“Zero problems with Bottas” over data-sharing – Hamilton

2017 F1 season

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Lewis Hamilton has said his views on data sharing were not intended as a criticism of Mercedes or his new team mate.

The three-times world champion drew significant attention for remarks in an interview last week in which he complained his team mates “can see everything” about his approach to driving.

Bottas has replaced Rosberg this year
“If I can’t do it on my own then I’m not good enough and I don’t deserve to be there,” said Hamilton. “And there are some drivers that don’t.”

On Monday Hamilton said on social media he did not want his views taken as a criticism of his team.

“I wish to clarify, I have not hit out at my team at all,” he said. “My point on data sharing is solely my feelings about the sport in general.”

“It has been my feeling since the day I started F1 and still is ten years later. There is zero problems in my team, zero problems with [Valtteri] Bottas.”

Hamilton discussed his new team mate’s arrival during the same interview last week, saying it’s “not really something I think too much about”.

“I know him very little but it is interesting to see how it’s going to go, how he’ll be, how quick he’ll be, how quick he adapts, how he does with pressure, all those different things,” said Hamilton.

“I would say the most fascinating thing is the mind of my competitors, what limits they’ll go to. Some people will sell their mum to win a race, sell your soul, and some people will do other things and it’s interesting to see where Valtteri will go.”

“Finnish people generally are lovely, very calm, very relaxed so we’ve got lots of positives coming with him just being a Finn,” he added.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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111 comments on ““Zero problems with Bottas” over data-sharing – Hamilton”

  1. This is a joke! There was no need to clarify what he said as there was nothing malicious in his words.

    1. I tend to agree but from the language used, “I have not hit out at my team at all”, that sounds to me like he’s read some over-the-top headline somewhere (something like ‘Hamilton hits out at team over data sharing’) and decided to respond to it. Which is fair enough.

      1. Agree with you Keith and that’s what’s annoying about it.

      2. Or maybe the team saw some of those headlines and asked Hamilton to “clarify” this before they get asked endless questions about how animosity between their drivers and about no.1 drivers before they even launch their car @keithcollantine, @kng11

        1. He probably read some of those outrageous comments regaring ‘what Hamilton should be doing/thinking/acting like’ on this very web site!

    2. Yes, but if Hamilton posted on his facesnaptube and said it was a lovely day, he’d be criticized for knocking British weather.

      … even if he was in Monaco at the time.

      1. The fact is LH spent much of last season hitting out at his team, accusing them of conspiring against him. At a bare minimum he could have made his remarks about driver data sharing more clear the first time such that no clarification was needed. Many people here assumed from his comments he must be talking about Rosberg so it should be no surprise someone asked him for clarification wrt now a new teammate/rivalry that he must know everyone is fascinated to see. LH can be pretty clumsy with his wording, as he proved last year. And as others have pointed out it is pretty hard to imagine LH has never studied another karter, or Senna, or Rosberg for that matter. Like he and his crew didn’t examine Nico’s better starts last year.

        1. I find it unreal, people would think he was talking about anyone specific without any reference to anyone specific. It’s the “assumptions” here that are the mistakes Robbie, not Hamiltons general statements. How could he be talking about Rosberg, when Ros made his own way into F1? Same goes for Bottas. He said, if a driver can’t figure it out, they,(plural and including himself) shouldn’t be there. Also, studying someone on your own without recorded data is a big difference. How could he study Sennas actual telemtry going into and out of corners, what gears he was in, how much throttle Senna used at each track, steering input that manuevers the car etc….?

          From you, a one sided angle to to the Mercedes clutch debacle. Where Wollf said it’s a design problem. They both had terrible starts last year, due to that clutch, of course the entire team would be looking at this, to solve a CAR problem, including Lewis and Nico looking at each others starts. If they were both jumping off the line, (they weren’t) there’d be nothing to look at would there?

    3. Sounds to me like Lewis got a rap on the knuckles from management, and is now pedaling backwards.

  2. Lewis backpedalling a bit there, eh. Why not man. I think the first time he meant it probably more towards Rosberg than vs. Bottas, who he hardly knows so far.

    If he had meant to say something in general about being somewhat unhappy how enormous amounts of data get used (and pushed onto the driver too) to make them improve their game, but the result is much the same as with hte cars – data driven, optimised, little discernable differences, etc, making it boring and less of a challenge, then I think there would be quite a few fans agreeing.

