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[LRW]

Ha ha - Hamilton now realises he may need to be a bit more professional on Twitter.....

LH to Rethink Twitter Use

McLaren's Lewis Hamilton has said he will have to re-think how he uses the social networking site Twitter after a series of controversies this year.

He wrongly accused team-mate Jenson Button of 'unfollowing' him and a lack of respect, before admitting his error. "Obviously it was not the best of experiences (nor) the best thing to do. I put my hands up and apologised to Jenson," Hamilton said. "Maybe Twitter is not the one for me, but I'll try and improve from it."

Hamilton wrote on Monday: "Just noticed @jensonbutton unfollowed, that's a shame...I thought we respected one another but clearly he doesn't." Button had never followed Hamilton on Twitter. When he realised his error, Hamilton posted another tweet, saying: "My bad [mistake] just found out Jenson never followed me. Don't blame him!"

It was not the first time this season that Hamilton's use of Twitter has caused problems. On the morning of the Belgian Grand Prix, he angered McLaren and Button by posting a photograph of a confidential team telemetry sheet, showing information about his and Button's qualifying laps and other car information.

Hamilton said ahead of the Korean Grand Prix on Thursday in reference to the latest controversy: "In my life, I think I'm going to make lots of mistakes and that was one of them but you learn from them. "I try to stay away from all the stories. Sure there's been a lot of heat this week. That's the price you pay for being in this sport. It was an experience which I'll hopefully learn from. Maybe Twitter and me don't go too well at the moment. I need to step back and think about how I try and improve that."

Hamilton heads into the Korean race 42 points behind championship leader Fernando Alonso of Ferrari, who is four ahead of Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel, the winner of the last race in Japan, where Hamilton finished fifth. Although there is a maximum of only 125 points available, both Alonso and Vettel said they felt Hamilton was very much in with a chance of winning the title.

Vettel said: "They are still fighting for the championship. I think that is their target, or has to be their target. I think if you look at the races we had after the summer break, so far on average, McLaren was the most competitive car. They are the ones which will be very competitive, no matter where we go, at least that's what the last couple of races showed. They still have a very good chance."

Alonso added: "It's more difficult (for him) because now there's not only one driver ahead that you need to take some points off. We are now two with more or less the same points ahead and he's behind, so for sure the chances for him are a little bit lower. If we see the form of McLaren and Lewis before Suzuka, there's still plenty of time and plenty of points to do it. I think he still has the possibility."

[Neo]

So Lewis's problem was in the rear suspension and was nothing to do with a failure to set up the car which i have to say i am quite relieved to hear cos my belief is that he has been on fire recently in both car set-up and performances on the track(you could discount Spa but practice was hampered by the rain so him and Button gambled on different set-ups and unfortunately for Lewis he chose the wrong one) so the sudden loss in performance from him in Japan was quite baffling to me to be honest. I fully expect Lewis to be on the pace and to take it to the Red Bulls this weekend.

Where did you see this rear suspension news?

http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/103277

[Neo]

When asked by AUTOSPORT if his setup choice had led to the car's poor handling, Hamilton said: "It didn't actually.

"I know my car very well, so it's very rare that I get it wrong. And if I do it's only a little bit and I can still manage it.

"But this was the worst it has ever been set up, and I was really shocked that I had done that.

"I hoped it wasn't my fault, but fortunately the guys did a lot of analysis after the race and found our that we had a failure on part of the rear suspension, so that's comforting."

When quizzed on the exact nature of the problem, Hamilton added: "It's not a suspension failure, because I could still drive with it.

"There was just a part that helps the balance and when you set it up it should react in one way but it didn't do that.

"I'm happy that we found something, so it won't be a problem for this weekend."

[racechick]

Well that's good news I guess. at least he knows it wasn't his set up or driving causing the lack of pace.

[Neo]

Well that's good news I guess. at least he knows it wasn't his set up or driving causing the lack of pace.

exactly....though thats another potential podium his team has cost him, no wonder he is leaving.
Why was the part of the suspension that helps the balance when you set it up not reacting the way it should? and why did it suddenly start working again mid race when he felt the thud in his car? I find the timing of such a failure quite interesting.

[PartsaS]

so much blame on McLaren for normal mechanical issues, you would blame the team even for Hamiltons diarrhea. it sounds paranoid. I Like if he goes to Mercedes he will never have issues, I can't wait for next year to see all you blaming Brawn for screwing up Hamiltons races, and the future 2013 Mercedes conspiracy thread.

[LRW]

so much blame on McLaren for normal mechanical issues, you would blame the team even for Hamiltons diarrhea. it sounds paranoid. I Like if he goes to Mercedes he will never have issues, I can't wait for next year to see all you blaming Brawn for screwing up Hamiltons races, and the future 2013 Mercedes conspiracy thread.

And I cant wait for all you lot to come on here, and gloat at all these people for being so wrong.

What a fun place this is!

[What's Burning?]

so much blame on McLaren for normal mechanical issues, you would blame the team even for Hamiltons diarrhea. it sounds paranoid. I Like if he goes to Mercedes he will never have issues, I can't wait for next year to see all you blaming Brawn for screwing up Hamiltons races, and the future 2013 Mercedes conspiracy thread.

