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.
Secondly he has for the last two years been heavily focussed on by the ITV F1 coverage and there are lots of F1 fans, particularly those who support the smaller teams and drivers, who would much prefer a more balanced and objective editorial approach. They're fed up of seeing Lewis's dad, fed up of seeing his brother, and soon they'll be fed up of seeing his girlfriend. I can't blame them for thinking that, but at the same time I can't blame the Hamiltons for being polite and giving the media as much access as they can.
Then there's the ever-present Ferrari-McLaren rivalry, or as I prefer to put it to show the historical context, the Ferrari vs Little British Constructor rivalry. Those who support Williams, McLaren, Etc, or hated Schumacher's racing ethics, or got infuriatingly bored of watching Ferraris winning five titles on the trot, or are fed up of hearing about the "passion" of Scuderia Ferrari, or simply don't like the politics that Ferrari get up to (and have been getting up to for decades), are mortal enemies of Ferrari fans, who in return seem to have developed a sort of siege mentality as a defence mechanism. Add in the spying saga from last year and the ongoing issues about the FIA favouring Ferrari, and the ill feeling between the two has grown even more bitter over the last two years.
Then there's how Hamilton got to F1, which was pretty much because Ron Dennis sponsored him all the way from Karts. To be fair to Hamilton, he's delivered championships at every stage on the racing ladder. But from the point of view of other drivers, who didn't have this back up but achieved titles all the same, it's natural for them to think this a little unfair. Then Hamilton jumps straight into a seat in the best car on the grid, while people like Alonso, Vettel and Massa had to do their F1 apprenticeships in Minardis, Torro Rossos and Saubers. I think there's a hell of a lot of chip-on-shoulder stuff lurking about. And of course the fact that he has been a part of McLaren for so many years, and is so obviously a driver tailor made to Ron Dennis's specifications in terms of his corporate identity, if you go back to the paragraph above he's obviously not going to be a big hit with the more partisan of Ferrari fans.
Then there are issues with Hamilton's attitude, which many people see as this young kid coming out of nowhere and behaving like he owns F1. This really first reared it's head at Monaco last year, when Hamilton made some unwise comments about McLaren preventing him from beating Alonso. Sesoned observers such as myself either thought that Alonso would have beaten him anyway, or that if he wanted favourable treatment he should have qualified on pole, or that McLaren were following the only sain policy at a race like Monaco. To an extent Hamilton has fallen into the trap of believing his own hype, allowing himself to be compared to Senna and such like, but still many people find it hard to accept how much of the hype is justified. There's also a divide between long-time F1 fans who have only ever watched F1 and saw Hamilton come from nowhere, and long-time motor racing fans who follow other formulas and have been aware of Hamilton's talents for many years.
OK, I'm exaggerating in parts, and I am a Hamilton/McLaren fan so I do have some bias myself, but I think that covers most of it.
Jim Clark, Monza, one lap down...
] but it just grates on me