    Shame for him he didn’t say that, instead as coming off as a driver who is still struggling to cope with losing from a driver with less acumen on the brakes and somewhat less feel for the car who improved himself by studying data instead.

    1. Did you actually watch the interview?

      1. @Kgn11 I bet not, when it comes to Hamilton people like @bascb are very very biased.

        1. @patienceandtime When it comes to Hamilton people like @kgn11 are very very biased.

          1. You shouldn’t be talking.

          2. Oh….my…goodness!

            And this coming from you @robbie, who have admitted in these very forums yourself, how biased you are against Hamilton. (Because of his lifestyle)!!

            Give me a break!!!

          3. @stubbornswiss Yes it is a fact that some are biased for LH to the extent he can do no wrong. My bias against him has to do not as you inaccurately claim with his lifestyle, but with his attitude of entitlement.

        2. @patienceandtime When it comes to Hamilton people like @robbie are very very biased.

          1. Yeah and to be clear it stems from his attitude, not his driving or behaviour on the track. I couldn’t respect him for considering his season over after he won the WDC in 2015 with 3 races to go. And Nico went on to seven straight wins after which LH decided his team was conspiring against him. And yet people actually believe Nico ‘needed’ LH’s info to do that. Not just used info like all the drivers do, but ‘needed’ it to win….as if. And LH carried his terrible attitude right through to the last race of 2016 claiming a tell-all in 10 years. Hard for me to respect such an insecure person who can take all that he has been given and throw it back in the teams’ face.

            You can knock me for my opinion all you want, but I didn’t invent LH’s behaviour and attitude. He did. And for me it’s a turnoff. Anyone who likes and admires him for throwing his WDC team under the bus, go for it. Join the tinfoil hat brigade where 100% reliability in racing is supposed to be guaranteed and when it doesn’t happen it can only mean conspiracy.

            For me his disingenuine comments throughout much of last year have me wondering what if anything he says anymore is genuine or not. And that’s on him from his attitude and behaviour, not on me. He has made his own bed. Imho after 2015’s win and him wanting to phone it in after that, he had a new level of sense of entitlement that is grating, and has been tough on the team and a turnoff. For all that Merc has done for him they didn’t deserve his kind of thank you. The backhanded kind.

          2. @robbie Pls. post ONE link to where Lewis Hamilton stated that his team was conspiring against him.

            Thank you.

          3. No offence Robbie but I just love all this ‘care and worry’ for the team you keep on about. As if his dress sense had anything to do with it I might add.

            Further, HE delivered and given last year or even Monaco 015 or Austin 016 his team failed. Frequently when compared to his team mate. I ask you again. How many times did Rosberg start towards the back? When did he ever in 4 years start lower than 7th and that was self induced!

            He has every right to comment on last year. Particularly after Austria or that farce in Abu Dhabi. Or indeed the first four races.

            But not in your eyes. He needs to be somehow grateful for the fact he and he alone took the risk of a lifetime to join a team that was mid field at best and going backwards. A suicidal career ending decision according to just about everyone. During the time they existed he had won more races than anyone bar SV and all that during the Red Bull years I might add. Who else got a pole in 2011? You know his terrible awful worst year where he won more than anyone currently residing at the second best team?

            Yes Mercedes came good but with respect he has had far more impact on the team coming good than anyone they employed before even the statistically best driver of the generation and given he wins twice as many races as the other car season on season, last year was actually an incredibly restrained criticism.

            Particularly in light of the complete slap his erstwhile team mate gave the poor down trodden team when the ducks, the team and luck all lined up to give him an undeserved championship.

            No such caring there was there? But no let’s keep telling everyone LH was somehow disrespectful. Following a year rather similar in pit strategy and reliability to the disaster that was 2012?

            At least he is still racing for them!

          4. @stubbornswiss I don’t need to post anything for you when you will sit there and, as above, inaccurately accuse me of a certain bias toward LH about his lifestyle that I’ve never held. Why don’t you post my posts where I have said his lifestyle is something I’m indifferent about?

