Korean Grand Prix 2012: Lewis Hamilton loses out to Jenson Button in his race to say his goodbyes at McLaren
Lewis Hamilton says he is still hopeful that he will have the chance to say a proper goodbye to his McLaren team after having to cancel an evening out that he had organised for staff in Japan last weekend.
In keeping with previous years, Hamilton had booked a bowling alley in Suzuka for the Saturday night of the Japanese Grand Prix, where he had intended to say a few words about his impending departure, but was forced to cancel when a number of the team went on a charity track run with his McLaren team-mate Jenson Button instead.
“I booked 16 lanes at the bowling alley for Saturday night, but something else came up so the guys weren’t able to do it,” Hamilton explained.
“They were already committed before. They went for a run with JB or something like that.”
McLaren stressed there was no suggestion that team members had purposely avoided the evening, adding that they would happily have gone bowling had they not already committed to the run with Button.
Hamilton, who is moving to rivals Mercedes at the end of the year, ended the weekend under a cloud after posting a message on Twitter accusing his team-mate of a lack of respect for having ‘unfollowed’ him on the social networking site, an accusation he later had to withdraw and for which he has since apologised.
He told reporters in Japan that he was going to ask team principal Martin Whitmarsh for an opportunity to address the team in an effort to explain his departure and stress how much driving for McLaren meant to him.
Hamilton has still not spoken to McLaren’s executive chairman Ron Dennis, the man who signed him for McLaren at the age of 13. But the 27 year-old is confident he will have the chance to iron things out with everyone before the end of the year.
“I am sure at one stage, probably back at the factory, I will get a chance,” he said.
“I’m pretty sure I will be able to. A lot of drivers [at McLaren] have come and gone – just left. But it’s different for me.
"I have a good relationship with these people. I did my work experience here [at McLaren’s headquarters in Woking] when I was at school.
"It was fantastic and where I built a great bond with a lot of people who are still there today.
“I will try but of course there will be people who are happy I am going, some who are unhappy I am going.
"Some who will be sad, some who will be supportive – that’s how things are.”
Hamilton, who qualified third on the grid for the Korean Grand Prix, added that he would certainly clear the air with his former mentor Dennis before quitting Woking for Brackley.
The 2008 world champion, who lies 42 points behind Ferrari’s championship leader Fernando Alonso going into the race, which begins at 7am UK time, is desperate to end his time at McLaren on a high by winning one or both of the world championships.
The constructors’ championship, which McLaren have not won since 1998, would appear the more likely of the two but Hamilton said that, whether McLaren won or not, he would not leave feeling he had “unfinished business” with the team.
“I don’t feel as though I have,” he said. “I have never felt that I have not given it my all or anything like that, because I have always given it all I have.”
Red Bull’s Mark Webber pipped his team-mate and pre-race favourite, Sebastian Vettel, to pole at the Yeongam circuit, with Hamilton and Alonso making up the second row.
Button could only qualify 11th after yellow flags interrupted his final run in Q2.
Bowled over: Lewis Hamilton's planned party for McLaren staff at a Suzuka bowling alley was scuppered because team members had already signed up to a charity run with Jenson Button on the same day
A fan of many forms of motorsport. Also made the first post in 2014 on this forum.
How true.
