F1 Fanatic

Doesn’t really seem fair to Lewis who is clearly the faster driver that he is asked to take a pay cut so that he and Jenson are on equal pay terms.

Doesn’t really seem fair to Button or the team that when Hamilton gets so desperate to prove his lack of pace in qualifying was not his fault, he posts telemetry on the internet where every other team can see it. Especially considering that that telemetry showed the difference between wing specifications, thereby allowing rival engineers to understand exactly how McLaren’s upgrade worked.

Hamilton might be faster than Button, but he’s also undisciplined. Ever since joining the team, he’s been at the centre of one controversy or another, whether it was the antics at the Hungaroring in 2007, getting booked for hooning in Melbourne that one time, lying to the stewards in 2009, constantly crashing into other drivers all throughout 2011 and refusing to admit that anything was wrong, or uploading telemetry onto the internet at Spa this year. His speed is offset by his immaturity, and his off-track antics has repeatedly proven to be a liability for the team. Jenson Button, on the other hand, puts considerably more thought into what he does, and off the track, he is the model of a McLaren driver. Just because Hamilton is faster, it doesn’t mean he’s worth more. He’s been bloody stupid at times, with conduct unbecoming of a driver, and that means his vaule goes down.

Furthermore, McLaren have to pay for engines next year, and there is ongoing uncertainty over their title sponsor. They know they will be operating on a reduced budget, and they need to cut costs where they can. If you have a driver who acts like a teenager at times, of course he’s going to be asked to take a pay cut. It’s not like he needs the money – one year’s salary should be enough for him to live the rest of his life on.

It´s a shame how political correctness neuters the drivers

It’s not about being politically correct. It’s about having the sense to avoid embarrassing the team. If Hamilton put a little bit more thought into what he was doing before he actually did it, then it would not be a problem.

How was Ron able to handle Ayrton back then…. he was said to have been a real pain then

He might have been a pain in the neck, but he had the good sense not to do something as embarrassing as lying to the stewards about passing a driver under yellow, or posting data about the car’s performance in the public arena where anyone could see it.

Just because Hamilton is quick, it doesn’t give him the right to be unprofessional without there being any kind of consequences for his actions.

After the telemetry tweeting, it was said that it was gold dust to the engineers of rival teams. More and more, I’ve come to believe that it was solid bullion to his critics. How many times has Prisoner Monkeys brought this up already on this forum? And I suspect that whatever Hamilton does and achieve in the future, he will continue to trundle it out.

If it were an isolated incident, I would leave it alone. But it’s not. I’ve said this before – Hamilton has displayed some of the most bizarre behaviour that we have ever seen from a Formula 1 driver.

Just as Pastor Maldonado’s on-track episodes will always be remembered and held against him, so too will Hamilton’s off-track adventures.

I think i have read some fair points that Lewis might be getting too much for McLaren to handle.
His petulance and the relative lukewarmness Martin displays towards him might mean a separation of ways would be best for both parties. The effusive way he thanked his engineers and mechanics after Monza meant he probably knew already that he would not be there next year.

However, i think it would not be a wise move to make Button the no 1 driver.
Button is no muppet of course as a racer and he knows his way around F1 for sure but we are not judging him against commoners like us. IMHO, McLaren should be getting someone like Raikkonen back – a driver who is evidently just that bit faster in qualifying and on raceday. Button will have his moments of course but over the course of a season, his pace deficiency relative to the elite group of drivers will always see him drop out of contention for the title prematurely at some stage like 2010 and this year.

The greatest weakness that Button has perhaps is that if the car is not set up to his liking, he completely falls off the cliff as we saw in Canada this year when he was lapped by Hamilton. Whereas the likes of Raikkonen, Hamilton, Alonso and Vettel can drive around the same problem and still deliver a competitive finish.

I like Button as a driver and you can count on him to deliver some top-drawer glorious moments that have fans on the edge of their seats like Canada last year. The walloping he gave an out-of-sorts Lewis last year was i feel, a more majestic effort than even his 2009 season in comparison. He is McLaren material definitely and even Ferrari and Red Bull material for that matter. but probably not McLaren no 1 material and that is my frank opinion.

Back to the intended subject of this thread, I thought it was odd the way Whitmarsh responded in his post-qualifying interview to the BBC. It was only a short clip, and it’s easy to make too much of these things, but he did not seem particularly happy.

I think it’s possible that Whitmarsh and team were already concerned about Lewis’ clash with the wall in Q2 and the possibility of taking a transmission change penalty – hence a somewhat subdued response even after taking pole.

The logical solution to any situation where the situation can be variable is to “Hedge your bets” and by having one driver who is going to give you 99.9% of a car’s performance without breaking it too often and one who can get 100.5% out if it, but will bin it by trying too hard a little more regularly, the team’s interests are benefitted equally by both drivers and as such, the remuneration for their efforts should also be equal in my opinion.

@Ginola14

I don’t think i said anything about the McLaren drivers NOT getting equal equipment.

Don´t worry, that´s Mr. Colantine´s way of being “objective”. He looks just at the facts and thinks the team deals with robots… Everyone can see that Hamilton´s relationship with the team is doomed. In the end, moving out of McLaren will be Lewis´ best decision ever as it was Alonso´s in 2007… He walked out on his contract and never looked back and noone can argue he´s had it bad…

Jenson is as complete a package as rivals like Alonso, Vettel or Raikkonen to make him the default lead driver

Ummmm, Jenson is good but IMHO he´s not lead driver material if you judge talent alone… now if you take the “Marketting” view on things… you pick him as lead driver since he´s a good guy and keeps his nose clean… To me in the end, I´d preffer someone like Hamilton… why? well, he squeezes everything out of what he´s got in hands, is competitive in uncompetitive material and is very fast! Sure he might have his moments off track but hey… they do have lives you know!! Sure, being a public figure he should be careful but I mean… Clinton got away with having an affair while in office…. I think Lewis might get away with doing a couple of donuts… it´s not like he´s a noob driver… sure, he shouldn´t of have done it but hey… he´s as good as it gets behind the wheel of a car…

I think too much has been made by some members here about Hamilton´s private life off track and they tend to carry that to his professional life where his main concern is to drive and get results which he does…
See… there goes the hipocresy again… everybody talks about Hunt being a rebel, a drinker, drug user, etc… and everyone saw him as a “cool” characher and nobody gave him crap about it… but do a couple of donuts in front of a crowd to entertain them or outside the track and we all have to burn him at the stake? I think not…