Ecclestone criticises Hamilton’s management

F1 Fanatic round-up

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In the round-up: Bernie Ecclestone calls Lewis Hamilton’s choice of management “a disaster”.

Links

Top F1 links from the past 24 hours:

Bernie Ecclestone says showbiz link is a ‘disaster’ for Lewis Hamilton (The Guardian)

“I think it’s a disaster. He gets to meet people that probably he wouldn’t have met, and [who] have probably the wrong sort of influence on him. He’s at the age, perhaps, and he has the amount of money, where when he’s influenced, he can carry things through, which he wouldn’t normally have done.”

Official Statement (HRT)

HRT F1 Team is obliged to deny that Caterham Technology and Innovation, a subsidiary company of Caterham F1, will be in charge of the design and fabrication of the F112’s monocoque.”

Sauber via Twitter

“Unfortunately someone published nonsense about Kamui [Kobayashi] leaving our team. Stupid. We are very fond of him, he stays with us!”

Force India set to reveal drivers next week (GP Update)

“Silverstone-based Force India is expected to formally announce its 2012 driver line-up next week.”

Motor racing-Lotus happy for Raikkonen to take risks (Reuters)

Dany Bahar: “It’s not something we are focused on from a group perspective, saying: ‘This is Kimi now you have to do everything to protect him from going out of his own house’. It doesn’t work.”

Eric Boullier – “Over three years our aim is to be considered as one of the top teams” (Renault)

“Q: Did the fact that Romain is French make the difference?
A: Absolutely not! It was just another point in his favour. For our French partners like Total it’s a godsend to be able to take advantage of his presence as one of our drivers.”

Virgin Racing stake yields a loss for Lloyds (The Independent)

“The team, part-owned by Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group, was driven to a £35.3m pre-tax loss in the 14 months to 31 December 2010 following a disastrous £17.6m investment in a computer-aided car design system.”

F1 is a ‘sport as good as any other’, says Karthikeyan (Times of India)

“Amidst debate over the ‘elitist’ nature of Formula 1 and whether it qualifies to be a sport at all, Indian racing star Narain Karthikeyan on Saturday said that F1 is a sport as good as any other and the drivers involved in it work really hard.”

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Comment of the day

Electrolite thinks Toro Rosso deserved better than eighth – and their drivers deserve to keep their seats:

I want to see them both in the car next year. They’ve both impressed me, and for those two young lads to nearly claim sixth (Buemi’s reliability didn’t help) was fantastic to watch. 8th somehow doesn’t seem representative.
Electrolite

From the forum

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On this day in F1

Happy birthday to HRT team principal Colin Kolles who is 44 today.

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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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37 comments on “Ecclestone criticises Hamilton’s management”

  1. I think that’s the first vaguely sensible thing Bernie has said all year.

    1. @supernicebob Totally agree with you.

    2. I agree, Simon Fuller is no good for Hamilton…and hen also ruined American Idol, I´m never watching that show again…

    3. Well I guess he would know something about 20-somethings with too much money :P

  2. I thought Eric was an engineer and so his statements should be logical. I guess I was wrong.

    1. Which statement is illogical? The one about him hoping to make Lotus (currently Renault) a top team, or the one that explains why Grosjean got a seat? Grosjean got a seat because he was the best all-round person for the job. He brought money, talent and a good No.2 driver for Raikkonen. It’s no secret that the team have taken a big shock with the loss of Kubica, and now they have to make the right decisions.

      While it’s impossible to say whether this is the right decision at the current moment in time, I certainly don’t see anything wrong with the decision…

      1. I think it is to do with how Eric says Romain’s nationality didn’t affect his decision, and then Eric lists all the ways in which Romain’s nationality helped him make the decision. Erm…

        1. To be fair Boullier did not actually contradict himself. The question he was asked is whether Grosjean being French ‘made the difference’; i.e. was there another driver who was his equal, but who didn’t get the seat only because he wasn’t French?

          Boullier said this isn’t the case, but that Grosjean being French was just another good thing about him from the sponsor’s (and therefore the team’s) perspective.

  3. Boulier and the 3 year plan. I’ve heard that 3 year plan more than once before. Jaguar comes to mind.

  4. okay, now i am seriously getting sick of this: at this age…oh and how could i forget: he is so young ………FOR GOD SAKE….how long is he gonna have that “excuse”…..one would think that after years go by…

    1. Well he’s 26 now, so in 4 years he’ll be 30 and an old timer.

  5. @magnificent-geoffrey will love that tweet from Sauber :)

    1. @David-A Yes. Yes I did. :D

  6. ‘It was just another point in his favour’ I dislike Boullier, and this statement does him no favours. This is the pinnacle of motorsport. A team boss should look solely at a drivers talent, especially if they want to be the best. Grosjean has had a great season in GP2 but sentiments of nationality should have no place in picking a driver, even if it is just a point in his favour.

  7. So, Boullier:

    “absolutely not, but hell yeah!”

    Says someone who works at a team that designed front-exit exhaust pipes. Are they on drugs at Renault? :P

    1. Great comment! Really had a good laugh.

  8. Wahey, COTD number 3!

    Alguersuari in particular has to stay. Although I might be biased slightly – he’s pretty much the same age as me, and to imagine finishing sixth in a Formula One race is ridiculous!