            As to references to LH’s accusations of conspiracy, let’s just start with the last race of the season where he talked about a tell-all in 10 years time. Some ‘higher power’ yeah right…only his Mercedes powered car amongst them all…the crew swap ‘for no apparent reason’ when he would know exactly the reason…you know…all those innuendos throughout the season that you would like swept under the carpet and would like me to regurgitate like I’ve pulled them out of a hat or something.

          5. @drg I’m sorry but I had to stop at ‘a suicidal career ending decision according to just about everyone.’

            And here I sit accused of accusing others of bias? Talk about over the top. At least I have not invented anything in order to have shaped my opinion about LH’s attitude of entitlement.

            And for the record I was one of the ones back then that thought LH was doing absolutely the right thing leaving Mac for Merc.

          6. @robbie My dear Robbie, you did admit to being biased against Hamilton because of his life style. Right here in these forums. If I have the time, I shall try and find the thread and post a link.

            And while I’m doing that, maybe you can post actual links to where Hamilton ACTUALLY states that his team conspired against him last year. In these times of ‘fake news’ and ‘alternative facts’, one needs to take responsibility for what they are disseminating.

            Cheers!

          7. @stubbornswiss I’ll save you the time. I have been vocal about LH’s lifestyle wrt 2011 when he admitted off-track distractions were costing him on the track, and I thought that was terrible for the team and all those who spend the hundreds of millions to field his car to hear. So for that year, when his lifestyle affected him on the track, yes I disagreed with LH for doing that. In these more recent years when his lifestyle has come up I have expressed indifference since it seems to have not cost him on Sunday’s. His lifestyle is his business, until it affects the product on the track, but his attitude of entitlement as displayed imho since he won his 2015 title, is hard to take.

            And as far as you, now, after all the back and forth we’ve had throughout last season, asking me to find where he used the word conspiracy, is disingenuine. I’ve used that word all along. He would never use that direct an accusation and you know it, but you are being ridiculous to take a word I’m using to sum up his behaviour and claim that because he hasn’t used that specific word, therefore he has not called out his team on several occasions throughout last season.

            Again, I didn’t invent the things he has said. If you wish to deny what he himself has said, and somehow deny that he has at least hinted at Nico being favoured (there is that better for you) then don’t wonder when I occasionally accuse some around here of bias toward LH in a he-can-do-no-wrong kind of way. If you don’t want to call his accusations ‘conspiracy’ talk, what would you call it then? His words are in plain black and white…I didn’t invent them…so if he is not accusing them of conspiring against him, what did he spend much of last season accusing them of then?

            He publicly raised concerns about the crew swap ‘for no apparent reason’ which was disingenuine, only his car having the issues when all other Mercedes powered cars have had ‘none’, ie. A higher power must be at play, his accusation that Nico doesn’t have a single worry when it comes to reliability, also disingenuine, his hissy fit and threat to quit, and right at the end his talk of a tell-all once he’s out of F1.

            I guess if you take such offence at the word being used, you disagree with LH then? He wasn’t in fact conspired against with favouritism toward Nico? All was fair and reliability is just something a team can not predict nor guarantee, let alone be even steven for every driver on every team at all times?

          8. @robbie Your post is way too long. I stopped reading when you started calling me ridiculous.

            On several occasions you have stated that Hamilton claimed his team was conspiring against him. All I ask, as have others in these forums, is that you provide direct evidence of this claim.

            If not, please stop spreading ‘fake news” and “alternative facts”.

            Cheers.

  3. Just like when he said he wouldn’t deliberately go slower in Abu Dhabi? I wonder if he’s figured out a response to the question of what he would have tried if Rosberg had the guts to overtake, or if anyone will dare ask… Selling your soul indeed (not necessarily a bad thing).

    1. Lewis didn’t say he wouldn’t ‘go slow’ during the Abu Dhabi race. He said he didn’t think it would succeed in pushing Nico sufficiently down the finishing order to win the championship. He was proved right by trying the tactic as a last resort.

      That’s the difference between him and a lot of the journeymen, he never gives up trying. Monza 2009 was another such example.

      1. *Ahem*

        “I always really just try to, if I’m out ahead I want to be as far ahead as possible. Generally when you have a 18, 30 second lead, that’s as painful a blow as you can give to the guy that you’re fighting. So you look at the last race, if we didn’t have red flags, I would have been 30 seconds ahead. Those scenarios for me is more valuable, more of an achievement than backing up your team mate.”

