Lewis Hamilton has enjoyed a spectacular career as a Formula One driver, though it all could have been very different. The seven times world champion could. like Fernando Alonso did, have made one or two different choices which would have made the world of difference.
Hamilton arrived in F1 like a whirlwind as McLaren recruited both him as a rookie and the reigning world champion Fernando Alonso as their challengers for the 2007 formula One season.
Rookie Hamilton full of promise
As a rookie, Lewis surprised Alonso with his pace and daring and refused to be dominated by his Spanish team mate who was used to getting his own way within an F1 team.
Ron Dennis quietly stood Hamilton’s corner and diffused the problems as they arose until the race weekend in Hungary when all hell broke loose in the McLaren garage no known as “pitlane gate”.
Back then in the pre-Pirelli tyres era the teams approach qualifying differently with one team mate getting an extra lap of fuel for each session to maximise their final run opportunity.
During Q1 Hamilton refused to allow Alonso through for his final extra lap claiming it would compromise his own position in relation to Kimi Raikkonen.
The F1 “master” gives Hamilton a lesson
The fuse was lit and the Spanish matador was readying his red capote.
Hamilton was first out of the pit lane for Qualifying 3 and set the fastest time though it all began to unravel for the British driver as the drivers switched their tyres for the final runs.
Lewis was going faster and faster setting fastest times lap after lap. Then with only 2:30 to go before the end of the session, Alonso pitted and was held for 20 seconds by the McLaren crew after the new tyres were secured. They later claimed they were waiting for “clear track”.
All the time Lewis was ‘stacked’ waiting behind Alonso for his final set of tyres.
McLaren could be dead in the water
Baptism of fire forged Hamilton’s steel
When Fernando was released he remained stationary for another 10 seconds despite the crew waving him away.
Alonso began his final qualifying lap with two seconds remaining for the chequered flag. He set the fastest lap and claimed pole position while Hamilton was timed out for a final run.
The subsequent in team fighting that ensued to the end of the season almost certainly cost McLaren the driver’s championship as both Hamilton and Alonso finished the year joint second and one point behind Kimi Raikkonen.
The baptism of fire Hamilton endured during his rookie season in all probability set him up for his maiden championship title the following season. Yet this became the beginning of the barren years for McLaren in terms of winning titles, yet Hamilton remained with his childhood sponsor Mercedes and McLaren for another for years.
Bad Blood re Hamilton and McLaren boss
Lewis had caused some bad blood between himself and Ron Dennis during the 2012 season over his contract renewal. Hamilton made noise comments in the press to which his team boss responded publicly.
Dennis told Radio 5 Live there was “no reason Lewis won’t be driving our cars in the future”. However, he added: “I think people get the wrong impression though, as when I last looked at the contract I was paying him. It’s a question of whether we employ him, not the other way around.”
The moment was seized upon by Ross Brawn and Niki Lauda and McLaren’s most recent world champion was prised away to join the newly formed Mercedes works team in its third season.
The rest is history, Hamilton has added a further six drivers’ titles to the one he fought so hard for at McLaren.
Mercedes dominance finished for maybe a decade
However, the events of the 2021 season finale in Abu Dhabi appear to be ever growing in significance as Hamilton is now in his third year since then with a forlorn hope of the record breaking eight title victory.
The Formula one era of Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton appears to be finished and one of the present team bosses believes the British driver has now had his time.
The “people which have the other top three cars are not looking at Lewis,” remarks Gunther Steiner which is a major problem in trying to win drivers’ F1 championships.
Its just the way the pendulum swings observes the Haas F1 boss.
Marko: LeClerc leaving a Ferrari “worry”
Wolff’s attitude surprising
“Your team cannot always just win,” he told the Daily Mail. “It’s human. It’s a competition. Formula One is not Formula Mercedes! Mercedes had eight good years and nothing is forever, as we all know.
Ferrari were the last team to have such an elongated period of success as they won six constructor titles and five driver’s championships between 1999 and 2004.
As the most iconic and successful team in Formula One history have demonstrated, it can be a very long time (19 years) from such dominance to again winning another championship.
Steiner is surprised at the attitude of Wolff and others at Mercedes who appear to believe its just a matter of time before they return to the top of the tree.
Hamilton facing the ultimate ‘reality check’
“Being surprised or not accepting that you go backwards is something I find very strange.
“You need to regroup and try again. But you cannot expect or demand to be [the best]… because we won it eight times now we are going to win it nine times. No.”
The Netflix superstar believes Lewis Hamilton is in fact experiencing the reality check that he may never again be the top driver in Formula One – and that the title Lewis lost to team mate Rosberg may in fact be the one that meant the all time record ‘got away from him.’
“And the same for Lewis. You spent eight years in the best or one of the best cars and you won championships. You cannot always win, and also you lost the championship once to your team-mate as well in that time. Never forget that one. Your team cannot always win.”
Mercedes find huge gain in 2 weeks
No where left for Lewis to go
Hamilton is out of contract this season with Mercedes and there’s been a huge debate on the Brit’s future following Toto Wolff promising a quickly signed deal was imminent back in January this season.
No contract has been announced and the year is no one third gone. Steiner questions Hamilton’s options.
“Where could he go? Honestly, I don’t know,”
“Red Bull have put everything on Max. Max is their man. Why would they now change Max for Lewis?
No room at the Haas sponsored inn
To win that final championship Hamilton needs a car capable of delivering him wins and without Mercedes at the top, his options elsewhere are next to zero.
“I’m not doubting Lewis’ capability but I just say, I don’t see it because the people which have the other top three cars are not looking at Lewis.”
Even a seat at Haas which was on offer last year for Daniel Ricciardo appears to be out for Hamilton because when suggested to Steiner as an option, he laughed stating, “I’m very happy with Nico and Kevin.”
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Ham gets back what he had done to the others. Call it Karma or whatever, it has caught up with him. Now it is payback time! Ham has displayed every evil quality one can imagine. Despite his hollow titles, he strutted about as if he was the best thing after sliced bread. His arrogance was and still is infinite. This is why it is important not to get ahead of yourself.
Not only no team wants him, no other country likes him. He can go suck on his knighthood.
I can only agree both with Vijay and with Mr.Steiner. I’m just not too certain which one of them hit that massive nail on its head the hardest.
It gladdens just heart to witness this increasingly arrogant and self-pitying individual cope so poorly with becoming just another participant on the grid, but in a Mercedes team he thinks of as Hamilton F1 Racing. Increasingly his “blame anyone or anything but me” attitude is being played out before all those fan boys and girls who must surely now know him the driver always been. That being a selfish, entitled (and I won’t say mediocre as every F1 driver is hugely talented) but everyday driver who is now bereft of the necessary tools to ensure race victory.
He really needs to do himself a massive favour and take a good, long and very hard look at a certain Felipe Massa. It would teach him exactly how a gentleman can, with dignity, navigate the bitter disappointment of a championship snatched out of their hands.
A championship, it was recently revealed he was cheated out of. After all he didn’t simply lose it. It wasn’t his for long, but he did indeed win it. Unlike LH in machinery that over the season was in the main, vastly superior, considered it to be done and dusted, only to lose it to MV (with a little assistance from the pit-wall) by putting in a complacent and woeful performance.