If the top brass at Mercedes Benz AMG F1 thought life was going to be simpler this year with the departure of Lewis Hamilton’s nemesis Nico Rosberg – they better think again quickly.
Hamilton is already stirring the pot of team controversy before a wheel; has turned in testing anger. In the latest of Lewis’s ‘me, me me’ performances he is claiming it isn’t ‘fair’ that team mates should be sharing data across the garage.
“I go out, do my laps, do all my homework…. the other guy can see everything,” said Hamilton sounding like he’s still reeling from the loss of last year’s championship.
“When we’re driving we’re picking out braking points, bumps, tyre rubber marks on the track, all these different things to help get you through the corner quickest, Lewis continues. “But because of this data [sharing] they can just copy you. ‘Oh, he’s braking five metres later there, I’ll go out and I’ll try braking five metres later’. So that’s what I really dislike, because it enables them to get closer”.
Of course Hamilton has several years’ experience of driving the Mercedes car which is a big advantage over new team make Valterri Bottas. However, just as Lewis was offered data to help him get up to speed quickly when he joined the Brackley team, Mercedes are doing the same for their new Flying Finnish driver – but Lewis strangely is crying ‘UNFAIR’.
Stung by criticism over his recent outburst, Hamilton sought to explain his intentions on twitter today. “I wish to clarify, I have not hit out at my team at all,” said the Brit. “My point on data sharing is solely my feelings about the sport in general”.
Mmm. It appears Lewis’s memory is rather short.
Hamilton was furious about being kept in the dark over Jenson Button’s winning data when they were team mates at McLaren. Incensed following a whipping in qualifying by Button, Lewis tweeted both his and Jenson’s telemetry data during the 2012 Belgium GP weekend in Spa. This was an attempt to explain why Lewis’s performance was inferior to Jenson’s.
Jenson won that event by a country mile and of course during his years as Lewis’ team mate scored more points for McLaren than did Hamilton.
Hamilton has proven time and again not to be a team player and merely interested in his own well being. James Gray writing for the express suggests about Hamilton, “If you try to count all the occasions on which the three-time world champion has lost his temper with his treatment at Mercedes, you quite quickly run out of fingers and eventually toes”.
Well here we go again folks.
Nikki and Toto would be well advised to get ready for Brackley civil war mark II – Lewis style – as the bell is about to ring on the 2017 F1 season.
I’m pretty sure there aren’t going to be any surprises for anyone at Merc in terms of how Lewis goes about things. Anyway; who was the last generous and unselfish WC? Even Button got Brawn to line up behind him when necessary.
I can understand both sides here. As a team player, Lewis is totally in the wrong. As a competitor, he is correct, why should he have to give away all his racecraft to his opposition. And as we know in F1, your first opponent is your teammate.
What Lewis perhaps should have done is not gone public with this.
Because in this case, his opposition IS his TEAMATE!!!! During the race a whole different thing.
The team is the one paying his wages so, unless it’s in his contract (which he negotiated) that he doesn’t share data then his team mate can see all his data for the good of the team. I don’t know if I am mistaken but I seem to remember at one point back at McLaren Lewis was copying Buttons setup and viewing his data. In fact didn’t Lewis actually publish a data trace showing his lap and his team mates data. So he has looked at his team mates data and used their setups in the past. I wonder if Lewis is getting worried!!!!!!
I doubt Lewis is worried about VB. Of course, that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t be…
I’m not so sure. The aero and tyre changes will have a big impact on actually driving the 2017 cars. So Lewis wont have as much of an advantage as he would if the regs hadn’t changed.
To me if he is trying to psych out VB complaining about data sharing seems a weird way to go.
I wonder if it is just about ego and trying to say early on that if VB does well it’s due to Lewis’s data?
Lewis Tweeted HIS qualifying lap telemetry and he used a different rear wing to Button
I find myself agreeing with the previous comment, but didn’t Ham have trouble at McLaren, but the other way around with either Alonso or Button? Not sure of my facts but something rings a bell
Does he get paid to be a driving instructor or drive the car as fast as he can. It cuts both ways he doesn’t want to see the other drivers data so be it. No really problem.
There’s a noticeable difference between knowing WHAT one should do (and where and when) and actually doing it
I don’t understand why British media does not like Hamilton? I thought he was British?
Nobody likes a dick…
Still laughing!
Don’t understand why British Media does not favour one of their own?
I think there are a couple of reasons why Lewis doesn’t endear himself to those you might think would naturally support him. One is that – in contrast to the humble-seeming fresh-faced kid who first climbed into a Mp4 – he can seem petulant and entitled. There’s the ‘cos I is black’ comment which really didn’t go down well, airing Mac data, and threatening to lift the lid on MB when he feels things aren’t going his way.