        “It’s going to be a weekend like any other where I’m going to go for the race win and do what it takes to get that,”

        C’mon, it was clear as day.
        https://www.racefans.net/2016/11/24/backing-rosberg-up-not-practical-says-hamilton/

        The mental side of the sport is all part of the game and I fully understand and respect Hamilton for playing it the way he does, but to bend the facts and pretend he isn’t playing the mental side, like every good driver (or really any competitor) does, is silly.

        1. Tristan. Sorry, don’t see anything in your links that says Lewis wasn’t going to back Nico up, he chose his words very carefully.

          1. Just like he chose his words carefully when making comments about people not deserving to be in F1 without mentioning anyone.

            Kind of my point exactly, he can say something and mean another.

          2. Or even now about how he says he has “zero problems” with Bottas. It doesn’t mean he thinks Bottas is a great driver. He even goes so far as to question how fast Bottas will be, how he will deal with pressure, what lengths he will go to to win, even ends with a nice little compliment to the Finnish people.

            But particularly says nothing nice about Bottas at all really.

            Carefully chosen words.

          3. Just like he chose his words carefully when making comments about people not deserving to be in F1 without mentioning anyone.

            Kind of my point exactly, he can say something and mean another.

            I think you’re trying, and failing BTW, to reinvent your original point, which I remind you was

            Just like when he said he wouldn’t deliberately go slower in Abu Dhabi?

          4. It’s the exact same point, and I’m amazed you can’t see it.

        2. Agreed

          There is really no difference in mental or non mental side when you are competing. All fibers of your being is fully employed in the making of a great driver, physically, spiritually, emotionally, mentally, all aspects.

          Greatness is about being able to combine those seamlessly to produce desired results.

    2. @Tristan There was nothing wrong about the data sharing, it’s people like you who make a drama out of it. But now you have your chance to slate Hamilton, i’m so tired of people like always moaning about Hamilton.

      1. Damn right I’ll make a drama out of it :P the drivers personalities are a very entertaining part of Formula 1.

        1. It is perhaps a good thing however that you are not part of a strategic decision making process in a competitive environment because it would seem you feel it is more appropriate to state clearly what you intend to do thus enabling everyone you are competing with to formulate plans to thwart you.

          Just as Mercedes did. An astoundingly biased decision I am sure they now wish they had not entertained.

          1. What on Earth are you on about?

            :s

          2. Think @drg has you there @tristan :-D

            The complaints about Hamilton saying he wouldn’t back Rosberg up but then doing so are quite unbelievable. If the world championship is in the line and you don’t do that then you ain’t a racer in my book. How this is still being dredged up baffles me, almost as much as all this talk of how Hamilton should have instead sailed off into the distance for the win, let the world championship go and just have been grateful.

            Sometimes people say things and they can be open to interpretation. That statement from Hamilton about some drivers not deserving to be in F1 certainly was. I took it that he was talking about some of the pay drivers, but I can see why people have come to other conclusions. It’s easy to criticise and say he shouldn’t come out with open ended comments, but he’s so famous that hidden meanings are looked for regardless of how open the comment is or not. It must be tiring and difficult to be careful what you say all the time. We’ve all been there when something we’ve said has sounded differently to how we intended it. From time to time he’s gonna need to clarify things, mainly because he’s human.

  4. Lewis is really putting some pressure on Valterri, especially in the last few paragraphs in this article. I’ve got nothing against HAM as i really enjoy his driving, but as a person he starts too sound a bit too arogant lately.

    1. Exactly, even if it isn’t directly malicious it certainly sets the tone of “I’m the best and I want to see if you’re good enough.”

      1. And what’s wrong with that?

        1. I never said anything was…

    2. You’re confusing confidence and self-belief with arrogance

      1. I see confidence and self-belief in guys like Danny Ric or Jenson Button who seem like genuinely nice guys and (probably) a pleasure to be around. LH not so much, but all F1 legends tend to be somewhat this way.

    3. @gechichan So what is so arrogant about what Hamilton said, please explain that, cause i’m tired of people like you saying he’s arrogant while he is not.

      1. “…tired of people like me…” come on man, you don’t need to get so worked up, everyone’s entitled to an opinion.

