May 29, 2015

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.


26 comments:

  1. Vettel saying to Lewis near the podium : " You owe me one!"
    Basically if Vettel was a Bas---d ; he could have get Lewis penalised; by let him pass at Casino curve.

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  2. This happened at the transition from VSC to SC. I saw that live and thought, excellent, ROS is going onto new tires and maybe make something interesting happen.

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  3. Seb's "I'm happy!" was the icing on the interviews.


    Did Nico know that Hammy screwed up when he was being so robotically gracious on the podium?

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  4. This is Epic...

    And this video made by Nico in instagram is even better!

    https://igcdn-videos-g-3-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/t50.2886-16/11336537_414275685421083_1529007606_n.mp4

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  5. It's amazing how much joy AC receives from Hamilton's misery. The despise is real with this one. Special circumstances like this won't happen every GP, which means Hamilton will be crowned championed at the end of the season.


    Kimi will most likely get fired and replaced by Bottas next year. Ferrari still won't be able to beat Mercedes, at best they'll get within 3 tenths to half a second of Mercedes. Alonso will continue to struggle with McLaren/Honda. Will you be able to stomach a 4th Hamilton title? I think not! What's likely to happen is you'll turn off F1 altogether because you won't be able to stand Hamilton's dominance. His hollywood lifestyle will irritate you even more, his poor fashion sense will drive you mad. The thought that someone so "fake" and undeserving and ungrateful will cause you to leave a sport you allegedly love. But of course you won't say that's the reason you left F1. You'll claim you left F1 because the racing has gotten boring, the cars suck, the venues suck, drs, pirelli tires, quiet engines...etc. But, lets be honest, the only thing keeping you interested in F1 at the moment is the possibility that some great misfortune like what just happened in Monaco will occur to Hamilton every GP. The majority of your articles related to F1 are generally about trashing Hamilton. See you in Abud Dhabi.

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  6. hey, if you want to cheer for a guy who behaves like that, go ahead, be my guest. Doesn't mean everyone else has to though.

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  7. I've followed and thoroughly enjoyed this blog for what must be 6 or 7 years now. Since the beginning I've noticed undertones of disdain for Hamilton. Personally I am not a Hamilton fan. I don't dislike him, I just find the down to earth family man image of drivers like Vettel and Raikkonen to be more relateable. But this blog seems to tear into Hamilton whenever there's a chink in the armor, more so than other drivers, and I don't understand why.

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  8. You have a weird little obsession with Hamilton, don't you?

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  9. Only when he acts like a douchenozzle, which is quite often as it turns out. :)

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  10. It's amazing how many Hamilton fans don't see his behavior as childish. He always thinks that he is the heir apparent to Senna, but he will never be as mentally strong as Senna in and out of the car and he will never get close to Senna's ability to control a car. Hamilton to me will always be the F1 social media champion, but not the best all around racer.

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  11. I find it harder and harder to keep coming back to this blog for F1 news/discussion. You attack and criticize Hamilton's immature antics (I won't argue that) with an article that is even more immature, not to mention biased. It's no surprise that it eats you up inside that Hamilton won last year and is heavily favored to be WDC this year too, but that doesn't mean you need a bunch of contrived stories throughout the year.


    Hamilton had a perfect weekend up until that point and winning in "Senna style" was more important than just picking up points for the race. What do you expect? Should he just have said "well, we tried our best, oh well" and then put on a smile and celebrated on the 'podium'? You imply that it's morally wrong to show negative emotions, yet this whole article stemmed from yours.


    And then when your readers call you out on it, you all but deny your disdain for Lewis and try to cover it up by making a few statements about Ferrari or other drivers/teams. Either preface these rubbish articles with "I hate Lewis Hamilton" or grow up. You actually have some insightful articles, but you tend to spoil your blog with this nonsense.


    /rant

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  12. I come back to AoO everyday precisely for the informed, editorial pieces. If I wanted whitewashed corporate speak, I'd just read the press releases.

    Funny how butt hurt everyone seems to get over A fresh perspective. Keep up the good work AC!

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  13. wouldn't it be boring if Axis was yet another cookie cutter, tow the party line place?

    Or one that would not publish dissenting views?

    But onto the matter on hand:

    If you read the piece more carefully you might have realized it's an indictment of the media who bought the Lewis as victim of circumstances, hook line and sinker.

    In fact Hamilton not only questioned his team and had the silly idea that giving up track position in Monaco with 10 laps to go was appropriate (hello, Senna Mansell 92) but he blew his pit stop by missing his marks. Hey, shit happens in racing, but man up, don't make the big scene trying to win sympathy.

    Unfortunately so many Hamilton fans like him because he's a celebrity not because of what he does as a racer, All you have to do is read a few of the comments on any instagram picture he posts. That fits Bernie's vision but if he thinks people will tune in to races because of his crotch shots, I think he's delusional.

    Keep Kardashian out of the sport please! :)

    Cheers

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  14. Lewis criticism is why I like this site (among other things)
    Lewis is a clown and I can't stand those bling bling wearing rappers (let alone one that drives F1 Cars and prefers to be Hollywood famous)

    But when he is on his game his among the best I have to admit (doesn't happen to frequently)

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  15. I wonder if it's jealousy. It does seem rather odd to base an assumption on an FIa promotional video.

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  16. Fair enough :)



    Lifestyle - I'll pass.


    Cars - Pretty epic collection, purple nurple Zonda or not.

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  17. I love your blog and you're absolutely entitled to your opinion. But I have to agree that this sort of whiney Hamilton bashing is pretty immature. I'm a HAM fan based on his driving. Sure some of the garbage he does off the track is embarrassing (trust me, all my friends give me shit constantly), but I often find the same people that complain about this are the ones that pine over the "good old days" when drivers had "personalities" a la James Hunt.


    Kind of a double standard if you ask me.


    He drove a brilliant race and yes, with millions of dollars worth of engineers MERC shouldn't have blown that call. Ultimately the racing goes on and he will most likely come back stronger.


    By the way - the supposed Portier radio call was completely fabricated by some Twitter bozo.

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  18. Don't worry. If nobody can catch Merc, fewer and fewer people will watch and the sport will die. A guy dominating in a car that is undeniably faster than the rest of the grid is boring, and doesn't deserve a world champion title. That's what British fans told me from 2010-2014. Interesting how the narrative changes when a British driver is driving the car that is light-years ahead of the grid compared to any car previously parked on a F1 grid.

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  19. Did you read the article? He stating that the engineers made the right call, but the team didn't stand up to their star driver and insist that he stay out, and then questions whether the teams of engineers are necessary if you are going to ignore them and when they make setup errors.

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  20. I don't think we disagree on his driving, he certainly was faster then Rosberg (unfortunately the only other car you can make fair comparisons to this year, so far). But you cannot deny he screwed the pooch wanting to come in and, when he did by missing his marks . So after the race he first made a big scene about losing, then he made a big scene about being "gracious" with the team and THEN he refused to show up for the team picture. There's no other term but douchenozzle for him....face it :)

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  21. I'm sure those are fake prescription glasses.... :)

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  22. I'm totally agreeing with him there so yes, I did read it. If you're going to pay them millions as a team they need to have to cajones to tell him they know best. I can't imagine there would be that much discussion otherwise if they insisted he stay out. All of this happened within a matter of seconds mind you.

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