Links: Hamilton reacts to Alonso
Paddock Life – Shanghai edition – Lewis Hamilton: “I’m not here to make friends. I’m here to be successful, to win the world championship and enjoy my career in Formula One along the way.
[Alonso] was a double world champion. He came to a team and got beat by a rookie. I’m not here to be involved in any mind games. I’m here as strong as ever. I put my hands up and admitted I made a mistake at Fuji.
I have apologised to the team and now we move forward together. I have no need to play mind games with anyone. I’m here to do a good job and be competitive. The most important thing is to focus on my job. To be challenging for the world championship again is pretty cool in only my second year.” (Thanks Becken for the link)
Little Britain has it in for Lew and Andy – “What would we do if Hamilton or Murray actually won the F1 title or Wimbledon? We’d probably send them out on the back of a lorry through Trafalgar Square, just like our Olympians, but pelt them with rotten fruit along the way.” Des Kelly argues that British sports fans find it hard to celebrate their successful countrymen. After the gut-wrenching fawning over the Olympics team I can’t agree with him.
James Allen’s Grand Prix Diary – I didn’t realise James Allen had a blog…
Italy mourns Massas dwindling title dream “Tuttosport also agrees that Massa’s gloom after Shanghai was justified. ‘Massa is not the kind of driver to write an unforgettable chapter in Formula One history, but he is an intelligent guy. He knows that this was his biggest chance to realise his dream of the title.’”
Lingering fear that Hamilton is a mere passenger on drive toward greatness – “There will always be a testing ground of difficult conditions and new pressure, but if Hamilton’s progress has been spectacular, how much of it has truly been due to the superiority of his driving rather than the preparation of his car? In the last few days, Hamilton’s critics in the drivers’ room have been categorised as a gang seething with envy of a young man who has, maybe, failed to show much of an appreciation of his own good luck. Almost certainly there is something to this, but then Stewart’s assessment was scarcely shaped by the perspective of personal disappointment, not from the high plateau of three world titles in five years.
“There is also, but perhaps we should just whisper this, a theory in some areas of the pit lane that Hamilton’s talent would not necessarily sweep away that of such as Robert Kubica and Nico Rosberg if Mosley and the credit crunch just happened to impose the idea of standard equipment.”
the limit said on 22nd October 2008, 15:02
Hamilton’s response was predictable and quite refreshing for its frankness. Everything he said is true, as long as he keeps it in perspective, that Alonso was last years threat, not this year. The mind games, whether Hamilton wants to play them or not, will get worse as the Brazil showdown builds up.
Damon Hill is right, mind games are all part of ‘any sport’, and Alonso, as with Schumacher before him, knows how to play them. Hamilton has to prove to the world that he can overcome this, and sometimes keeping things to yourself is often the best policy. When Lewis is champion, then he should make these comments, but to do it now, shows that the mind games have worked on him.
Its a dangerous game to play, especially when you have the most to lose.
kirbster said on 23rd October 2008, 9:55
Lewis has already won almost everything he has raced in with standard engines including GP2 and beat whoever he happens to be racing. We know some teams are better than others and that is part of F1. But you cant take away his talent and just say its his car. Its like the idiots that think schumacher was nothing special but lucky with his cars. Their is an element of luck but if you look at top guys they always stuff their team mates in the same equipment, even Alonso could not stamp his authority over Lewis because Lewis is very talented. Even Schumacher commented on that very point and admits he is very impressed with Lewis. Standard engines sucks and will ruin the whole ethos of the sport.