        I feel that comments like “not really something I think too much about” regarding his new team mate is a bit arrogant. I’m sure he has other important things to think about on vacation, but professionally speaking a new team mate is a pretty big deal.

        Also, his comment regarding “…most fascinating thing is the mind of my competitors, what limits they’ll go to in order to win / sell their soul, etc…” i have interpreted it as everyone needs to sell their mum / soul / etc to beat me. Maybe i misread it, but this is something coming from the man who made a fool out of his friend Paddy Lowe in the last race in Abu Dhaby. He disobeyed 2 direct orders from Paddy, making him (and the team) look bad because he just wanted to win – didn’t matter if the team lost 2nd place, it only mattered that he won.

        1. @gechichan that’s ridiculous – the championship was on the line and you believe Mercedes had the right to ask Lewis to hand the WDC to Nico (Mercedes sure enough handed it over the year) just so Nico could finish 2nd in a race. Paddy didn’t know where to hide…

          Even Nico doesn’t want to deal with Toto and Nikki and they bought him a WDC – says it all.

          Lewis isn’t saying this by chance – there are precedents probably… We are all assuming Nico retired.

          1. and you believe Mercedes had the right to ask Lewis to hand the WDC to Nico

            Even though i don’t agree with that team order in Abu Dhabi, Mercedes has the right to do whatever they want if this helps the team. It’s their billions that made these guys champions, not the other way around.

          2. Getchi.

            I think you will find one already was a champion long before he joined the team.

            The previous team mate certainly spent time repaying those billions. In such a way I very much doubt there will be a repeat of such ‘helping’ the team.

          3. Exactly.

            There is hardly any need for guessing just look at their expressions at various points.

            It’s clear they went all out to cook that title for Nico. And even that effort was hardly enough to buy Nico the championship which was clearly behind all the panicking in the last few minutes in the final race.

            They knew there wasn’t gonna be a crash since Nico was the crash merchant.

            If they had no skin in that race there would have been zero need for panicking. LH was always controlled and commented to them to let the drivers race.

            They should quit trying to control the outcome and let the chips fall where they may as long as they conduct themselves fairly in competing.

          4. @gechichan regardless of the team spending the money, the wrong call is the wrong call. If someone asks me to do something that I consider wrong and I don’t agree, then I don’t do it. Mercedes were wrong. Hamilton had part of his life ambition on the line and had the backbone to go for it. Paddy Lowe made a fool of himself for agreeing to give that order out.

        2. That is the interpretation you take when you are negative, i see it as him referring to things like Roserg did in Monaco and Spain.
          Hamilton has a certain idea of fairness and he hates the Schumacher tactics that he considers Rosberg used.

      2. Agreed. It is hard for Hamilton to be arrogant when he finishes 2nd to his team mate.

    4. It’s called gamesmanship. It is the art of winning games by using various ploys and tactics to gain a psychological advantage.

      Muhammad Ali said, “I am the astronaut of boxing. Joe Louis and Dempsey were just jet pilots. I’m in a world of my own.”

      Is it arrogance? Sure it is. But that is what gamesmanship entails. Using every available opportunity to bring yourself one step, one inch or even one millimetre closer to victory. They all add up.

      Lewis Hamilton is no different from Muhammad Ali. In fact, he probably learnt some of his psychological tactics from that man, considering his skipping “sting like a bee” moment. Is it wrong to use these tactics? That’s for you to decide personally. In my opinion, you can be a nice guy off the track, but to be a consistent winner, you need to be prepared to break the rules where you can get away with it and get into your opponents’ heads at every opportunity.

      1. If one believes that it doesn’t make the person wrong nor right, I meant the do anything part.

        True competition is about doing everything within your power without impeding the other guy.

        If the other guy is impeded by you they you are the first loser. A tainted victory cannot be sweet.

        This is not the first time LH mentioned the use of the technology to match your teammate but what LH may be ignoring is the fact that it is called “motor racing” not human racing which has higher degree of subjectivity.

        LH’s best bet is to keep more of a lid on what he exposes before the final qualifying. Which am sure they are already doing, “more of a lid” being the operative word here.

        It’s interesting that most comments here ignore the substance of what he was saying and spent most of the time on what most knew he didn’t mean.

