FORUMula1.com - F1 Forum

[texasmr2]

Opinion's are like arsehole's everybody has one and they all stink to certain people. My meaning is dont let your's stink too much!!

[racechick]

[FerrariFan63]

I think it's only the Spanish fans who go overboard with Lewis hate. Otherwise, the vast majority respect his skills and achievements no matter which team they support.

If I remember correctly, there's a female Ferrari fan on this forum who even said that Lewis was handsome, and that she'd shag him if she had the chance. Hardly Lewis hate there.

[Rorschach]

And anyway, should anyone actually hate a person they'll never meet but who plays an important part in their F1 life then they'll be pleased to hear Hamilton isn't even aware of their existence.

[EwanM]

Sorry guys, but I am a newbie to F1 as I started watching F1 beginning of last year's season. My question to you guys is, why do so many people HATE Lewis? What did he do so wrong for people not to like him. He almost won the championship as a rookie last year. Isn't that considered phenomenal? Am I missing something here? I read these threads seeing how people feel how bad he is, but my eyes see's he is really good. Just like the race where Lewis was in 12th and kimi was behind Lewis and Lewis crept up on everyone in the rain while kimi stay behind. Is that not good? He did a really good job this season racing kimi when lewis cut the shacane, drop back behind kimi, and took kimi's position. Isn't that considered a good driver? PLEASE let me know if I am missing something cause it looks clear to me. Thx!!!

There's so many things people have a grudge about. For starters he's a good-looking young fella being paid millions to drive the best cars in the world, live in Switzerland and sleep with a Pussycat Doll. What's not to hate?

I think it first really started for two reasons.

One was that fans that Alonso had brought into the sport had only two or three years of F1 knowledge and didn't really have the knowledge to independently verify some of the things Alonso was saying about him, or to sort out what Alonso actually said from the spin that the Spanish media put on it. And anyone would struggle to unravel the spin the Spanish media put on the spin the British media put on Hamilton. Essentially though, their man was reigning World Champion, and looked like one of the greatest of all time until this little 22 year old Brit showed him up a bit last year. Over a period of months Alonso's public utterances about Hamilton gradually evolved to the point where he was basically accusing McLaren of knobbling his car to favour Lewis, and rather than allow national pride to suffer by thinking Alonso wasn't quite the champ they thought he was, I'm afraid many Spaniards swallowed this hook, line and sinker.

id agree with most of what you are saying. But I would add that Hamilton has brought alot of of the same kind of fans into the sport from the UK, who have no real past knowledge on the sport. It's just like when England won the Ashes or the Rugby world cup - people started claiming that they knew about Cricket or Rugby when many had never previously bothered with it before in their lives.
That happened in Spain with F1 - but the Spanish Coverage for the sport was always so poor before Alonso, so I guess they weren't open to it like us Brits were - that isn't in the defence of some of their antics though.