And then there’s the ‘lost in showbiz’ thing. He loves to post his pics of just favourite car, spend time with rappers, gives his dog the run of the pit-lane and likes to ascribe his success to God (who we are left to assume doesn’t like the other drivers as much).
I’m a big fan of Hamilton as a driver and he brings a lot to the sport, but sometimes he makes himself very tough to like. Probably a lot of that is the result of being lauded as a star at a young age, but Vettel and Max don’t seem to fall into the same trap.
My personal reading and opinions of course.
‘His private jet’, not ‘just favourite car’.
Put some perspective on this. Hamilton was not talking about Bottas or Mercedes. He was talking about the sport in general. Just read his Twitter feed.
As for the British media not liking him, they have 2 problems with him – he is successful and he is Black. As most British media is owned by white Billionaires, some of whose families supported Hitler and the Nazis, then their attitude to Hamilton just reflects the way Jesse Owens was treated in 1936. The biggest snub of Jesse Owens was by his own country.
Have you read the rules above for commenting?
I was not aware, nor was it ever my intention to troll anyone or cause controversy. If I have, I apologise. The previous commentor asked why the British media dislike Lewis Hamilton. I tried to answer it truthfully and correctly. Please remove my comment if you feel it is causing offense.
“nor was it ever my intention to troll anyone or cause controversy.”
Yeah sure. The standard response from the hamifosi when they get called out on a comment. I see the same comment a dozen times every day on Twitter.
I am not a Hamilton fan, I just like to be certain that I am objective in whatever I write. I am also genuinely apologetic if my comments regarding Hamilton’s colour or the British press upset anyone. However both are still true.
Sorry you don’t seem to be able to handle honesty.
The Judge13 site seems to be suffering from disappearing comments. Article says there are 14 comments when only 6 appear. This has also happened on a couple of other articles as well.
Look at the bottom of the webpage. These comments are spread over 2 pages. Didn’t count, but looks like all there.
There appear to be 2 pages for comments – so not disappearing at all.
Is there an explanation, Judge
Comments restored, we had a setting for multiple pages for commenting. It wasn’t very good
What a tit. And I ain’t referring to Hamilton.
The author has missed some sound points made by Hamilton. He doesn’t like it for any driver, so not exactly ‘me,me, me’, although I appreciate every website needs some hits and drumming up some drama with Hamilton does the business. I recall Fernando was not too thrilled either when Hamilton himself benefitted from his data. I doubt any driver is for that matter. F1 is laden with too much data. It’s a bigger issue than a driver thinking teammates should not be able to see each others data.
Who ARE you referring to Judy? The new multi-page/multi-clickbait comments layout makes it very difficult to follow the threads of the conversation…
Are ClickBaits Ever Going Away ? – Need A Tissue ?
Obviously, It Was Not SPA 2013, It Was 2012 – In 2013 He Was Already With The mercs.
22 Was So Much Better – 9 Poles Against 1 – Ouch.
After LEWIS Left, 22 And MCLAREN Showed Their True Awesome Colors – 2 Podiums In 38 Races With Some Of The Best Engines ( mercs ) On The Grid – Ouch.
**Articles**, Like This One, Amply Justify All The Matching FanBoys Out There, And Then Some.
Did I Say, Need A Tissue ?
GO, 44 !
How could jenson and lewis data share at the 2013 belgium grand prix when they were racing for two different teams. I think you will find that Hamilton had already moved to Mercedes. I think you mean 2012.
Quite right
The teams regard any data from their telemetry to be their property, to be shared so as to minimise any difference in performance between the two drivers, thus maximising their chances of success should the stronger of the two fail to finish, or providing a 1-2 result.
The drivers regard their own data to be their property, to be guarded so as to maintain their advantage over their main opponent – their teammate.
Personally, I feel that if a teammate needs help to maximise their performance then they should either sit through replays of their rival and try to figure it out for themselves (gaining kudos for having the drive and intelligence to raise their game) or just ask (which would entail having the team skills to create a cooperative environment which would bring more benefits to the team as a whole).
Lessons learned through gifted information tend not to be as thoroughly understood as those honed through trial and error.
Agreed. At this level of racing, the data shouldn’t be your crutch on where you are losing time, but these days it is.
The irony of this all is a site which calls itself ‘thejudge’ can’t even try to mask its bias and prejudice.
Still the best driver the UK has produced IMHO. Maybe the best in the field right now.
He was talking about data concerning breaking points and throttle and shifting , not setup data
Offcourse setup data should be shared or compared but data on how to drive the car around any given track should not be shared. Every driver has to find his own way around the track by driving on or over the limit.
That is why Mr Verstappen is a breath of fresh air he finds new lines to drive and overtake on tracks where the complacent copycats claim there are no ways to overtake….