        Here is my question.

        How can drivers put more of a lid on letting out their secrets and let their teams and team mates have a easy ride on their back during a race?

  5. I don’t see an issue with Lewis’ comments he just stated his ‘preferred state of affairs’ and realises this wont happen.
    Other teams gets his telemetry (not sure to what extent) so his team mate will as well.

    Lewis, like Alonso, over the past 12 months have been giving their opinions on their thoughts for a better F1, they look at the Senna-Prost era where the drivers and engineers stopped all communication and each driver has to get the best from their car, rather than the team share all, which has been Mercedes approach. They also honestly believe they will beat any driver in the same car- I like that! But in modern F1 I cant see it happening.

    Some think they are having a whinge (and they both do at some stages, like they all tend to) but if us F1F’s can sit here and have our opinions how to make it better, well maybe throw it to guys that have 5 WDC between them and have a listen.

    1. Wonderfully summed up!

    2. COTD

      Well stated. I really do not understand why when the guys actually racing for our enjoyment make any kind of comment that might just improve the show its immediately attacked.

      In fact I really don’t understand why people have such ridiculous for/against views regarding things that are said/done/worn/spoken about – it’s the primary reason I comment on here because I just don’t see why activity other than on the race track is any our business. Or how it in some way makes said (incredible in many cases) racing achievements less impressive.

      I seem to be in a minority.

      They provide our enjoyment.

      1. I see things differently in a way I guess. Anything they provide to the press is fair game for commentary. The press is part of the game. F1 is a sport but it’s also entertainment and what the drivers or teams say is entirely part of that entertainment.

        When the drivers take off their official hats and the “weekend” is done and they’re out of the eye of the press (which shouldn’t pursue them otherwise) that’s when it’s not any of the fans business.

        1. I agree with you here. But much of the commentary on him is almost always after the weekend is done. Hence I find it incredibly disingenuous when people justify a ‘dislike’ over such ridiculous rubbish.

    3. Interestingly, if indeed there was no such communication between Senna and Prost, we saw great animosity between them, with accusations of favouritism flying around. Yet with Mercedes much more open and fair to both drivers approach, what did we have…? LH accusing his team of conspiring against him. Just as FA accused RD of favouring LH.

      Yeah let’s ask the one’s who have 5 WDC’s between them. That’ll stop all the nonsense guaranteed.

      1. Robbie. Find one single quote where LH accuses his team of conspiring against him.

        The fact you think he said that is not in any way evidence of such.

        Position always influences perspective.

        You don’t like him thus…

        1. @Drg Shall we start with his comment ahead of the last race about some tell-all book that will reveal favouritism toward NR?

          What has happened in the off-season anyway? Somehow the LH-can-do-no-wrong crowd has decided nothing to see here? Didn’t happen? LH didn’t shade his team with his ‘for no apparent reason’ comment that caused TW to publish a letter defending the 1500 staff whose efforts culminate is a race winning and WDC level car for LH? Nah…none of that happened at all. Robbie is just imagining all that actually happened last year.

    4. Yeah, this is what I get also. All the references to Bottas and Rosberg are figments and assumptions. They were not in these words.

      1. Comment was an agreement with Evil Homer.

  6. So Lewis doesn’t like that he has to share telemetry data… Says the guy who tweeted a picture of some telemetry data?

    1. @tonyyeb McLaren lied to Hamilton saying that the two different rear wings had no impact, yet Button qualified 8 tenth faster then Hamilton and Hamilton tweeted the difference between the two rear wings. Did you even saw that yourself or are you just copying what other’s are saying ?.

      1. @patienceandtime Yes I remember the circumstances. Highlighting the double standards.

    2. I don’t think that incident really has much effect on his current stance. What I do find a little hypocritical is the fact that he gained massively from Alonso’s telemetry data during his rookie season. In fact, Alonso wanted to stop sharing his data with Lewis that season.

      1. So let’s see …..He gained massively from the established 2times champion he was consistently beating.

        Yes FA would have contributed but the team would have used both team mates data for setting up the cars.

        “Gaining massively” is overstatement.