  9. Wahey, COTD number 3!

    Alguersuari in particular has to stay. Although I might be influenced slightly – he’s pretty much the same age as me, and to imagine finishing sixth in a Formula One race is ridiculous!

    1. Thanks for making me feel old. :D

    2. @electrolite Nice one team mate!

  10. Does anyone else think it is ironic that Hamilton is being criticized for having showbiz-style management, yet everybody in F1, including Bernie, calls Formula 1 a “show”? Maybe Hamilton caught the wrong end of the stick? (Tongue-in-cheek!)

    1. Nice observation, @pianoshizzle – Tom, hadn’t looked at it that way before. I guess in a sense, what Bernie says about why he thinks its a mistake for Hamilton fits with that though.

      Saying he is still to young to be able to live with the show AND the sport.

    2. On the basis that Bernie always means the opposite of what he says, seems like Bernie likes the show. ;-)

  11. That HRT and Caterham link… wow… not see that coming
    I was more looking into Kobayashi & Bianchi news for the past week

  12. Oh, look: more talk from Renault about how Raikkonen is absolutely committed. In fact, there are two stories about it on Autosport’s front page. In fact, in the past two weeks, they’ve run nearly a dozen stories about Raikkonen’s commitment:

    * Lotus Renault accepts Kimi Raikkonen will need time in Formula 1 comeback
    * Lotus says Renault choosing Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean for 2012 and dropping Vitaly Petrov is a statement of intent
    * Lotus boss Dany Bahar has no doubts about Kimi Raikkonen’s motivation
    * David Coulthard says Kimi Raikkonen will return to Formula 1 stronger than ever before
    * Romain Grosjean: Chance to partner Kimi Raikkonen makes 2012 Lotus Renault seat even more alluring
    * Kimi Raikkonen will prove his critics wrong, insists Lotus Renault team owner Gerard Lopez
    *
    Vettel says Raikkonen may need time to be competitive when he returns to F1

    * Renault boss Eric Boullier sure Kimi Raikkonen will deliver in Formula 1 return
    * Former grand prix driver Jean Alesi says Kimi Raikkonen will be a boost for Lotus
    * Kimi Raikkonen says motivation not an issue in Formula 1 return

    Call me a cynic, but I’m seeing his team-mate, three team personnel, a sponsor’s brand ambassador, a commentator and a rival driver all commenting on Raikkonen’s return and moving to dispel talk of the Finn lacking motivation. For something that is supposedly not an issue, I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people talk for so long about how something doesn’t mean anything.

  13. It appears that Lotus are finally making good on their promises of sponsorship – all works-supported teams will run the same livery (and all customer teams will have a different livery) and they will all receive funding.

    1. Great! Thanks for sharing @prisoner-monkeys .

  14. I’m sorry, but I’ve got to say this: Bernie is something of a ****, isn’t he?

  15. Not sure how reliable or interesting this is (it looks pretty legitimate) but I came across this link about Kubica’s future –

    http://formula-one.speedtv.com/article/f1-kubica-will-test-2010-ferrari-report/

    1. @Ella Please no.. Kubica is a great driver and driving for Ferrari alongside Alonso will just completely ruin him, assuming he’s come out of this crash (relatively) unscathed… I’d far rather see him return with Williams and help build them back up than go to Ferrari alongside Alonso and see him completely destroyed…

      1. There is no way he can be worse than massa and like he said he doesn’t remember the accident. To him he was in a rally and then he woke up in…lets just say sedated pain, So long as he is 100% fit he’ll be as fast as ever after shaking the cobwebs off.

        1. how ever “La Gazzetta dello Sport” is not as reputable as say f1 fanatic and that rumour has been going around for a long time they could just be filling the pages.

  16. Bernie is really good at digging up old wounds isn’t he… Something will change for Hamilton, since he isn’t a driver that accepts the disastrous season he had this year. But it is a change he has to make for himself.
    And I think a lot has to do with the car to. Just like most champions for the last 10 years, if you have a car that can win races driving on the front of the pack for all the weekend, you are less likely to make mistakes. And those few mistakes don’t matter anymore.

  17. Oh man that Boullier guy is soooo out of his depth. Can’t even handle an interview without contradicting himself. Get that guy out of there ASAP, that team deserves better

  18. Bernies comments sound a bit racist to me

  19. I’m not convinced Hamilton’s woes are all down to lack of ‘proper’ management. Clearly he’s had some more personal issues and with the car not delivering as promised and the RB& romping home every weekend, frustration was going to set in regardless.

    This years frustrations will have him placed well for next year, if he learns from 2011.

    About time too Force India! Fingers crossed for Hulkenberg.

  20. Ecclestone for once spoke alot of sense, however I disagree slightly. He talks of Hamilton as if he were nine years old, not the twenty six year old man that he should be. If things like girlfriends and Ice T have affected Hamilton’s way on thinking then things are alot worse than I thought!
    Come on Bernie. F1 is a man’s game, play like a champion and send the kids back to GP2.

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