for the next three years at something like $26,000 an hour could make laughably silly calls on track.

Interesting they would be willing to throw the staff, both at the track and in remote locations,  under the proverbial bus.  Their sole job is to work out every possible strategic permutation.

This calls into question the need for all this infrastructure.   If F1 is looking to cut costs, how come nobody mentions the number of engineering staff?  What's the point of remote "mission controls" if then this is the outcome?   Think of how Rosberg's car was bottoming out in the final phases of qualifying for example, how is that possible?  All those computer models and you still cannot set the proper ride height for Monaco.     Is it all a show?

Speaking of infrastructure,  can anyone explain why this elderly fan seemed so smugly excited and happy right after Hamilton pitted?    Because after he was blaming the team as well afterwards.

Also,  to clarify, we don't just pick on British media for being Hamilton fan boys,  I heard an Italian commentator claim Ferrari  were "brilliant" strategically for telling Vettel to get right up on Rosberg's gearbox while Hamilton was in the pits.

Well,  it's pretty clear from the video below, Vettel had no clue what was going on (he was weaving and warming tires on the front straight) and where Hamilton was up until the two were side by side.  

Ferrari have to thank Seb's presence of mind in that final split second for that second place.