        It could be argued that Fa was lucky to have won those 2 titles before LH joined. Since he hasn’t won any in LH’s era. Which is why most who are doubting the superiority of LH’s skills to FA as clearly biased and in capable of objectivity

  7. Love this…. He seriously thinks a team should invest millions upon millions on a car, employ a new driver and tell him, “work it out yourself”. Ludicrous. F1 is a team sport of constructors as much as it is a driver championship. In fact, it is so constructor dependent I’m guessing most would agree that even hamilton would not have won very many (if any) races in either the ferrari or red bull last year

    1. “Love this…. He seriously thinks a team should invest millions upon millions on a car, employ a new driver and tell him, “work it out yourself”. Ludicrous.”

      Way to completely misinterpret, or at worst, not even read what he said.

      He never said nothing about car setup, hes talking about a driver being able to see what hes doing regarding driving the track, and just being able to ‘trace’ it.

      Mongs everywhere.

      1. Agree with you ‘N’. If you look back at when Senna and Prost were driving for the same team, Senna did not allow any data sharing onto Prost’s side of the garage other than the car setup. Although the data was not as comprehensive as it is now, he would not allow the other driver to see where his braking points were, or his line into and through a corner. There is a difference in the basic car setup as promulgated by the engineers, which is freely available to both sides of the garage, to the personal decisions taken by the driver once he is out on the track. And that is the way it should be. These drivers are supposed to be amongst the best in the world and should be able to work it out for themselves.

        1. +1 +1 Completely agree with you both, drivers copying and tracing every single thing their teammate does on the actual track because they can’t find the limit to push their car, it just encapsulates one of the things very wrong in modern F1 on the driving side of things. How anyone can defend it is just beggars belief, you might aswell watch F1 cars drive themselves if you want to see every driver take the exact same line and breaking points copying each other’s track data in a “competitive” sport.

      2. Why wouldn’t Mercedes want both drivers to drive to the optimised (setup) car to it’s absolute potential throughout the track? Contrast Schumacher / Herbert.

  8. Lewis is ridiculous because he always says something daft, and then backpedals on it.
    “Not intended against his team or teammate”…
    Well who is it intended to?
    Did he think Toto’s gonna go to Red Bull and give them some telemetry shots? Or what?
    The whole statement wouldn’t make any sense if it wasn’t all about the team and the teammate, because no other scenario can even exist.

    1. Fairly obviously, it is meant as a point for formula 1 in general – he thinks that no one should be able to look at their teammates data. It was not a personal attack on his team or his teammate – it was an attack on the rule that permits this.

      In a similar way to when drivers complain about DRS – they are not personally attacking any driver that has overtaken them with DRS, they are attacking the rule itself.

    2. Hmm if you take off the blinkers for a moment you might just notice it is a vein he has held consistently since 2007.

      Yes he has used it in the past 07 – as did Alonso in reverse) but he is entitled to dislike the practice even when forced upon him through circumstance.

      You should perhaps hear the whole interview.

  9. Lewis finally saying what we all knew. Copycat Nico lucked out and ran like a thief.

    1. Thats what he wants people to think. Nico beat him then decided on a family life.

      1. Nope, ran like a chicken. Family life is a euphemism. Pwock pwock.

        Another one time champion we’ll quickly forget.

        1. “Another one time champion we’ll quickly forget.”

          You mean sorta kinda like Rosberg Sr.?

  10. One thing I don’t understand is why Lewis gets criticised so much by armchair fans with the same words Toto uses. We are a big organization, with x thousand employees blah blah blah. Never heard such HR bull in my life.

    I pay my subs to follow the drivers. I care not one jot about the teams, even Ferrari.

    1. so in your opinion they could or even should all be driving identical cars

      a huge part of f1 is the teams, and it has always been that way

      1. They could indeed be driving bathtubs with wheels. They all look the same to me anyway. What I love is the drama not the engineering.

        By the way, I bet your copy of Autosport has its pages stuck together from all the love you have for the teams.

        1. Drivers all look the same just different coloured helmets. Cars are all that counts not the meat in the cockpit, they come and go. Some like Hamilton should be kept in a box between races and only be taken out to be put straight in the car to drive then taken back out and put straight back in the box.

          1. Why not just put him in shackles and chains?

          2. Last time I checked Lewis looked different to Valteri, Alonso looked different to Vandoorne etc. All come from different backgrounds, have different personalities and traits.