Who would you blame for under fueling a car during qualifying where your driver gets pole yet he's sent tot he back for the grid because of the car being under fueled by... 8 or 10 ounces?

I'll give you all the time you need to name one other team that's done that this year.

[Neo]

so much blame on McLaren for normal mechanical issues, you would blame the team even for Hamiltons diarrhea. it sounds paranoid. I Like if he goes to Mercedes he will never have issues, I can't wait for next year to see all you blaming Brawn for screwing up Hamiltons races, and the future 2013 Mercedes conspiracy thread.

Before he signed for mercedes i never believed in the other conspiracy theory rubbish cos the end result just wouldn't make sense and i know how important all the constructors points are for the teams cos of the amount of money it will bring.........but so is having a current world champion driving for you next season. Before Japan the deficit between JB and LH did not seem so big so it would make pefect sense to move Jenson ahead so he can have a run at the title but fortunately for Lewis he managed to cut the championship lead by 10 points while Button hardly made any ground on him.
Anyway the smart move for mclaren now is to back Lewis 100% for the title....i mean you heard JB when he said how important it is to build a team around you and he is right so for the rest of the year he should play 2nd fiddle cos i'm pretty sure thats what he would ask for if he was leading Lewis at this stage in the title hunt. lol

[PartsaS]

I believe Mclaren builded the car in Hamiltons driving style, in some races it didn't suit Button at all, but now it's gonna be a different story, Button is not as bad as you think he is.

[PartsaS]

so much blame on McLaren for normal mechanical issues, you would blame the team even for Hamiltons diarrhea. it sounds paranoid. I Like if he goes to Mercedes he will never have issues, I can't wait for next year to see all you blaming Brawn for screwing up Hamiltons races, and the future 2013 Mercedes conspiracy thread.

Who would you blame for under fueling a car during qualifying where your driver gets pole yet he's sent tot he back for the grid because of the car being under fueled by... 8 or 10 ounces?

I'll give you all the time you need to name one other team that's done that this year.

Ιn times of preasure, sh!t just happens, but why the hech would they do it deliberately, make's no sense...

[Neo]

i never said Button is bad and i agree that s*** happens sometimes...but why hasn't Lewis even spoken to Ron Dennis yet? there has obviously been a major breakdown in that relationship cos at one point i believe Ron would have moved mountains to try and help Lewis win the championship and having his backing at a time like this would mean a lot....I just don't think it's beyond all the realms of possibility that mclaren would have favoured Button in the immediate aftermath of Lewis signing for mercedes but now the mountain JB has to climb just got a whole lot bigger with 5 races to go so the most likely outcome is that Lewis will be fast this weekend and i don't expect any more errors from his team.

[What's Burning?]

so much blame on McLaren for normal mechanical issues, you would blame the team even for Hamiltons diarrhea. it sounds paranoid. I Like if he goes to Mercedes he will never have issues, I can't wait for next year to see all you blaming Brawn for screwing up Hamiltons races, and the future 2013 Mercedes conspiracy thread.

Who would you blame for under fueling a car during qualifying where your driver gets pole yet he's sent tot he back for the grid because of the car being under fueled by... 8 or 10 ounces?

I'll give you all the time you need to name one other team that's done that this year.

Ιn times of preasure, sh!t just happens, but why the hech would they do it deliberately, make's no sense...

I'm not saying they did that deliberately... I am not a conspiracy theorist. I'm saying that you blame Lewis for things but you seemingly are not able to see the other side of the story in the reason this spit has happend and for a driver to leave a team, well you'd have to ask McLaren why it keeps happening.... You're also not acknowledging the fact in 2012, McLaren is way out scoring Hamilton on cockups.

[Neo]

so much blame on McLaren for normal mechanical issues, you would blame the team even for Hamiltons diarrhea. it sounds paranoid. I Like if he goes to Mercedes he will never have issues, I can't wait for next year to see all you blaming Brawn for screwing up Hamiltons races, and the future 2013 Mercedes conspiracy thread.

Who would you blame for under fueling a car during qualifying where your driver gets pole yet he's sent tot he back for the grid because of the car being under fueled by... 8 or 10 ounces?

I'll give you all the time you need to name one other team that's done that this year.

Ιn times of preasure, sh!t just happens, but why the hech would they do it deliberately, make's no sense...

I'm not saying they did that deliberately... I am not a conspiracy theorist. I'm saying that you blame Lewis for things but you seemingly are not able to see the other side of the story in the reason this spit has happend and for a driver to leave a team, well you'd have to ask McLaren why it keeps happening.... You're also not acknowledging the fact in 2012, McLaren is way out scoring Hamilton on cockups.

Lewis has hardly put a foot wrong this year on the track....the Maldonado incident is debatable though i prescribe to the belief that once you leave the track you can not just drive back onto it and into another driver so Maldonado should have just given up the corner to avoid any incident....aside from that mclaren have been pretty poor at times for Lewis this year.

[vaptin]

I've got a feeling though, that McLaren next year will have learnt from their mistakes, and produced a fantastic car, whilst Redbull and Ferrari suffer a hangover from a close finish to this season, (although with the regs not changing much, it could just be like 2010-2011 again).

Mclaren have made mistakes, but this is F1, it isn't easy, it's relative, and McLaren have managed second in the WCC for the past 2 years, and probably a third. So they can't be making that many.