            I couldn’t name you the cars, model numbers and teams of yesteryear but I can name you the great and not so great drivers.

            I can see why F1 has become the preserve of a small minority focussing on the wrong things. It’s all about the show ladies and gents, whether we like it or not.

            Thank God and Jos for Max Verstappen so I can follow another driver when Lewis and Alonso retire.

  11. What I’m wondering is, isn’t the whole reason Lewis was such a good braker was due to copying others in go-karting? He mentioned that his dad used to see where the best kids would brake, and force Lewis to keep trying the same. So maybe if it was up to only him to figure it out, he wouldn’t be the driver he is today. This isn’t a criticism of Lewis, just an observation.

    1. This is the thing that irks me. When people open their mouths when they should have first looked up the information before speaking so that they don’t sound ignorant….his dad didn’t have him brake at the same location, he had him brake past that point so that he would improve on his overtaking and reduce his times. But in the end that was it. He wasn’t telling him how wide the other driver took a corner or where to enter and exit, that was all through trial and error on Hamilton’s part.

    2. You got it wrong body, I think his dad asked him to brake past those other kids braking points.

    3. Are you a clown?

      There’s a difference in a dad teaching his child versus copycat Nico looking at detailed telemetry maps and being told what to do by his engineers…”Nico brake 10m later like Lewis”.

    4. @mashiat “This isn’t a criticism of Lewis, just an observation.”

      Me thinks your observation is wrong……. lol!!

    5. The comparison you made is like saying it is the same when an engineer looks at a competitors car and gets ideas from the way they do things with actually having the blueprints and designs of their car.

      Looking at another driver driving and getting things from it is fine but having detail analysis on every action around the lap he makes from braking, accelerating, steering input, brake balance changes etc etc goes a little too much.

  12. That’s interesting to read – I think there’s a lot of innuendo in this statement than his previous one.

    We obviously know very little about F1 ;-) What happens behind the scenes must stay there.

  13. Lewis says something daft, the media is all over, Mercedes tell Lewis is clarify, Lewis throws a tantrum. Nothing new here, we’ve seen this from Lewis for as long as I can remember. The season hasn’t even started and Lewis is on the verge of a mental meltdown. Lewis has no one to blame but himself… again. I suspect Lewis will retire at the end of this season if Mercedes doesn’t give him a car that’ll allow him to cruise to victories. He just doesn’t seem interested in F1 anymore.

    1. I don’t think that’s fair at all, nothing in this reads to me like a tantrum. He’s just clarifying his neutral position within the team that he doesn’t have any official stance one way or another.

      1. Absolutely.

        How do people read this as a mental breakdown?

        Or are we daft for being trolled?

    2. I’m new to this site and loving the clowns on here. You sir must be a renowned psychologist given your level of analysis of Lewis’ mental wellbeing. Let’s wait for the testing and the first race of the season eh?

      1. Lmao @bobf1 :-D

        If some people were to have been listened to, Hamilton would have retired about 4 or 5 years ago to pursue his rap career, but yet again he’s still racing, with some more world titles since then too

  14. If Bottas gets better results than Nico, it’d be the best thing happening to F1 in 2017. Forget the new cars…

    1. @praxis Agreed. I predict a win for Bottas in the first four races, and then the floodgates will open. This rivalry will be very interesting to watch, and I am pretty sure that the ultra-focused Finn will have an advantage over the media-sensitive Brit when it comes to the mind games. Also, Hamilton has it all to lose, while Bottas has it all to win. The pressure on Lewis will be immense.

  15. He probably said that cuz Rosberg studied the hell out of him to be able to capitalize on his mistakes.

    That didn’t make Rosberg a better driver, just made him more capable of putting up a fight.

  16. Fudge Kobayashi (@)
    21st February 2017, 1:57

    Nice dig at Rosberg in there, I assume the selling your mum comment is inferring to Rosberg’s dirty tactics at Monaco 2014 qually.

    1. And Spain and Austria. Someone gets it.

  17. Whenever I see stories about Hamilton starting to appear, followed by all the “armchair analysts” crawling out of hibernation, then I know the season is about to start.

    Welcome to Formula One 2017!!

    NB: I was going to send someone to wake up @robbie, but I see his is already much awake…….lol!!

    1. :)

      No offence Robbi – but this was funny.

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